[MUD-Dev2] Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests]

[Mike Sellers]

There have been a few really good posts on NPCs and such in MMOs.  Damion,
you in particular wrote a couple of posts I wanted to respond to but just
haven't had the time.

Here's the thing, as I see it.  Damion is correct in that MMOs are (well,
have been thus far) largely combat simulators.  Great genre, very popular.
But it's hardly the only way to envision or experience MMOs.  And as a
genre, we may have just about mapped out its limits.  Calling that the
extent of MMO gameplay is IMO a failure of imagination, and the kind of
thing that leads to design stultification and commercial "so whats" very
quickly.  

I suspect strongly that the more combat/achievement-oriented MMOs are, the
less need there is for active MMOs that are more than vending machines or
opponents-of-the-moment.  OTOH, as MMOs become more social -- where "social"
goes far beyond chatting and guild drama -- they will attract many more
people (the majority of people playing games online who still have no desire
to play an MMO) and socially interactive NPCs will become far more
important.  It may even be that having such NPCs is a gating factor to
creating virtual worlds that non-gamers and casual gamers find engaging.

I see socially interactive NPCs as the scaffolding around which social
gameplay grows.  These NPCs are the people, after all, who actually live in
the world -- we as players are just occasional visitors.  If the NPCs are
able to shoulder the load of making the world feel like a social place (a
big "if" certainly), then they become an unparalleled support and an
attractant to new and returning players.  

Note that I'm not talking about variations on old (and IMO effective but
tired) quest constructions, "saving the village" etc.  Those aren't
particularly social.  They are, in effect, static, plot-driven gameplay.
I'm looking more at dynamic character-driven gameplay, where your stories as
a player intertwine with various NPCs' stories in ways that are meaningful
to you.  It's a different way of seeing gameplay, particularly online
gameplay, but one that I think leads to the next levels of engagement for
wide audiences.  

Mike Sellers