Libraries, stories, and world background

Blackmoor · October 2005

Datawight and I were involved in a discussion on content on a different forum, and had some interesting thoughts came from it we thought would be good to share with the FE crowd.

Libraries in mmo's are much like the magazines at a doctors office. Not much there and its usually something you have read before. There is also nothing there that helps you do anything but pass the time.

As to what richly stocked libraries can add to an MMO , well here are some examples.

A rich storyline and detailed account of the world along with lots of good reading. Talking hundreds of stories not just the usual 10 or 20 you usually find.

Quests, lots of quests, you just have to search for them at the various libraries. Be it in the form of hints as to where certain quests might originate or various building etc that you may want to check out. Also if you wanted to make quests so that you can't go to a web site for the the walkthrough. The library is the perfect place to have character triggered events ( IE scrawl in a book , article in a magazine) pop up so that a quest may have different starting spots for various players.It also lends itself to long quests , searching for libraries to find the next part of book or article leading to something bigger.

Tech - be it a chiltons manual , a book on chemistry etc. Libraries are great spots to find a lot of information dealing with tech. They are a great way to introduce new tech into the world, or to help track down old tech in some remote place.Finding the old New York library.. wow.. imagine the amount of tech, lore, and content that could be generated from such a find.

Now you may ask " how do you get all those stories and such on a budget?" Well....

Make your content development tool for it so easy your average computer literate author/writer type can use it and include it with the game a lot like the map editors and such that come with some current games. Even could have it as a straight download, with the content submission built into it.

Then hire a team of authors to write quests for your game.. could even set it up so authors could do a contract type setup... authors between books, money's low.. they do a one time submit of a quest/book/content and get paid for it..like contract work. Run a serious competition for it where the top 100 get to have their additions in game, with prizes for 1,2,3 spots. Set it up as a intern trial before full hiring.. etc

It'd have to all be sorted and made sure the content worked for the world.. which is what a good whitepaper and such is for. It'd be alot of work to setup, but once setup and the glitches taken out.. I think its more then feasible.

You see tons of stories, character backgrounds, even player run and driven questing/plot/story groups back in the EQ days. The creative powers and imaginations of these players varies, but I've seen some stuff out there related to games that is easily on par ( or even better) then what was developed for the game by the devs. Why not tap that resource and passion..?

And lastly you have your local high schools and colleges. See if you can swing a deal with the local creative writing teacher and the school. Lots of stories , probably cheap to boot if it can be done.

The point of all this just isn't libraries, its making the world a immersive and living place. Its taking the overlooked and often ignored fluff and making it value added content.

Take your basic tree in almost every MMO out there.. while a tree is content within the world, it has little meaning to the player. Its not a resource that can be used, you can't chop it down, plant new ones, hang a hammock from it, or heck.. even climb the dang things to ambush out of. The library is just one full example of how doing stuff like this could be done, and done with the current tech and resources out there.

Stowaway · October 2005

it would be nice to learn about the past and 'the fall' through books or datachips around the place.

maybe having clues to technologys etc.

thats what i would really want from a game.

dont give it to me on a plate, i dont want to know everything is already written in a guide somewhere and i can just go read it and you go here go here kill this get that and then you can get X Y or Z.

I want to have to work stuff out, Clue us and lead us on, draw us in and intrigue us and let us do a little bit of work.

Blackmoor · October 2005

Who said anything about it being easy I admit i didn't emphasize that part enough and it sort of comes across as a one stop shopping place.

I would love to see it so that it isn't something you can just look up on some web guide and do. Hence the player keyed quests, you could have full group go there and all of them end up with different clues, most likely not the clue they were looking for, but hopefully something worth checking out.

Have the quests be more of a scavenger hunt type deal where you get a general idea of where to look for the next part or clue but not be led there. Places like the New York Library be raid areas you need to hit once for a part of the puzzle. The same with hidden research facilities or government facilities.

Take the chiltons manual , its a part of the puzzle to build a certain kind of car. It tells you how to put it together but not the sizes of the components, or the materials in them , or how to make the components.

Guessing the society in FE will be pretty feudal. With masters apprentices and journeymen for making the various items used. The secrets of how to do things will most likely be kept close to the vest handed out very rarely if at all.

As an example of how difficult it can be to find something much less know how to make it. Try and track down how to make a watch on the web. Then think about that information being spread all over the world in not that easy to get to locations a lot of the time. Then think about tying to make it , getting the materials , making the tools to make it , and finally making the watch. It just gets more complicated from there as the tech gets more complicated finding the information needed.

