[MUD-Dev2] Replaceable NPC's [was: Players are shallow]

[cruise]

On Mon, 26 Jan 2009, Damion Schubert wrote:
> There is probably some sort of Dunbar number at work here -
> It's not that humans are shallow, its just that they can only
> track so many relationships in a social space, and once they
> begin forming relationships with real humans, relationships
> with artificial agents are going to naturally become deprioritized.
> Especially when, say, reading an NPC's quest dialogue text
> keeps your party members waiting.

This brought back another idea that has been floating around in mymind for 
a while - temporary NPCs.

By that, I mean shopkeepers, political figures, etc. Whose roles can 
potentially be filled by players. Has anyone tried allowing players to 
take over a role formerly filled by an NPC?

For example, suppose you had a political system in your MMO, where players 
could vote for other players to become Mayor of towns. Obviously, when 
starting the game, you'd need an NPC to fill that paret, because there 
wouldn't be any players. However, once a player builds up sufficient 
support they could run for office, and if they win, the NPC mayor is 
replaced.

If the player stops logging in, cancels their account, etc. The NPC mayor 
could be voted back in, to ensure that there was always something seen to 
be filling that role.

Basically, only using NPC's as placeholders, and allowing players to 
ursurp their jobs when they want to, and filling back in again to cover 
absences.

This would deal with the issue raised with Damien and others, that players 
prefer dealing with other players, or at least should if they're playing 
an MMO.