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

[Samantha LeCraft]

Samantha LeCraft Wrote:

>> Speaking as someone who was a GM (in-game customer service) for
>> UO and is now a designer on an unannounced MMO, I think this is
>> more trouble than it is worth, for several different reasons.

>> One, players have come to expect NPCs to be "in character" in
>> their speech and demeanor, and there's no way a company who hired
>> addicted/loyal players to "act" as NPCs in-game would be able to
>> effectively police their in-character-ness.  Some would be more
>> in character than others, and some would vary day by day.  If the
>> NPC-actor is working from home in a large MMO, the feeling that
>> no one is watching would be very strong, and so the temptation to
>> not be in character, or just not talk to people at all, would
>> therefore also be very strong.

> And yet, it seems to work for Disney.  I don't recall which one
> of= our regular posters likes to point out equivalences between
> MMOGs and theme parks, but this one just glares out a= t me.
> Disney hires thousands of beginner actors, gives them a role to
> play, and sets them loose on their c= usotmers.  And having been
> to Disneyworld and Dinseyland, I never saw them out of character.
> As you say= , the temptation may be there, but I have to assume
> that it is fairly easy to weed out, since we've never see= n the
> "Goofy goes on a Rampage" headline.  And it should be relatively
> simple to assure that these actors = are recorded, so that any
> truly disruptive out-of-character actions can be disciplined.

To quote another part of what I wrote, from the end of my last
message:

  I think it's do-able, but you have to be willing to have a service
  team of roughly the same size and same caliber as that of Disney
  World.  Nothing less will suffice.

It is possible to do, and if you spend a week at Disney World, then
spend a week at another theme/amusement park owned by another
company, the value that the Disney employees add to your experience
is readily obvious.  So yes, it is possible, and yes, I think it
adds a lot to the atmosphere and over all experience, but like you
said "Disney hires thousands of beginner actors".  It takes
*thousands* of people to make a system like this work, hundreds at
the very least.

Having worked as in-game Customer Service for one of the larger MMOs
out there, I would be skeptical that any company currently running
an MMO would be willing to spend the time and money to set up a
system like this, based simply on the fact that we were
understaffed, underpaid, and overworked as *Customer Service* reps,
let alone a group of actors adding interactivity for the players.
We provided a *needed* service to the players, and yet we were seen
as the redheaded stepchild by everyone from Phone Customer Service
to the Dev Team (despite the fact that several of us had come from
that same Phone CS department, and several of us were roommates with
or dating/married to members of the Dev Team).  I can't imagine how
the Dev Team and CS departments would respond to a bunch of actors
who likely haven't played the game before, coming in by the
hundreds.  I would think the Dev Team in particular would feel
threatened, because these actors would be brought in to add content
that can't be added by the Dev Team's hard work.

So like I said in my previous message, I do think this is possible,
and I do think it would provide more fun for the players, and I
think there are things that could be done to save costs, such as
combining in-game Customer Service with the NPC-actors group.  But
to do any of this, the company has to shift its focus away from
"development is King" to "service and a good in-game experience are
_the_most_important_ things we can offer our customers."  The
company has to be willing to spend more on in-game service and
interaction with live employees than on on-going development.  This
is a *huge* mentality shift to undertake for any company with
current MMO experience.

It is possible to do, and possibly even worth the time and money to
do it.  But I think anyone who suggests it as the "easy" alternative
to developing realistic/believable NPC technology needs to
understand how much it would take to get a system of NPC-actors off
the ground.

-Samantha LeCraft
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