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

[Mike Rozak]

Damion wrote:
> 1) The number one problem with interesting quest/NPC generation is the 
> cost
> in development and QA of content generation.
> 2) Algorithmic content is never as compelling as hand-crafted content.
> If you're not moved by handcrafted content, it's badly written 
> hand-crafted
> content.  But almost no one is moved by randomly generated quests.

While I don't necessarily disagree with your intent, your statement strikes 
me as over-reaching:

1) Aren't MMORPG's mostly procedural content with a little bit of 
hand-crafted content (quests) to mask this? Aka: Once you design one orc, 
making the player kill 100 orcs (over several quickly-written quests) is 99% 
procedural.

2) Here's a scenario I'm implementing right now: (Note: It's not exactly a 
quest, but a system. Not eactly procedural or hand-crafted, which is why I 
mention it.)

If you ever visit Fraser Island in Australia (http://www.fraserisland.net/), 
you'll encounter wild dingos, who spend a lot of time hanging around the 
camp sites looking for food. This is no problem, except once in awhile the 
dingos decide that children are food too.

In my island-based city, there are wild dingos that live in (PC 
inaccessible) dens and come out at night. Killing them rewards with a 
dingo-ear, which can be handed in for cash... This is all standard MMO 
stuff, except for the night-only part.

- If you happen to kill a dingo in front of a NPC, the NPC says something 
like "Good job! Get rid of those mangy dogs." and likes/trusts you better. 
One or two NPCs will be exceptions and be the opposite. (Non-standard for 
MMOs, because MMO NPCs are just vending machines. My NPCs are much more 
complicated.)

- Dingos are non-aggressive, except to small races, which they often attack. 
NPCs will warn small-raced PCs not to stay out at night. (Non-standard for 
MMOs)

- If dingos are attacking you and you throw them food, they eat that and 
won't bother you. After all, they attack because they're hungry, and 
remember the hand that feeds them. (Non-standard, puzzle)

- If a small-raced NPC sees a dingo, the NPC runs away yelling, "Dingos!" 
because they're dingo fodder. The larger-raced NPCs ignore the dingos, as 
well as the panicked NPCs. (Non-standard, social critique)

- A clever player will aggro a dingo, and (a) lure it and dispatch it in 
front of a NPC to get bonus like/trust, or (b) lure it in front of a 
small-race NPC to get them to vacate the area; perhaps the small-race NPC is 
a guard blocking the PC. (Or, (c) lure it to a small-raced PC )

I expect that players will have fun uncovering the complexity of the 
(procedural) dingo code, or using the system to their ends... so long as 
it's not re-used to death. (aka: Another section of the island has "killer 
wombats" that follow the same behavior.)

No one would ever expect a player to read the same book 100 times, and they 
certainly wouldn't build a virtual city with 100 identical buildings (well, 
some would). However, game designers readily make players experience the 
same procedural content (killing 100 orcs, then 100 trolls, then 100 giants, 
etc.) over and over, and don't seem to click that procedural code can only 
be re-used so often too... which is why you say procedural quests are 
un-fun, because the same paltry 100 lines of quest-generation code are 
re-used to death. And why you say that hand-generated content is expensive, 
because of the counter-assumption that procedural content can be replayed 
over and over, cutting its "cost per hour of entertainment".


I too have been of the opinion that procedural isn't fun, but lately my mind 
has changed:

- Procedural code is hand-generated by programmers. Procedural is fun, so 
long as the same procedural code isn't forced on the player over and over 
(such as making the player kill 100 orcs/trolls/giants).

- Likewise, "hand-generated content" (hand-generated by non-programmers) is 
fun so long as the player isn't forced to experience the same hand-generated 
content over and over (such as making players read the same novel 100 times, 
or see the same model of a house used 100 times throughout a city).