[MUD-Dev] Community?

[Paul Schwanz]

Scott Jennings wrote:
> Erik Bethke wrote:

>> The question is something about how future MMO game design
>> interacts with user counts and whether or not instancing is a
>> "valid" strategy going forward or whether or not everyone needs
>> to be in the same world for the MMO to truly earn its name.
>> Right?  Is that the question?

> Not really. I think we're getting hung up here on engineering
> vs. game design.

> Instancing is an engineering solution. We have limited content and
> unlimited consumers. Thus creating bottlenecks. You can see those
> as opportunities ("Look! Conflict! Shared experiences!") or as
> problems ("OK, let's clone this area for everyone so that no one
> has to fight over it!")

> The problem, that I think you've hit upon, is that no amount of
> engineering will make up for poor design. If you have a really
> moronic quest involving taking 3 carrots and running halfway
> across the world to carry them to the Carrot God, no matter how
> shiny the model for the Carrot God is and how slick your game
> server is in creating individual copies of the Carrot God on
> demand is, the quest is still going to be bad because, frankly,
> fed-ex quests were old ten years ago. Sure, it will be LESS
> painful than if, in addition to being a really moronic quest, it
> also forced you to wait two hours for everyone ahead of you to
> prostrate themselves before the Carrot God. But at its maximum
> level of engineering... you're still running carrots.

> The bottom line is that there needs to be an idea for a game that
> isn't D&D version 14. For some reason, I'm pretty sure everyone
> reading this has one, too!

You betcha!  :)  And I shared it here a while back:

  http://www.kanga.nu/archives/MUD-Dev-L/2004Q1/msg00138.php

My solution, however, had to do with connecting single-play and
team-play to the larger community context.  For example, single-play
and team-play may include cleaning the rat's out of Bubba the NPC
Swordsmith's cellar.  Connecting this to the larger community
context would mean that whether Bubba had rat's in his cellar or not
could determine how many swords he was able to produce, their
quality, or even how effectively NPC guards in the area were
equipped.

It seems to me that this sort of solution to the questing problem
would be harmed, if not precluded, by instancing.  That's why, when
I heard a previous poster talk about how instancing increased the
importance of actions, I scratched my head.  I can understand where
he's coming from, but to me, actions that are segmented from the
game's larger context seem less important, not more important.  From
my perspective, clearing rat's out of Bubba's cellar is important
when it means that everyone who shops at his store gets to by better
swords for less money, not simply because some narrative spits out
text specifically targeted at boosting my ego.  (Ah, that my ego
were so simple to inflate.  :p )

So I guess what I'm saying is that design and engineering may not be
separated so easily.

--Paul "Phinehas" Schwanz
The Gameplay /is/ the Content
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