[MUD-Dev] Creating a Player Narrative

[HRose]

John MacQueen wrote:
> Druise wrote:

>> Would this help create the sense of "epicness" missing in many of
>> these worlds?

> To me a true sense of "Epicness" is as much to do with what hangs
> in the balance of a battle, as it is on the battle itself. In most
> of the fantasy I enjoy it's no less than the direct future of the
> world/civilization/galaxy that the battle is to decide.

> I haven't seen any worlds in that balance in an MMOG, no worlds
> dynamic enough or producer brave enough to allow for it.

I consider the "epic feel" strictly tied to the "sense of wonder"
and it's a blur between the strict gameplay and the beauty and style
of a scenario. The "sense of wonder" is typical of the "gold" period
of science-fiction with writers like Doc Smith and Van Vogt:
colossal spaceships, large scale wars and things like that.

How to capture this feeling? I don't think you really can. World of
Warcraft does wonders on this aspect, you start in a newbie area
that is already surprising considering its own mood and the scale of
the world. I started in the dwarf area and I spent quite some time
to observe the majestic trees, the mountains around me, the light
reflecting on the ground, the incredible farclip, the road leading
up a hill and to the entrance of a tunnel, plus the music and the
sounds to complete the process, like the wind... It was an awesome
effect for someone that was used to the relative small scale of
DAoC. My adventure went on and my jaw dropped again as I entered
Ironforge, the dwarf city inside a mountain. Again an absurd scale,
a majestic impression that I couldn't believe. And expect. Then
another lift in wonder as I started my gryphon ride to
Stormwind. Again unbelievable, again more than what I did see till
that point. Till my arrive to the human city with the enormous
statues above the lake.

What I mean is that both the "epic feel" and the "sense of wonder"
have in common the "surprise". But it isn't something you can hold
or exploit. Those qualities have in their nature the fact that you
cannot hold them, you cannot make them stop. They glide away and
they have their "special" feeling exactly because they cannot be
halted in a point.

This is a tie between the simple graphic approach and game
design. The flavor is the same. Many, many beta testers in World of
Warcraft complained about the quests not being epic enough. Everyone
wants to be an hero and "fetch quest" aren't acceptable under these
conditions. But there's a better strategy? WoW needs to cover 60
long levels with quests to do. One of them will feel epic exactly
because before the players just did fetch quests. The epic feel will
work exactly when it's a surprise and we all know that a repetition
of a surprise doesn't work anymore, at the same time you cannot even
believe to be able to create a type of content that grows in scale
along the expectations of the players. Bigger and bigger mobs to
fight will soon become boring as a whole, because the players
already expect what you are going to offer. You risk to spoil them.

My conclusion is quite simple. You cannot surprise your players too
much, the result not only isn't epic, but it could become even
annoying. The "epic feel" cannot be condensed in a game design
strategy simply because it has the quality of being rare. So it's an
unsolvable situation.

The only way to solve this paradox is about having a creative
approach. If we move from "content" to "systems" (following Ubiq's
definition http://www.corpnews.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1152 )
there are better hopes to capture the quality of the sense of wonder
or the epic feel because you don't offer anymore an "object" (an
environment or a gameplay situation). You offer, instead, a mechanic
in the hands of the players. PvP systems based on large scale
battles offer, for example, all the tools to the players to create
epic scenarios. And the fact that we are offering a "system" also
implies that we are proposing something with the quality of the
renewal. And I really believe that it's the best scenario possible
we can dream to obtain.

Then the core part is how to make those large scale battles fun to
play for every single participant...

Summarizing (mostly for myself):

  - The "epic feel" is tied to the "sense of wonder" which is tied
  to a "surprise"

  - Since it's a surprise we are able to offer the "epic feel" only
  from time to time and opposed to a less interesting part of the
  game

  - The best scenario is to plug the "epic feel" (needs renewal) in
  a "system" (provides renewal) so that we are able to maximize the
  qualities we are chasing

And a last consideration. At least WoW is a leap forward if I
consider that in my newbie experience I had to kill goats in Wish
and rats in EQ. So, aside all the considerations, there's still a
lot of space to improve and push the game toward something that is
fun and compelling to play.

-HRose / Abalieno
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev