[MUD-Dev] DESIGN: Online adventure games

[Steven King]

Adventure games, in my experience, have been fairly straightforward
and scripted.  The designers lay out a story and the players follow
along.  In other words, interactive fiction.  In a persistent
virtual world, however, players have come to expect freedom.  Rather
than following along, the players do their own thing, creating their
own story.  While some MMORPGs include light story-driven quests,
creating a true "online adventure game" could prove to be difficult.
To do this, you would have to give players the freedom to choose
their own paths, yet make sure the paths lead them to where you want
them to be.  You would also have to make sure that all players are
truly a part of the story.  It's hard to have 100,000 seperate
"unofficial" stories going on at the same time while you're trying
to deliver a single "official" story.

Following Amanda's example of SWG: The design team's ultimate goal
for the players was "to live in the Star Wars Universe."  That
premise was wonderful since there was already an established medium
to work with.  Players could carve their own niche and make up their
own stories as they went along.  The problem with this, in my
opinion, is that there is no direction.  The world feels static.  It
is a beautiful sandbox to play in, but as an adventure, it falls
flat.  It still achieves it's ultimate goal, though.

Now imagine if, along with the original goal, the players could take
part in events from the movies.  Players could play the parts of the
ground troops on Hoth during the evacuation, or on Endor during the
last battle.  They would be a part of a larger story and have more
purpose.  The problem is that you must have enough content in your
adventure to last the span of the game AND be able to accomodate
10,000 players at a time (or however many are on each server)
regardless of experience level.

Content, I believe, would be the most difficult part of an online
adventure game.
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev