[MUD-Dev] Depth (was: MMORPG Cancellations: The sky is falling?)

[Damion Schubert]

From: Sean Howard
> "Koster, Raph" <rkoster at soe.sony.com> wrote:

>> Typically depth is described as gradually unfolding many subtle
>> variations on a system. This doesn't imply content at all, though
>> content can certainly be an element in it. It also does not imply
>> breadth of feature set (i.e. number of systems), since each of
>> the features may well be shallow. Howwver, interaction between
>> multiple systems can also lead to depth.

> My favorite description of depth is that it is a decision which A)
> has the pre-knowledge to be made, B) equally valid choices, and C)
> affects the rest of the game in some way. The depth happens before
> the decision is made.

[ mucho deletia ]

Nice definition/explanation of depth.  Of course, the criticism that
all MMPs are shallow, poor husks ignores the fact that people play
EverQuest and Ultima Online for thousands of hours, whereas critics
criticized Baldur's Gate for being an unfinished behemoth at 120
hours.  Hell, the game I work on (Shadowbane) lacks some of the
rudimentary MMP systems such as questing, but our average user logs
insane numbers of hours.

The answer, of course, is that in MMPs, the depth is other people,
and the unpredictable things that those people can do.  Needless to
say, this depth is emphasized in virtual worlds (such as SWG) and
PvP+ environments (such as Shadowbane), where the interactions of
other players can have a greater impact on your play experience.  Of
course, these are the scarier places to run as a developer, since
you're depending on the players to entertain other players without
scaring them out of your virtual world.

CoH is an interesting case study, in that it's gameplay is
constrained enough that interpersonal contact is largely avoidable
and forced down predictable, safe channels (no PvP, no virtual
world, little trading, reasonable soloability at least at low
levels).  But everyone raves about the depth of character creation
and clings to it - indeed, I've had more fun standing around town
square and looking at the heroes people come up with than I have
running missions.  The shallower safety of the game mechanics stands
in stark contrast to the outpouring of player creativity.

The future of MMPs will embrace this more, I think.  We'll stop
trying to convert a single player RPG experience into an MMP, and
we'll stop trying to capture a perfect tabletop experience into an
MMP and we'll start really appreciating the genre in its own right -
a playground with thousands of people looking to each other for
amusement and challenge.  Dev teams will succeed by putting the most
interesting toys on the playground, things that force and spur
players to interact with each other in interesting ways.  That's
when the really neat stuff is going to start taking off.

--d
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