[MUD-Dev2] [REPOST] [DESIGN] Simulation vs. Status Quo

[Paul Schwanz]

[Snip Matt's entire post as well] :)

My apologies as well, but I snipped for similar reasons.

What I sense in your words is a desire for a more defined context behind 
John's simulation idea. This is very much in keeping with my own 
thoughts on the matter. In addition to the overall story arc that you 
proposed as a context (along with at leasts hints at the mechanics), I 
think there are other possibilities as well. I wrote the following 
recently on Raph's web site:

    Of course, this turns the ?game? part of the MMOG onto its ear. It
    moves away from providing the content for the game in the form of
    either random or hand-crafted Falstaff encounters. So what might
    replace this content? The content could be replaced by a context
    that could look like Caesar III (city-building), Civilization
    (empire-building), or Age of Empires (RTS). Within such a game
    context, I see the potential for content that looks very similar to
    current MMOGs, but against a backdrop that holds much more meaning
    that pinata-bashing does for me.

Basically, I like the same sort of simulation approach that John 
proposed, but I think there needs to be a game context for that 
simulation so that players do have the directed experience they often 
require. I don't think a sandbox is enough, and I think a simulation is 
mostly just a more complex sandbox.

To me, empire-building of some kind works well for this context. 
Alternatively, some sort of RTS context would do well put together with 
the story approach that Matt explained. Within this massive RTS or 
empire-building context there are plenty of tasks or quests that need to 
be handled in order to succeed. Intelligence needs to be gathered. 
Resources need to be collected. Buildings need to be built. Battles need 
to be fought. Here is also a place where you could replace typical MMO 
"levels" with a real heirarchy. Someone needs to be planning the empire 
and its growth. Lots of people need to be helping them with smaller 
pieces of the puzzle. Some people may want to have a bigger role. What 
are their options? What sort of government is in place? To me, this is a 
very rich context in which all sorts of quests and role-play can flourish.

As a bonus, I think there are possibilities here for play that is more 
targeted at massive multiplay instead of being massively parallel single 
play. Imagine the following emphasis on community experience, items, and 
quest flags in the context of an empire-building game.

*Community XP*: To have a workable community-leveling concept, you would 
need to have some sort of community XP. Simple population level for the 
community may be one such XP (and one that could have a very interesting 
impact on new subscriptions and retention), but there are probably other 
alternatives to consider. If you have ever played Caesar III, think of 
the metrics they use to define successful completion of the mission. 
Meeting security goals, prosperity goals, cultural goals, etc. could 
also give XP. And maybe each community decides for itself where it wants 
to get its XP, so that you end up with many different flavors. Once you 
have a community XP concept in place, you need to figure out community 
rewards. One reward would simply be to recognize leveling through a 
title. So, residents of Outpost Phineopolis just leveled to Town 
Phineopolis. Other reward possibilities might include things like the 
ability to build new community structures, attract better NPC trainers, 
hire better NPC guards, etc.

*Community items*: What if you had items that could be quested for, 
owned by, and a benefit to the community? For instance, when Phineopolis 
leveled to a Town, they got the ability to build a cathedral. Once 
built, the cathedral can hold five religious icons. The town can now 
quest for, purchase, steal, or otherwise acquire these icons and bring 
them back to be ?equipped? in their cathedral. Each of these icons 
represents an ability for the priest class so that all priests who are 
citizens of Phineopolis can now cast new priestly spells because of the 
icons in their cathedral.

*Community quest flags*: There are rats in Bubba's cellar that need 
killing. In a single-player game, killing the rats would earn you 
Bubba's grateful thanks. In the typical MMO, the result would be pretty 
much the same. In the end, no one else really cares whether you killed 
the rats or not. But if we imagine a truly multiplayer community quest, 
killing the rats could mean something different. Perhaps Bubba is a 
sword smith and the rats are keeping him from making his best swords. If 
killing the rats means that the entire town can now buy better swords 
from Bubba (i.e. the town gets the quest flag, not just the character), 
then a lot more people care about the rats and that they were killed. Or 
what if the NPC guards that patrol the walls and gates of the town 
suffer degraded capability because Bubba is a major supplier of their 
equipment. Not only that, but someone else might decide to pour 
rat-growth hormone into the sewers so that Bubba has a problem again. 
Interesting. This sort of model connects what could be a solo quest back 
to a community context. In other words, it has the ability to create 
community in a manner that doesn't require forced grouping.

Of course, some of these things have been done to a very limited degree 
in previous MMOs. DAoC had relics, and Horizons had a server-wide quest 
to release a new race (as Lee Sheldon will be quick to point out and 
talk about). Even so, I think there is a huge opportunity for MMOs to do 
so much more of this sort of thing. These are things that single-player 
games simply cannot offer. We need to get away from making MMOs from a 
strictly single-player perspective.

Anyway, these are just some of my thoughts. Thank you Matt and John for 
your intriguing posts.

--Paul Schwanz