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

[Marc DM]

From: "Jessica Mulligan" <jessica at mm3d.com>

> 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 doesn't work very well in these games, certainly
> not as well as empowering the players to create their own content.

I agree with you Jessica. 'Story' should be replaced with
'Experience' (not experience points! but real experience, valuable
experience, experience where you learn something from). You don't
want to offer a story, you want to offer an experience. Writers and
filmdirectors offer an experience and they do this THROUGH a
story. And we, world designers, we visualize what possible
experiences we want the players to have in our worlds and then
create our worlds so that players can have these experiences.

I like to approach my designs from the 'What do I want to learn the
audience' point of view. It's very rational.. For instance how do I
learn people that racism isn't good? There was this movie, American
History X, that succeeded in this very well. It was a story about a
rascist who got to know a 'nigger' in prison and discovered these
'niggers' could be nice too, even friends, so that his rascist
reasoning fell appart. A story learns you something and that's why
movies and television are such a popular medium, you can learn a lot
from it.

How could I learn through this new medium, online worlds, something
of value to my inhabitants or players. How could I learn them that
'rascism is no good'?

How would it be to step into the skin of a 'nigger' in a rascist
society?  This is what online worlds make us possible to do. You can
create a society that works just like the real world society
works. With that difference that there is some magic possible over
there, that isn't possible over here, such as changing
viewpoints. You can have different lives, different avatars, in the
same society and experience the world from different angles. You can
see what the results are from your actions without riscing to much
(that's playing). Only your online persona will drag the results of
your actions with him, not your real life persona.

I find it extreemly exciting that in some time people will be able
to play policeman, drugs dealer or even major in some virtual
city. I find it exciting to think of a gaming world that would allow
my grandma to play a hooker trying to survive in some rough city and
my little sister playing mother, trying to live together with a
husband and take care of the children.

Online Worlds are a serious learning tool and telling stories is not
the way to go! Online worlds tell their story, offer an experience
THROUGH the interdependent relations of the different elements that
are part of your univers. You as a designer decides how the universe
works and then the players will figure out how it works and that way
will learn something, it's that simple. Long live the sandbox
metaphor!



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