[Meta] Re: [MUD-Dev] Future of MMOGs

[amanda at alfar.com]

"Ted L. Chen" <tedlchen at yahoo.com> wrote:

> And what about other types of data?  Damage rates, XPs, etc.
> Unless you lock all zones down to a single type of system, then it
> is something you still need to think about when coming up with the
> protocol.

Yes and no.  I've written before that I don't think XP and levelling
are crucial to MMO games.  There's no reason a particular server (or
set of servers) couldn't track skills and other attributes (in
geekspeak, attributes with local scope but persistent extent).
Nothing says that a raygun from one zone has to work in a dungeon in
another.

This ties in with "never trust the client".  Attributes that affect
gameplay can be tracked outside the protocols--they are a server
issue.  For attributes that don't, who cares if the client gets
modified?  If someone shows up with an X-rated avatar in a family
chat room, kick them out, just like in real life or on irc.

> On the linking front, how VRML is different from NWN?  They both
> just transport you to another server and initialize you off at the
> starting point of the vrml or module.

Neither one has the right sort of linking.  My mention of NWN was
aimed mainly at the content production tools.  Rather than having
people design stuff in a CAD system, let people build content using
prefabs and existing idioms--let them design on a "town" level, not
a "poly/NURBS patch/texture/python/java" level.  Creating VRML
content is like writing web pages line by line on punch cards :).

> Question is then, do you consider the game mechanics "content" or
> is content just the environment?

Mechanics are definitely content.  Some uniformity of mechanics is
required for interoperability, of course, but I don't see the need
to constrain it very much.  Again, consider the www as a model: web
pages have wildly varying mechanics, all viewable through the same
browsers.

Amanda Walker

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