May 2003
- NetGames 2003: CFParticipation Sugih Jamin
- MUD codebases Chris Saik
- MUD codebases Ammon Lauritzen
- MUD codebases Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- MUD codebases Linder Support
- MUD codebases J C Lawrence
- Flow of messages sanxion sanxion
- Flow of messages Ammon Lauritzen
- Flow of messages Ben Chambers
- Flow of messages Travis Casey
- Flow of messages Brian Lindahl
- Flow of messages Ben Chambers
- Flow of messages Brian Lindahl
- Flow of messages sanxion sanxion
- Flow of messages Brian Lindahl
- UDP vs TCP for MUD/MMORPG project. Jason Slaughter
- UDP vs TCP for MUD/MMORPG project. Matt Mihaly
- UDP vs TCP for MUD/MMORPG project. Ryan Arthur
- UDP vs TCP for MUD/MMORPG project. Crosbie Fitch
- UDP vs TCP for MUD/MMORPG project. William
- UDP vs TCP for MUD/MMORPG project. Byron Ellacott
- UDP vs TCP for MUD/MMORPG project. Evan Cortens
- UDP vs TCP for MUD/MMORPG project. J C Lawrence
- UDP vs TCP for MUD/MMORPG project. Amanda Walker
- Customization in games, as a design tool / gameplay element ceo
- Warrior Challenge on PBS Madrona Tree
- Warrior Challenge on PBS Edward Glowacki
- Warrior Challenge on PBS Travis Casey
- Warrior Challenge on PBS Michael Chui
- MudDev FAQ - part 2 Marian Griffith
- MudDev FAQ - part 2 Mats Lidstrom
- MudDev FAQ - part 2 J C Lawrence
- MudDev FAQ - part 2 J C Lawrence
- Storytelling in a PSW from a Player's Persepctive Talanithus HTML
- Storytelling in a PSW from a Player's Persepctive Michael Chui
- Storytelling in a PSW from a Player's Persepctive David Kennerly
Michael Chui wrote:
> Assign a couple strong-minded GMs to the task of maintaining
> fictional consistency. Give them the power to figure out where the
> best place for a crew of unlikely vagabonds to overcome a fearsome
> dragon. Give them the tools necessary to find out what kind of
> disruptions killing a dragon in the area might entail, etc.,
> etc... And then give them the responsibility of deciding whether
> or not the player's story will work. If it doesn't, but needs a
> bit of tweaking, let them work with player to design it.
> I know one of the main problems with such an approach is high
> admin visibility, which I hear is a big no-no.
Another danger is deception.
The only part of the design wherein role-playing is encouraged is
the intention. Whereas, the machine implements:
1.
> Give them the power to ... place ... a fearsome dragon.
2.
> Give them the tools necessary to find ... disruptions ...
3.
> And then ... let them ... design it.
I'm not attempting to misquote or quote you out of context. I'm
attempting to strip intention from execution. Please bear with this
butchery for a one more paragraph.
We intended roleplaying, but designed a grief machine. Only in the
best case will a noble soul follow our intentions. In the mediocre
case, a mediocre soul will pay lip service. But cars don't crash in
mediocre cases. In the worst case, some apparently noble soul will
(1) place fearsome dragons in the land, (2) disrupt the area, and
(3) design a convenient reward for whomever most everyone declares
unworthy.
The developers may do something after fact, but the above principles
permit the above results, so these results are either a worst case
scenario, or better than the worst case. In either case, the
average case will have to be angels to offset the damage done.
> But I see no better alternative at this juncture.
It's a hard topic. Here's a few suggestions:
1. Roleplay, roleplay, roleplay!
2. Give every object a story.
3. Weave the stories into legends that players interact with in
quests.
4. Host epic player events.
5. Host creative contests.
1. Roleplay! I am sorry to be so short of design insight in the
department, but in my experience, a player either roleplays or
doesn't. And if she wants to encourage roleplaying, she plays her
role to a "tee." Memes pass very well by example.
Make sure to do it with a real player character, not with any cheats
enabled (e.g. admin status or GM status). Playing an admin is
cheating. And it warps ego out of proportion. Besides, if the game
has any number of players a developer is flooded with
out-of-character discussion--same for any GM admin (you touched on
this by mentioning "admin visibility").. Don't be Lord British; eat
what the people eat.
