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

[Michael Hartman]

Sporky McBeard wrote:
>"Michael Hartman" <michael at thresholdrpg.com> wrote:
>> Sporky McBeard wrote:

>>> 1) Dump the story crap - Nobody reads that stuff, nobody
>>> cares. They see "Find 12 Bloody Monkey Paws" and skip the rest.

>> Wrong. Horribly, short sightedly, wrong.

>> There are actually a lot of people who read the stuff and derive
>> a lot of enjoyment from that part of the quests.

> There are people who like to pierce uncomfortable body parts. No
> matter what you do, you'll find some people who like something and
> some who don't. As a designer, your job is not to cater to all of
> them individually, but instead simultaneously. Since stories only
> appeal to a rather small portion of the audience, and contribute
> nothing tangible to the gameplay, there are better ways to spend
> your time and energy.

Do you honestly think only a small portion of the audience is
interested in the story?

Forgive me if this sounds condescending, but what is your experience
in creating, working on, making, or heck PLAYING RPGs?

>>  I've seen these kinds of ranges in my own games and in every
>>  game I have played. Some people love the story and would be
>>  absolutely bored to tears if the story did not exist.

> You are telling me that on a server with a thousand other players,
> these people would be bored because they couldn't stop everything
> and read a short story? That sounds like a failure of the
> designers and the world, not of the pleasures of storytelling.

I am telling you that a very LARGE number of people enjoy the story
surrounding the quests they do and the story is a major part of what
drives them to complete it.

I know this from my experience both as a player and a developer.

>>>  5) Allow certain players to create their own dungeons - I
>>>  promise you that players are far more creative than most
>>>  MMORPGs give them credit for.

>>  I can assure you that the majority of players are LESS creative
>>  than you think and will create such inane filth that it will
>>  actually cheapen your game and damage your gaming environment.

> I see no reason why even the most uncreative player couldn't
> create a decent modular dungeon, given enough direction and plenty
> of explicit boundaries. I guess what I'm saying is, make it
> difficult to screw up.

Never, ever, ever underestimate how uncreative and poorly suited to
design the majority of gamers are. Seriously, you will be absolutely
shocked at the degree of suckage players create if given the
opportunity.

There is a reason why games are created by professionals. :)

> They aren't bad suggestions, just extreme ones. Thinking outside
> the box sometimes requires a shock to the system to get started.

I don't think removing one of the most important parts of quests
(the story) or throwing the baby out with the bathwater (removing
quests entirely) are really thinking outside the box. That's more
like lighting the box on fire.

--
Michael Hartman
President and CEO, Threshold Virtual Environments, Inc.
http://www.thresholdrpg.com
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