[MUD-Dev] Player malleable worlds (was Expected value and sta ndard deviation)

[Katie Lukas]

>From Daniel Harman:
> From: Crosbie Fitch [mailto:crosbie at cyberspaceengineers.org]

>>   Sometimes it may be enough to dig a hole in the ground fill it
>>   with sand, and let the kids create the cities with their
>>   buckets and spades. A dog poo and sweet wrapper elimination
>>   service will cost extra - naturally. You don't always have to
>>   spend years creating content, if the players are easily able to
>>   do that themselves.

> Oh come off it, the average player is utterly incapable of
> creating content anyone but their mum would be interested in. Even
> professionals frequently get it wrong.

> Enough hand waving, someone show me some compelling auto generated
> content, or compelling player generated content in a commercially
> viable game.

There are degrees of auto- and player-generated content, so it sort
of depends on what you consider the threshold.  Meaning, for
example, the player housing in DAoC is sort of auto-generated, and
sort of customizeable, but almost entirely static-templated.

Personally, I think the answer lies (or will lie) somewhere in the
middle, wherein artists can create model templates, designers can
create rulesets, and players can choose from the available
components and use them to construct content as long as it remains
within the acceptable rules.

I would consider rules to be along the lines of:

  - X number of buildings in any given area

  - Which components can be combined with which other components

  - Maximum and minimum size and cash requirements

  - Quantity of NPC, types of NPC, and allowable placements

  - Naming rules

Access control and interface options would, of course, become a
greater issue than they are currently.

  (And, when you say commercially viable, I assume you are largely
  referring in the negative sense to presently unproven business
  models, such as ATitD and Second Life.)

-k
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