MMO Communities (was RE: [MUD-Dev] MMORPG Cancellations:Theskyisfalling?)

[Byron Ellacott]

Paul Schwanz wrote:
> Tom "cro" Gordon wrote:

> Here's the sort of example I like to use.  Bubba is an NPC
> swordsmith in Sometown.  Unfortunately, rats from the sewers
> beneath

[trimmed description of Bubba's rat problem]

> What if, as a result of the rat-infested cellars, the quality and
> quantity of Bubba's offerings to community patrons suffers.  He
> can only make a few low quality swords and daggers.  Additionally,
> the NPC guards that patrol the walls and gates of Sometown suffer
> degraded capability because Bubba is a major supplier of their
> equipment.  This sort of model connects the solo quest back to a
> community context.  When Boffo clears out the sewers at great risk
> and personal sacrifice, the community may notice.  They may
> recognize his accomplishment because it affects *all of them* and
> not just Boffo himself (as would the typical item or XP reward).
> But Boffo needn't be an extrovert with copious amounts of free
> time in order to attain this recognition and sense of belonging.
> He can pursue solo gameplay at the tactical level (which requires
> much less social investment and time commitment than team play)
> but still enjoy a sense of community at the strategic level.

The trouble here is that Boffo's actions have had a somewhat
permanent effect on the game world: Bubba's cellar no longer has a
rat problem. Noone else can do this quest, because it is done.
Perhaps the rats move to another shop, or perhaps they come back,
but then you have to worry about the quest losing the meaning you
gave it because it has no real impact.  (Sure, the guards have
better swords after Boffo's work, but the rats moved to the bakery,
and now they're poorly fed...)

Until the creation of such quests is a sufficiently small amount of
work that it's OK to have only one person able to consume that work,
it's impractical to have the solving of a quest affect the game
world.  If you have around two thousand players per shard, that
means you'd need to put in two thousand times as much effort to get
the same number of quests for each player as you would when quests
can be repeated by others.

--
bje
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