[MUD-Dev] wherefor in-game artists?

[Christopher Allen]

Robert Zubek wrote:

> I don't think it's the mechanics by themselves that work against
> them. Castle Marrach by Skotos, a text-based game of role-playing
> and intrigue, is my favorite example. When I played it some time
> ago, they had a surprisingly huge creative subculture (within the
> limits of the text interface, of course, which constrained the
> form to creative writing, poetry, etc). From what I understand,
> this happened because Skotos had actively nurtured artistic
> expression - from the game's very beginning they had seeded a
> number of communities and social structures in which artistic
> creation was valued, and nurtured their development with unique
> in-game rewards.

> It also seems to have helped that they highly constrained the game
> - it took place in one small building, with no access to weapons,
> money, or player stats. This effectively selected against killers,
> and the more obsessive among explorers and achievers (one could
> still explore and achieve in the social domain, of course).

> So even though the mechanics were even more limiting than standard
> MUDs, their thoughtful social engineering allowed them to grow a
> thriving creative community.

I'll add a couple of comments here.

Although Castle Marrach is a text game, it is web-centric as it is
played on an enhanced web client (see screenshot at
http://www.skotos.net/games/screenshots/cm-lg.jpg ). This means that
we can do things like have a our graphic "theme" be displayed
prominently at all times, display game maps, and also open popup
windows with graphics. For instance, if you look at many sketches,
maps, paintings, invitations, etc. in the game, a window will open
which will display a graphic for that object. Many of players create
these graphics.

We have one rule in the game about these -- no direct
representations. I.e. you can't say "this is what my sword looks
like", instead it must be "this is my sketch of my sword". This has
some interesting consquences, as this means all graphics in the game
are thought of as some form of art, thus have to be interpreted by
the viewer. This parallels well the text medium, which also require
interpretation by the viewer.

We do actively nurture various arts and writing in Castle Marrach,
both IC and OOC. There are routes of IC advancement in the game that
are only open to artists or writers. And OOC we have appreciations,
contests, and even published a small book of our players best works.

When we opened the game, we had a few staff run NPC artists and
writers who kicked off an artistic culture. For instance, I ran the
first "poet" NPC, and held a poetry reading in one of the common
rooms. Because we had a cool new "prox" and "adverb" feature, I used
them: "stand before the fireplace", "gaze at ceiling", "gaze at
floor" and "gaze outwardly", all before the two poems I read. To
this day, you will often see people doing those four actions at
poetry readings in the castle over four years later.

Castle Marrach was a mixed success -- I think we did achieve an
almost "pure socializer" game that wasn't just a chat room. All game
mechanics are social, for instance, to advance your skill in dodge,
you have to find someone better then you in dodge, and then persuade
them to teach you. If you do persuade them, you have to spend from 1
to 20 half-hours with them, with at least a day between failures, or
a week between successes. This means that you have to have to spend
a meaningful half-hour with someone to advance, so you better be
able to offer some good roleplaying, or a good service, or a skill
trade to your teacher. This mechanic has worked very well.

What hasn't worked well is that this "pure socializer" game doesn't
scale well. Socialization requires trust, and trust doesn't
scale. One of the interesting anecdotes of our experience with this
is that one of the limits may be the Dunbar Number
http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2004/03/the_dunbar_numb.html --
we'll find out soon, as our players have now created their own first
game using our tools, Lovecraft Country
(http://www.lovecraftcountry.com/ in late alpha now), with a bit
lighter set of "pure socializer" mechanics, and it will be
interesting to see if they can break the size of Castle Marrach.

-- Christopher Allen

------------------------------------------------------------------------
.. Christopher Allen <ChristopherA at skotos.net>       Skotos Tech Inc. ..
..                2342 Shattuck Ave Ste #512, Berkeley, CA 94704-1517 ..
.. www.skotos.net  www.rpg.net       o510/647-2760   f510/849-1717 ..
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