[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Player-generated content

[Lachek Butalek]

On 9/18/07, cruise <cruise at casual-tempest.net> wrote:
> Assuming a reasonably "standard" MMOG, with various quests that provide
> achievements or rewards, how can you ensure player-provided quests
> follow the difficulty/reward curve well? Is it even worth doing? What
> other forms of player-generated content is possible to support in-game?
> Any experience with such systems?

It's absolutely worth doing. Most MMOGs with strong collaborative
elements already have this structure implicitly, all you need to do is
make it explicit in the form of a mechanically enforced "Quest". What
I imagine Eve Online is doing with its Contract system, or what Savage
is doing with its approach to task accomplishments.

Create the system well and it will self-adjust. Make the players spend
their own resources on the rewards (or a 1:1 convertible resource,
like 1GP = 1XP) so you don't have unnecessary inflation. Ensure that
it is beneficial for more accomplished players to create quests for
less accomplished players rather than performing the task themselves.

You may be able to create a user rating system to rate what quests are
worth compared with how difficult they are to carry out. Let's say X
makes a quest "bring 100 lumber from A to B, reward is 50 gold". Y
might come along and go "huh? that's really hard, and should be worth
much more". They vote "thumbs down" for the worth of that quest,
indicating to a novice that the quest doesn't pay out what it should,
and to the quest giver that maybe they should adjust the rate.