[MUD-Dev] MMO Quest: Why they're still lousy

[Douglas Goodall]

Sporky McBeard wrote:
> "Douglas Goodall" <dgoodall at earthlink.net> wrote:

>> Allegedly, FreeSpeak does something like this:

>>   http://www.igda.org/writing/InteractiveStorytelling.htm

>> I mentioned a similar system in my first article for
>> grimwell.com. As far as I know, nothing like this has ever
>> actually been done in a retail game, so there could be all kind
>> of unforeseen hazards.

> Last I heard, Chris Crawford was working on something called
> Erasmatron. I remember reading extremely fascinating articles
> about it in college, but lost touch. It was all about creating
> character motivations (guilt, greed, etc) and interaction
> parameters (rumors, friendship, nemesis) and letting the stories
> create themselves.  I don't know how far it has come in the past 7
> years (it was just an idea back then), but the website is
> http://www.erasmatazz.com/ and it should have a library of game
> design papers on the subject.

I thought about that, but it's not really attempting the same
thing. The Erasmatron is attempting something more akin to
conversation modelling or emotional modelling. I haven't looked at
it in years, either (it's Mac-only), but it didn't used to be
composed of "quest objects" as FreeSpeak allegedly is. The example
worlds I've seen don't really create a narrative, either. It works
out more like a puzzle, and a rather annoying puzzle as you have to
second-guess the actor's states and what response will alter them
the way you like. I think the approach has potential, and in some
ways it's a very impressive program, but I can understand why it
hasn't been used in a commercial game and isn't popular in the IF
crowd.
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