[MUD-Dev] Homogeneity and choice (Was DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs?)

[Mike Rozak]

John Buehler wrote:

> Unfortunately, I think that's entertainment for a designer, not a
> player.  A designer is entertained by the composite experience
> (the tapestry) of all the players running around in their
> fictional world.  For any given player, they have a single thread
> of that

[snip]

> Design entertainment for a type of player (probably an enthusiast
> of a certain experience), and not for fellow designers.  If an
> entertainment experience occurs and nobody but a designer can
> witness it, does it truly happen?

I don't disagree with your points. I do find it amazing how
intertwined everything is...

Weather turns into a topic about artistic freedom/license... Do I
create weather effects that I would like to experience and tell
those players who don't like it to go elsewhere? Or do I cater to
the masses and have weatherless weather? Or someplace in-between?
(This topic has undoubtedly been discussed to death.)

While I don't know which side of the fence I fall on with respenct
to the mountain-pass scenario, the snow-covered pass raises issues
that I dislike about some of the MMORPGs I've played: (Which I plan
to rectify in my world(s).)

  1) Homogeneity - In a MMORPG, one point in space is pretty much
  the same as any other point in space, other than differently
  shaped trees or differently shaped monsters. The same can be said
  for time, where day = night, except that night is a shade
  darker. Or of races, and often of classes. Homogenaity is further
  bolstered by instantaneous world-wide chat, world-wide
  teleportation, and world-wide item markets.

  Taking homogeneity to extremes produces a world with instant
  teleportation anywhere, being able to talk to anyone any time you
  want, etc. It's a 0-sized world, which isn't a world. It's more of
  a Yahoo Games website where users get to choose which monster they
  want to fight and when, or which mineral they want to mine now, of
  who they wish to talk to at any particular moment, etc.

  Potentially contentious issue: I see a virtual world as a platform
  upon which sub-games (like combat, spaceship flying, crafting, or
  chat) are based. Yahoo games is the same thing, except that it has
  no spatial component. The less "spatial" a MMORPG is, the more it
  competes against Yahoo Games or any of the other zillions of free
  web-games...

  I feel that space and time should subtly (or obviously) change the
  behavior of each sub-game. If I engage in combat on an ice field,
  my character should be more likely to fall (unless he's very
  dextrous). If I engage in combat in a dungeon corridore, my 2
  handed sword shouldn't work. If I engage in combat standing near a
  boiling bit of lava, my armor metal should overheat, benefiting
  characters with leather armor. Etc. If I go fishing in ice I catch
  trout (or other fish that feed in cold water). If I go fishing in
  a dungeon corridore I catch eyeless fish. If I go fishing in a
  boiling pit of lava I have to buy a new lure.

  Weather that actually acts like weather is a good way to attack
  homogenaity.

  2) Choices - Interactivity requires that the player makes
  choices. For a choice to be meaningful to a player, it must have
  consequences, some of which adversely affect the player. Asking a
  player to choose between door A or door B is worthless and
  deceitful if they both have the same results. (Also: It's bad
  design if door A and door B look the same and give no inkling as
  to the results of the choice. If door A is almost always a better
  experience then door B, then the choice is likewise bad.)

  One of the consequences most commonly used in MMORPGs is wasted
  time... if you choose to attack a monster and die, you lose XP or
  have to run back to your body as a ghost. Both are time syncs,
  kind of like detention is used in high school.

  Another consequence that is less-frequently used is the denial of
  content.... If you cross the mountains you will be stuck there for
  the winter (2 weeks), but you'll be able to see the winter
  festival. If you stay on this side of the mountains you miss the
  winter festival, but aren't isolated from the rest of the world.

  Weather (and mountain passes) can be used as a choice mechanism.

I know which way mass-markets tend to go: You can find McDonalds
almost everyplace in the world (homogeneity), and the choices
provided by mass-market systems are fairly weak (Do you want your
sandwich to be called a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder? Do you want
fries or a hash-brown with that? Will that be Coke or Sprite?).


Mike Rozak
http://www.mxac.com.au
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev