[MUD-Dev2] Risk vs Reward [was: Value]

[Mike Rozak]

Sean Howard wrote:
> I'd never heard that before. That's an interesting way of looking at it.
> But wouldn't that only apply to linear games, or at least branching games
> with linear paths. Something like GTA3 could be described as pearls with
> side quests, but Oblivion or some of the more sandboxy MMORPGs don't often
> have distinct delineations between progress markers.

"String of pearls" is commonly used in adventure-game design terminology.

By the way, Oblivion is a string of pearls, just not spatially. It's 
free-form spatially, but the quest arcs (kill the head evil dude, thieve's 
guild, fighter's guild, mage's guild, etc.) are all basically linear and a 
string-of-pearls. For mage's guild, for example, you can do any of the 6(?) 
reference-letter quests in any order (one pearl), but once you complete all 
those, you enter another pearl. This leads to a string of pearls uncovering 
some sort of necromancy plot that I haven't gotten to. I have read the 
Oblivion cheat guide about some of the other guilds, so I know they follow 
the string of pearls. You don't notice you're constrained because (a) there 
aren't any spatial constraints, (b) you're usually following several quest 
arcs at once, and (c) there are lots of non-arc quests lying around to add 
noise and hide the linearity of the main quest arcs.

Mike Rozak
http://www.mxac.com.au