[MUD-Dev] integrating information streams into the game (was:Creating a Player Narrative)

[Damion Schubert]

> HRose wrote:

>> I think that a nice idea could be to bring and develop all this
>> inside the client engine. for example it could be really
>> interesting to access all the informations that DAoC displays on
>> the Herald directly from inside the game, perhaps in specific
>> locations like in a big town.

>> I also always liked the idea of accessing the forums from both
>> inside and outside the game. The idea is to push all these
>> resources to be part of the game directly, instead of being an
>> added tool that you can access only from elsewhere and that isn't
>> really part of the game.

Meridian 59 had integrated email and news from day one -- really
impressive when you think about how few features we actually managed
to ship with.  Were they good?  Did they work?  That's a matter of
perspective.

The problem was that, when compared to standard functionality out of
the game, the in-game email and newsgroups lacked all of the
features that have evolved to be standard and make everything
readable.  No spell-checking, no address book, no threading, no
ability to link to a website or show an image.  At the time we were
strictly limited on storage space, so your mailbox could only get so
full.  Also, games run in lower resolution and have slower interface
response than most email or web browsers, which can be extremely
frustrating to the browsing player, and there's always the risk that
you'll die if you get too into your mail in the wrong place.  We
talked about running a real web browser in game to do these things
in UO2, but many were put off by the loss of immersion and
lackluster browsing experience.

You don't want all of your community action to happen inside the
game anyway.  If for no other reason, you want players to be able to
contribute to the community when they can't play the game - most
notably, when they're at work, but also when there are server issues
that make the game inaccessible.

All that being said, having in-game mail is a wonderful, wonderful
thing.  Playing as a master craftsman in SWG would have been
impossible if there wasn't an in-game way for people to mail me
orders, but at the same time I wasn't ready to give these casual
acquaintances my out-of-game email.  Also, the game sending players
persistent messages regarding events that happened while they're
off-line ("Your house deleted itself for non-payment of rent.") is
not just the right thing to do, but can dramatically reduce CSR
calls as well.

Having in-game news was much less useful.  The standard tools for
forums are so useful (threading, moderating, linking) that I think
the only way you could really hope to accomplish it would be by
having a full-blown browser in the game.  But at that point, it may
be easier just to ensure players can page out while they're playing.

--d
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