[MUD-Dev2] [Design] Non-cliche content creation

[Mike Rozak]

I have a mental block that I need help bypassing...

The cliche way to create MMO content:
1) Create a flat plain. Since this is boring, add mountains, forests, etc.
2) Liberally sprinkle with monsters.
3) Create quests with cliche storylines so players have a reason to kill the cliche monsters.
4) Create vending-machine NPCs so players can buy/sell loot.
5) Create quasi-medieval cities where NPCs can hang out since they look dorky just standing out in the wilderness. (Who ever saw a coke/candy machine in the middle of a forest?)

Almost all MMOs (even WoW) seem to be based on this formula.


To shift cliches/formulas... How you tell a 3 year-old to draw a face:
1) Draw a circle for a head.
2) Two circles for the eyes.
3) A line for the nose.
4) A line (or circle) for the mouth.
5) Scribbles for the hair.

Both the MMO content "formula" and the 3-year-old's face formula are equivalently "wrong".

A real portrait painter will first talk about emotions, lighting, poses, backgrounds, clothing, framing, color schemes, etc. Only after all that's done will they worry about eyes, nose, and mouth, and they certainly don't use circles and lines for their shapes (except Picasso).


So, what's a mature/professional way to design MMO content?

- Concerns about NPC personalities, moods, etc. and how they emotionally impact that player.

- The same goes for landscape and buildings. (How about some archtectually interesting buildings instead of cliche quasi-medieval wattle-and-daub housing. Or a forest that actually looks and acts like a forest, not a child's (or clear-cut logger's) impression of a forest.)

- And what about events in the world? How do these events draw the player in?

- How do the NPC social structures affect the world, and the players?

- How do players interact with the world and affect it? (Beyond cliche monster killing and resource mining.) Again, emotional attatchment?

- How do players interact with one another? (Beyond the cliche killing foozles and trading stuff) How does the world encourage this?)

- Etc.

What is/are the answer(s)?


My current muddled thinking is that:

1) There are a lot of aspects to a game: emotion, NPCs, architecture, backstory, sound, in-game events, player-with-player interaction, textures, etc., and even gameplay.

2) Synergy: Aspects should be designed to enhance one another. Ex: Quests should expose bits of the game-world's history, and/or pull the player into the world's events, and/or show off gameplay, and/or encourage player interaction, etc. Buildings should encourage quests, give clues about the world's history, encourage gameplay, encouring player interaction, etc.

3) Aspects should be worked on much like tightening the bolts on a tire; tighten opposite bolts only a bit at a time. Trying to "complete" an aspect long before the other aspects are near completion leads to disaster.

4) (Controversially) Gameplay is only a really small part of the entire creation. Choice, a superset of gameplay, is ultimately more important. Delight/wonder, newness (aka: avoid cliches), choice, and player interaction are all very important.

Any opinions?