[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD-Dev Storytelling in MMOGs article

[Paul Boyle]

At Thursday, September 19, 2002 7:42 AM, Jessica Mulligan wrote

> He seems to fall into the common trap of many inexperienced MMP
> designers; he seems to feel he has to ram a story down the
> player's throat by providing a beginning, middle and end.  In
> other words, the designer as controller and the player as
> follower.

That article was almost painful to read.

He also seems to fall into the trap of trying to compare the stories
told in MMOG games too much to TV or novels.  And he does so badly.

When new media comes out, lessons can be learned from old media.
But, new mechanisms, new paradigms, also accompany new medias, and I
don't think MMOG story telling has yet formalized those new
mechanisms.  So I don't think MMOG designers need to be working as
hard on trying to jam older paradigms from books and TV into
existing games, as they do on trying to come up with new mechanisms
to fit the new media.

Especially considering all the changes MMOG's bring to storytelling.

  - No audience, or spectators as actors (only seen in interactive
  theater before)

  - Bigger timescales (months and years, compared to TV, Movies, and
  plays, at 30 minutes to a few hours, and books, at several hours
  to a few dozen hours)

  - The problems of dramatic license vs fairness in consequence to
  players (you can't perma-kill players, you can't promote them from
  newbie to hero due to a couple of actions)

  - Untrained & unwilling participants.

  - Dynamic machine content

  ...the list goes on.

I would rather see more articles coming out with new tricks to
involve players, rather than trying to shove old media ideas into
new formats.


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