[MUD-Dev] Re: Point of View

[Shane P. Lee]

--- justice at softhome.net wrote:

> I prefer smaller quests, while global events are necessary to keep
> a world interesting, they shouldn't be the main level.  People
> generally interact in small groups.
 
> Things which involve a groups larger than 5-10 are mostly
> spectator... the vast majority of the people are watching what is
> going on.

Agreed. IMHO, groups smaller than 3 are nonsense and you'll
generally find a "newbie" in the middle, getting power help from
friends. In which case it's not really a questing group in the
normal sense, but actually by-law cheat.

> Global events are necessary but shouldn't be the only or even the
> major form on interaction.  Local events should be the major form
> of interaction... I don't think that "everybody" should hear about
> "everything" if they're logged off, then that's their problem.
 
> In the previous example, the king doesn't "have" to be the only
> one who hears.  If the "actor" is complaining about lost treasure,
> there's no reason he would only talk to the king, he'd talk to
> anyone who he thought might help him recover it.
 
> He could wander around in the general vicinity until he manages to
> get the help he needs.

Also, localized channels could be used, such as the old DIKU "shout"
channel. Only the characters in the immediate area would hear the
channel and be able to respond. This is useful if the actor wants
fast help, and doesn't want to wait for an hour or so while someone
from the far side of the world comes to investigate.  Of course, if
this is a regular event, which happens on a timed basis (shudder),
you wouldn't want the actor to use any channel save the one targeted
to it's room (say), otherwise you risk annoying players who have
already made their decision about this minor quest.

> Not all quests have to be an epic adventure for the sake of the
> game universe in order to be enjoyable.

This brings to mind the old(?) D&D board game. Most of the quests
the players could choose from were "Frodo" type quests. Here you
risk burning players out. I mean, how many times can you save the
world before it gets boring? Once a month or so, a "Frodo" type
quest might be in order, if it is nicely planned and executed.  This
brings to mind the North American Eskimos, who have ten words for
"snow", while the West Greenlandic dialect has 49. In English, we
have one. Quests are much the same, we are using one word for
something that can have many meanings and depths.  Anyone know of a
place where I can enrich my MMORPG vocabulary to include more than
one word for "quest"?

-Shane P. Lee
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