[MUD-Dev] Removing the almighty experience point...

[brian at thyer.net]

"Matt Mihaly" <matt at ironrealms.com> wrote ..

> That's been managed and been done for well over a decade. All of
> our games use that model, for instance. You are quite right too in
> that it does create a far more dynamic, interesting world. Of
> course, it doesn't mean that anytime a player wants to do
> something, a GM is going to be available to help. We generally
> reserve GM effort for events/quests/stories involving larger
> groups of players. So, for instance, recently in Achaea, two
> city-states (Mhaldor and Shallam) started fighting over control of
> a village (Jaru) that has traditionally been under the influence
> of Shallam. I'm including below the post-event write-up so you can
> get an idea of what's possible when you move beyond purely
> hard-coded quests and events. Keep in mind that what you'll read
> is a combination of GM-assisted play and player actions that are
> enabled by code. I'll include (NPC) next to the names of
> individuals that were NPCs being controlled temporarily by GMs.

> What I particularly enjoy, as a developer, about these kinds of
> events is that they're not planned by staff. I mean, we do events
> planned by staff, but this one, for instance, arose from the
> actions of players. We just lent support to what they were trying
> to do, since code alone can never anticipate more than a tiny
> fraction of what players may wish to do. (Lest anyone
> misunderstand...I'm not a fan of 'pure' roleplaying where there
> are no code mechanics. All the combat you read about below, for
> instance, is coded mechanics.)

Well I never figured that I was the first person to come up with
this idea of a game/business model, but it is nice to know there are
companies out there employing and enforcing it.

And certainly I'm not suggesting that there be a GM avaliable for
every player at all times.  If people want that much GM attention
they should get together with their friends once a week in NWN with
1 person GM'ing while the rest play a hero of some sort.

I like the idea of being able to employ stories based on what the
players do.  Being able to interact with *their* actions and views
on the world.  One problem with that, of course, is in graphical
MMO's these days there's so many "world shards" that it's hard to do
that.

I guess it's frustrating for me.  I was introduced first to computer
RPGs, then MMORPGs.  I burned out on MMO's after a few years and was
re-introduced to them from a mechanics / developer standpoint, which
rekindeled my excitement for them.  It was only after all of *that*
when I started actual table top role playing.  So when I look at
MMOs today I'm interested in..I don't know..finding a way to combine
the two.  To bring the feel of a tabletop role playing game to the
MMO world.  Obviously you can't have a GM around all the time.  But
having the world change I think could help encourage players to
become involved and more emersed with the world.  To create and
interact with events as they come.
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