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

[SpY]

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.

One of the first terms I learned when I started as a MMP designer
was "non zero sum game", which implies that there is no ending and
thus no anchor for a tension curve. Some people are cutting the game
into little "zero sum" slices (like "Lost Continents" from VR1). The
result is something like an interactive daily soap and is very
likely to loose the "persistent world" attribute (Again "Lost
Continents" where every player is able to experience his own story,
built around him.)

I am definitely a "sandbox theorist" and in my meta- concept the
story is always told in a retro perspective view on the players
activities.  To me recording the ongoing action (cutting out the
boring 90% and putting the thrilling 10% in some sort of "evening
game news" frame) appears to be the way to go.

Designing a system that is able to detect "thrilling action"
according to some predefined rules seems to be an interesting
task. Has someone ever thought about such an "artificial cameraman"?

Regards,

Michael

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