[MUD-Dev] What's in the lack of a name?

[Rayzam]

From: "shren" <shren at io.com>

> Ah, but the point is that if you deny the players both names and
> coordinates, they have to name everything themselves.  You're
> almost forcing them to develop culture, and in doing so the will
> collaborate.

> Say I'm in a nameless, coordinateless world, up in a mountain
> region, and while fighting off other foes a bunch of goblins come
> over the ridge.  A member of our party named Dierog runs over and
> holds them at bay untill we defeat the other foe and come help
> him.

> Later on I want to meet a member of my group there, so to tell him
> where I'm talking about, I tell him to meet me where Dierog fought
> all of the goblins.  Lacking any other name, we might call this
> area "Dierog's Stand", and other people, lacking any other name,
> might pick up on it, and how it got it's name.

> Because this area did not have a name, we now have a player-made
> name, a famous player (famous for doing something other than being
> cruel to other players or capping his level), and a shared myth.
> None of this would have happened if the area already had a name.

> Everything in the game that we do not give a name, we give the
> players the opportunity to name.  As you have pointed out, every
> time the players name something, they build culture.  So why name
> anything in advance?  Yank visible place names and visible item
> names right out of the system and let the players name everything
> and share, through communication, the names they create.

> Giving things in rpgs names during the design stage is practically
> reflexive at this point.  Everything gets a name.  All I'm calling
> upon all of you to think about is, what would the games be like if
> this were not the case - if a longsword +5 didn't, for all intents
> and purposes, have "longsword +5" digitally branded on the side?

What's in the lack of a name? The lack of a world. The examples
given above is great for the birth of a world, and that'd be a great
genre not yet well developed. I can see the Sims Online being like
that. Snag a piece of virtual real estate, build up houses or
businesses or whatnot, and name both the area and the
individuals. That builds community.

However, in a fantasy realm, I'd take that view as the world not
seeming as real to me. If I'm dropped into a world where there were
those before me, the many NPCs, I'd expect from my own real life
experiences that populated areas would be named. I'd even want names
for the Place Where the Goblins Live. NPCs should refer to things by
names. These names should be consistent, unless there's a reason not
to be, i.e. a place having a different name for the Elves versus the
Humans. But within that context, the names are still constant. Names
tie into backstory. They tie into making the world real. The lack of
names for places is related to those places being previously unknown
or forgotten.

Now that's for locations. And players can rename them for their own
usage as they see fit. But unless the rest of the game world [NPCs]
start using the same vernacular, then you haven't really
differentiated between having names and not having names.

When it comes to items, I like the concept of giving most things
generic names, but having them nameable by players. The caveat is
that all of them will be named, just because they can be, and
because it's cooler that way.  And that detracts from Named items
really being special.

Rayzam
www.travellingbard.com



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