2. Certainly your objects in the world can improve the fictional
consistency. Something that players often do is use the vocabulary
that the designerse created. Even when I named all the spells in
pseudo-Gaelic, players used those terms. In the context, it
literally helped fictional vocabulary.
3. Of course, your quests can too. I'll just give one example. At
one time, I designed second-order fictional objects. There were
certain monsters, such a lich with a staff with a gem on it. A
generous player, Cole Younger, drew the art for the lich robes,
hood, and a staff. I called the staff a phylactery (the gem that
holds a lich's soul). And then wrote a legend that wove the lich
into the story line, history of the world, and the theme of the
wizard class. The legend was parcelled out at various stages of a
group quest. Each member of the quest had their own legend, item,
history. In short, these players had the ingredients for fictional
consistency. What they do with it is their perogative.
4. I think player events do help; e.g. Asheron's Call. When doing
so, leave the events in place. Create some seasonal events. There
were some old posts here about that, about encouraging an
in-character calendar of events. 5. I also think creative contests
help. I can't prove that they do. It's just that I did these in
Dark Ages for two years beginning in 1999, and players continue to
tell me that it made a difference for them personally.
6? The service provider may consider publishing roleplaying
activities, much like a journalist publishes socially laudable
activities. But I worry that the service provider might be promote
the a lot of insincere activity. They'd promote the image but
... well... freedom fries anyone?
Keegan Reid asked me, Paul Schwanz :), and apparently several others
to write about encouraging roleplaying a couple of days ago over at
Lejendary Adventure's board. It's long and is a different
audience's thread, so I won't bore you by pasting the contents.
Instead, here's the link:
http://di.gamepoint.net/lejendary/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadidq0&perpage#&pagenumber=5>
(Scroll down to my post, titled "Social Intelligence" on May 17)
Anyway, at least this LAO thread itself has some popular opinions
that players hold on how a developer may encourage roleplaying.
David - Storytelling in a PSW from a Player's Persepctive Michael Chui
- Storytelling in a PSW from a Player's Persepctive Talanithus HTML
- Storytelling in a PSW from a Player's Persepctive David Kennerly
- Storytelling in a PSW from a Player's Persepctive J C Lawrence
- relevance of paper RPGs (was D& D vs. MMORPG "complexity") Travis Casey
- WAP MUD GAME DEVELOP Richard Ruan
- WAP MUD GAME DEVELOP Edouard Kock
- D&D and MMORPGs Michael Tresca
- D&D and MMORPGs Sean Kelly
- D&D and MMORPGs shren
- D&D and MMORPGs Threshold RPG
- D&D and MMORPGs Taylor
- D&D and MMORPGs Chris Holko
- D&D and MMORPGs Daniel James
- D&D and MMORPGs Peter Tyson
- D&D and MMORPGs Jason Murdick
- D&D and MMORPGs Michael Tresca
- D&D and MMORPGs Michael Tresca
- Database vs. Disk Tom
- Database vs. Disk Sean Kelly
- Database vs. Disk Ben Garney
- Database vs. Disk Adam Dray
- Database vs. Disk Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Database vs. Disk Brian Lindahl
- Database vs. Disk Chris Holko
- Database vs. Disk Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Database vs. Disk Weston Fryatt
- Database vs. Disk J C Lawrence
- Database vs. Disk Byron Ellacott
- Database vs. Disk Dave Rickey
- Database vs. Disk J C Lawrence
- Database vs. Disk Bruce Mitchener
- Database vs. Disk J C Lawrence
- Database vs. Disk Bruce Mitchener
- Database vs. Disk Jason Gauthier
- Database vs. Disk J C Lawrence
- Database vs. Disk Nicolai Hansen
- Database vs. Disk Zach Collins {Siege}
- Database vs. Disk J C Lawrence
- Database vs. Disk Zach Collins {Siege}
- Database vs. Disk J C Lawrence
- Database vs. Disk Kwon Ekstrom
- Database vs. Disk J C Lawrence
- Database vs. Disk John A. Bertoglio
- Database vs. Disk corrine_123@hotmail.com
- Database vs. Disk Kwon J. Ekstrom
- Database vs. Disk J C Lawrence
- Database vs. Disk Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- Database vs. Disk Marc Bowden
