Movie-Making Games (Was RE: Spam: RE: [MUD-Dev] Star Wars Galaxies: 1 character per server)

[Damion Schubert]

From: John Buehler

> Somebody recently posted about an entire game that was predicated
> on players making movies of activity in the game world and then
> sharing them.

That was me, talking about the game that a startup I worked with
recently was working on.

  http://www.ninjaneering.com/hollyworld/index.html

Sorry, it's not very informative, but they're not quite to the 'hype
it to no end' stage yet.

> That sounds like a feature to a game that actually has stuff
> to do, not a distinct game unto itself.

Basically it worked like this: making movies was a Parappa-
the-Rapper style minigame, where your character performed scripts
with other players, performing socials at appropriate moments and
adlibbing lines to make movies.  The computer judged timing, set
pieces, wardrobe, whatever, to determine if the movie was good.
This was PvE.

But they're also going to allow players to record movies simply by
capturing the actions stream and allowing players to replay them
later.  You could then edit them, splice them together, write your
own scripts, and put them up against other movies for Academy Awards
and whatnot. This was player-generated content and (in some fashion)
PvP.

It was always assumed that movies good for the computer (PvE) would
probably be pretty crappy movies for players to consume (PvP) and
vice versa.

The important thing for us was the player content, and the fact that
it creates an environment where the world is clearly getting richer
over time.  As opposed to most standard RPGs, where the attitude of
'been there, done that' grows as you approach your thousandth hour.
However, given that Status is such an important facet of real-life
Hollywood, we felt that there definitely needed to be a levelling
treadmill - more importantly, non-creative people needed something
to do and feel successful.  A good way to think of it was this: the
PvE aspect was making pulp for the masses, however, the PvP aspect
(making actual pieces of entertainment for player consumption) would
allow for advancement on a different axis, similar to the snooty
'Cannes Film Festival' prestige found in real-life Tinseltown.

--d

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev