[MUD-Dev2] The Future of Quests

[Michael Hartman]

I am specifically not quoting anyone because I don't want anyone to feel 
picked on. The term "uncanny valley" is being thrown around in this 
discussion in a very incorrect and improper way. I think it is important 
that we stop misusing this term so badly on the list.

The uncanny valley is a very specific and interesting phenomenon that 
initially applied to robotics and has been narrowly extrapolated to 
animation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley

"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.


-- 
Michael Hartman, J.D. (http://www.frogdice.com)
President & CEO, Frogdice, Inc.
University of Georgia School of Law, 1995-1998
Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, 1990-1994