[MUD-Dev] believable NPCs (was Natural Language Generation)

[Amanda Walker]

On May 25, 2004, at 5:21 PM, J C Lawrence wrote:

> Coming from the other side the ideal form would be to have capable
> actresses and actors taking the roles of NPCs with solid character
> definitions etc.  The (only) reason we don't due this is that the
> economics are prohibitive.

Are they really?

I've been wondering about this for a while, after reading an
interesting description of virtual actors in Tad Williams's
"Otherland" books.

We pay people fairly small amounts of money to be actual
shopkeepers.  We certainly wouldn't have to pay them Hollywood
salaries to be virtual shopkeepers, and it's a lot easier on the
feet.

Since many of the most addicted^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hloyal players are
those with a lot of time and not a lot of money, why not hire them?
"Game company has entry level positions for experienced bartenders,
no cleanup duties, must have own broadband connection and type
50wpm."  It does open up new horizons for grief play, but think of
the quests: "hey!  that new guy I hired stole all my stock!
Reward!"

>   From the player perspective in terms of the actual goals that
>   player can be _seen_ to pursue (social, cultural, in-game, etc),
>   what is the actual function of an NPC?

In most MMO games so far?  Vending machine.

Amanda Walker
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