[MUD-Dev2] The Future of Quests

[Lachek Butalek]

Michael Hartman wrote:
> "The uncanny valley is a hypothesis that when robots and other 
> facsimiles of humans look and act almost like actual humans, it causes a 
> response of revulsion among human observers."
> 
> There really is no connection between this hypothesis and the creation 
> of meaningful quests. The problems with quests have nothing to do with 
> NPCs almost looking or appearing to be real live humans and falling just 
> short.

While it is true that the textbook definition of "uncanny valley" 
describes a similar but different phenomena, I imagine the author(s) 
used the term as shorthand or in lieu of a more appropriate alternative. 
I do think the phenomenon is an important one to identify and discuss: 
computer-generated questnos trying to pass themselves off as narrative 
can appear clumsy and obnoxious to immersive players. In a similar vein 
to the "uncanny valley" effect, the more the quest text attempts to pass 
itself off as true narrative and less gameplay element, the more 
unsettling the effect.

To put it differently, compare these three quests:

* The king of the land charges you to slay four hundred goblins and 
return to him to receive a +2 sword.
* The king of the land charges you, the valiant hero, to stop the 
invading goblin army. In return, he promises you a great bounty.
* The king of the land charges you, the valiant hero, to stop the 
invading goblin army, for the third time. In return, he promises you a 
great bounty, for the third time.

The first quest might be generated procedurally by a computer, or by a 
designer, and the player does not know the difference. They recognize 
the quest as a gameplay element and insert their own narrative as they play.

Even though it plays out identically to the first quest, the second 
quest is quite obviously generated by a designer, since it features 
fluff text and plays to your ego. The player can lose themselves in the 
idea of the quest as part of an ongoing narrative, rather than simply a 
gameplay element (only to have their dream shattered later when 
discussing their heroic acts with a fellow adventurer, who informs them 
that "Yah I did teh gobslaying quest yday, itwas kinda ghey". But that's 
a different discussion).

But the third quest, however superbly generated, will trigger the 
"uncanny" effect. It *seems* to be part of an integral, seamless 
narrative, but to the player it is obviously impossible that the same 
goblin army would attack three times in a week, and that the king should 
happen to possess a whole armoury full of heritage weaponry to hand out.

Presumably, the more aesthetically correct the quest generation 
procedures get without having reached perfection, the more disturbing 
and upsetting the player reactions will get. Having said that, I think 
graphics engines these days have reached an immense level of 
sophistication and I find the "uncanny valley" effect has far 
diminished. Hopefully, procedural gameplay generation will reach similar 
heights at some point in the near future. Until then, many developers 
may be wise to consider the simplicity of not attempting to create 
immersive procedural quests that conform to a narrative, but focus 
instead on generating obvious gameplay elements and let the players' 
imaginations make sense of the ongoing story. My favourite examples are 
the lo-fi approaches in "Dwarf Fortress" and "Storytron".

Someone should come up with a similar term that's not "uncanny valley", 
I suppose - or better, something more generic to describe the unsettling 
quality of computer-generated content intended to simulate reality.