- Database vs. Disk Kwon J. Ekstrom
- Database vs. Disk Sulka Haro
- Thoughts on a simplified multiplayer game. Jason Slaughter
- Thoughts on a simplified multiplayer game. Edward Glowacki
- Thoughts on a simplified multiplayer game. J C Lawrence
- Thoughts on a simplified multiplayer game. Bruce Mitchener
- Thoughts on a simplified multiplayer game. Edward Glowacki
- Thoughts on a simplified multiplayer game. J C Lawrence
- Thoughts on a simplified multiplayer game. Bruce Mitchener
- Thoughts on a simplified multiplayer game. Christopher Allen
- Thoughts on a simplified multiplayer game. ghfdh fcgdfgdfg
- ADMIN: Untoward unsubscriptions J C Lawrence
- Bringing out the barbaric in each of us David Kennerly
- Horizons Valerio Santinelli
- RP, MMORPGs, and their Evolution Talanithus HTML
- RP, MMORPGs, and their Evolution Brian Lindahl
- RP, MMORPGs, and their Evolution Michael Chui
- RP, MMORPGs, and their Evolution Marian Griffith
- RP, MMORPGs, and their Evolution Paul Schwanz
- RP, MMORPGs, and their Evolution J C Lawrence
- RP, MMORPGs, and their Evolution Matt Mihaly
- Account retention (was: D& D vs. MMORPG "complexity") Byron Ellacott
- Object-Oriented Databases John A. Bertoglio
- Object-Oriented Databases Weston Fryatt
- Object-Oriented Databases Travis Nixon
- Object-Oriented Databases Bruce Mitchener
- Object-Oriented Databases John A. Bertoglio
- Object-Oriented Databases Jeff Bachtel
- Object-Oriented Databases Sean Kelly
- TECH: Application-level branch prediction? ceo
- DID vs. MORAG "complexity" Jeff Cole
- DID vs. MORAG "complexity" Dave Rickey
- DID vs. MORAG "complexity" Matt Mihaly
- Objects Ben Chambers
- Scripting languages Jason Murdick
- Scripting languages Brian Hook
- Scripting languages Jason Gauthier
- Scripting languages Sanvean
- Scripting languages Jason Murdick
- Scripting languages Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes
- Scripting languages Ling Lo
- Scripting languages Jay Carlson
- Scripting languages Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes
- Scripting languages Lars Duening
- Scripting languages Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes
- Scripting languages Lars Duening
- Scripting languages Kwon J. Ekstrom
- Scripting languages Lars Duening
- Scripting languages justice@softhome.net
- Scripting languages MIKE MacMartin
- Scripting languages Kwon J. Ekstrom
- Scripting languages Bruce Mitchener
- Scripting languages Kwon J. Ekstrom
- Scripting languages Dr. Cat
- Scripting languages Jay Carlson
- Scripting languages David H. Loeser Jr.
- Scripting languages Shu-yu Guo
- Scripting languages Lars Duening
- Scripting languages David H. Loeser Jr.
- Scripting languages criscal@gmx.de
- Scripting languages eric
- Scripting languages Smith, David {Lynchburg}
- Scripting languages John Buehler
- Scripting languages Mike Shaver
- Scripting languages sanxion sanxion
- Scripting languages Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes
- Scripting languages Mike Shaver
- Scripting languages sanxion sanxion
- Scripting languages Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes
- When marketroids attack! Tess Snider
- Moo mailing list issue _DESPARATE FOR HELP! Ms Leigh Canny
- Moo mailing list issue _DESPARATE FOR HELP! David Clifton
- When Player Communities Rebel / Fanbois Gone Rogue vladimir cole
- When Player Communities Rebel / Fanbois Gone Rogue Andrew Barratt {MIS}
- NWN player modules (was: D&D and MMORPGs) Lars Duening
- NWN player modules (was: D&D and MMORPGs) Jonathan Grant
- Simpsons player types Matt Mihaly
- Dealing with cloned NPCs Thomas Sullivan
- Dealing with cloned NPCs Sasha Hart
- Dealing with cloned NPCs Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes
- Dealing with cloned NPCs Kristen Koster
- Dealing with cloned NPCs Marc Bowden
- Dealing with cloned NPCs Kristen Koster
- Dealing with cloned NPCs Thomas Sullivan
- Dealing with cloned NPCs Owen Matt
- Dealing with cloned NPCs John Buehler
- Dealing with cloned NPCs Owen Matt
- Dealing with cloned NPCs Thomas Sullivan
- Dealing with cloned NPCs Vincent Archer
- The Laws of the Virtual Worlds Tamzen Cannoy