November 2008

• The Future of Quests cruise
• • The Future of Quests Siege)
  • • The Future of Quests Threshold
    • • The Future of Quests Amanda Walker
  • The Future of Quests Marc Bowden
  • • The Future of Quests cruise
  • The Future of Quests John Buehler
  • • The Future of Quests Paolo Piselli
    • • The Future of Quests cruise
      • • The Future of Quests cruise
        • • The Future of Quests John Buehler
          • The Future of Quests Tom Hudson
    • The Future of Quests Aurel
  • The Future of Quests Robert Flesch
  • The Future of Quests Nabil Maynard
  • The Future of Quests Ricky C
  • • The Future of Quests Christopher Lloyd
    • The Future of Quests cruise
    • • The Future of Quests John Buehler
      • The Future of Quests GAMES)
      • • The Future of Quests John Buehler
        • • The Future of Quests GAMES)
          • • The Future of Quests John Buehler
        • The Future of Quests Mike Sellers
        • • The Future of Quests Michael Hartman
          • • The Future of Quests Lachek Butalek
            • • The Future of Quests Threshold
              • The Future of Quests Damion Schubert
            • The Future of Quests GAMES)
            • • The Future of Quests Morris Cox
              • • The Future of Quests Threshold
                • • The Future of Quests Siege)
              • The Future of Quests Threshold
              • • The historical significance of MUDs Threshold
          • The Future of Quests Damion Schubert
          • • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] Mike Rozak
            • The Future of Quests Mike Sellers
              Damion wrote:
              > Mike Sellers wrote:
              > > And in part it requires that the players care about the NPCs --
              > > they have to have bona fide relationships with the NPCs, which in
              > > turn requires that the NPCs have enough emotionality (among other
              > > things) for the players to care about them.
              > >
              >
              > The trick for the MMO/MUD designer is that the player is that
              > the player can only track so many NPC relationships at one
              > time. Overwhelm the player with quests, whether hand-crafted
              > or randomly generated, and at a certain point that player
              > will become simply swamped with stories and relationships
              > that he's supposed to track. Your odds of getting the player
              > to actually care at this point are extremely low.
              
              This is essentially the difference between plot-driven and character-driven
              narrative (and also assumes designer-driven rather than player-driven
              activity, which I see as more of a dynamic balance that changes over time).
              If you stack up a jostling crowd of NPCs or a big stack of unrelated quests
              (per your example that I cut here), the player won't care enough about any
              of them to keep coming back. Some players will want to touch lightly a lot
              of different NPCs, some will want to dive deep with just a few (just as with
              real relationships between people). If you force the user into a
              pre-defined arc that doesn't end for 15 levels or make them track too many
              relationships, this falls apart. At a high level, the key is keeping the
              player in control of their relationships -- how many, how deep, how invasive
              or time-consuming for them -- whether you're talking about NPCs or
              particular tasks.
              
              Mike Sellers
    • The Future of Quests Damion Schubert
    • • The Future of Quests Mike Sellers
  • The Future of Quests Lachek Butalek
• [Engines] A suitable 2D engine for a virtual world. Sebastian Anthony
• • [Engines] A suitable 2D engine for a virtual world. cruise
• [Engines] A suitable 2D engine for a virtual world. Mr Seb
• • [Engines] A suitable 2D engine for a virtual world. Daniel James
• NEWS: MUD 30 years old Matt Cruikshank
• • NEWS: MUD 30 years old Michael Hartman
  • • NEWS: MUD 30 years old Richard A. Bartle