Now that i am off track I am just going to say i don't want tradeskills to be some horribly tedious task. But i also don't want them to be something easily done with the high tech stuff just by backwards engineering something or by finding a blueprint somewhere. Think more of exploring and finding new things much like what was done in the past. It took a while for things to become commonplace. There were no used car lots as soon as the car was invented

Stowaway · October 2005

i didnt mean you were saying it was easy, i mean i hope that the game doesnt give us an easy ride. agreeing with you i think.

i also posted somewhere on scavenging and dump sites and stuff here, that'd be really fun. sort of like 'fishing' in other games but a bit more advanced and interesting i hope.

ordeith · October 2005

I like the idea... I can picture myself in a worn down library reading about post-fall technologies to perhaps figure out a way to understand a piece of technology found in an old bunker.

Anarchy Online had somewhat a simmilar idea when crafting different items, there were books you could buy that revealed what parts you needed and in which order they should be added, but it would be fun to be forced to actively search for the information.

Edgtho · November 2005

I like the idea of having lots of literature in the game. Morrowind is one of my all-time favorite games because it had such a rich and developed background - you'd find books ranging from simple journals and the diaries of NPC's - written with a surprising level of detail and sincerity - to books that related to key plot elements.

The best part, though, was how everything was spread out. You'd find hidden gems in dark places, protected by evil creatures, but you'd also find them out in the most obscure places at the end of the world where no one would bother to look. I hope to see something similar in FE.

I do think that having dedicated fans write material for the game (to be proofed by the developers obviously, to make sure that it is canonical) is a great idea. Writing is one of the few arts that is completely a matter of the passion of the individual, and those most passionate about the game will probably be posting on this or other boards in the future.

Hardware-DC · November 2005

One fun thing about the FallOut series is all the easter-eggs you find throughout the game. Famous people encountered, or movies lines being said etc. Having things liek that as well in places of knowledge would be a lot of fun and bring some humor and current event fun to the game as well.

Atheraal · November 2005

Hehe, remember the whale and flower pot? Good god, I played Fallout 2 like a religeon.

Hardware-DC · November 2005

HAHAHAHA

FallOut FTW!

Atheraal · November 2005

IIRC, It's Fallout, not FallOut. I believe fallout means the resulting radioactive "dust" that falls after a nuclear explosion.

Hardware-DC · November 2005

Alrighty then

Atheraal · November 2005

Heh, remember the Holy hand grenage bit? I met those guys late enough in the game once that I was able to kill them all. ::::40::

I would love to see a tattered book in some ruined library in FE telling vaguely of the stories and legends of Fallout.

Hardware-DC · November 2005

You mean Grenade. www.dictionary.com doesn't list a word for Grenage.

/zing and a touche'

Atheraal · November 2005

Heh. Touch

Hardware-DC · November 2005

But in response to your comment, it woul dbe pretty neat for something liek that. I would imagine the copyright or something would prevent that from happening.

Perhapse if they went so far back as to the Wasteland or Fountian of Dreams games. For those of you a ittle older, you will remember how LEET those games were back in the day.

www.durmanhoth-clan.com/apocalypse Under Public gaming discussion, click the wasteland link and revisit some old memories or those of you younger, see how a real game was made back int he 80's!

Atheraal · November 2005

Ah, EGA gaming. Those were the days. Can't say I've played or heard much about FoD though. What's it like?

Hardware-DC · November 2005

FoD was pretty much Wasteland 2, just wasn't AS GOOD at the origonal. I still enjoyed it though.

Killer Clowns......and they wonder why some people are phobic about them!

Slagathor · November 2005

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Hardware.

I found an abandonware site and downloaded Wasteland. What a great way to get my post apoc fix in while waiting for FE. Now if I could only find Autoduel....

Hardware-DC · November 2005

You got me on the auto duel one, I don't remember that. I will have to look around.....

Slagathor · November 2005

Made by Origins if memory serves. It was a computer adaptation of Steve Jackson's Car Wars PnP game. I played it on my C64 back in the early 80's.

Hardware-DC · November 2005

Wow man, did you say C64........out loud? heh

Slagathor · November 2005

What else am I supposed to call it? Commodore 64 in all its glory. a cassette tape drive (upgraded to a 5 1/4" floppy drive) and hooked up to the antenna input wires of an 11" color tv. I don't like to brag, but I *had* that kind of money to throw around back then...

drycat · November 2005

Wastelands was made by Interplay if you are talking about the game that spurred the classic Fallout series. Wastelands was lead by Brian Fargo, truly a man ahead of his time. He also had a brief stint with Interplay as well.

So anyway, that is the game that started us down the road to post-apocolyptic glory, if you will

Stedfast · November 2005

Ahh, yes Interplay and Fallout, too bad about their demise. Since Fallout 3 and future has been bought out by others it just won't be the same. Here's hoping that Fallen Earth will pick up on where Fallout left off (actually Fallout 2).

Hardware-DC · November 2005

Originally posted by Slagathor
What else am I supposed to call it? Commodore 64 in all its glory. a cassette tape drive (upgraded to a 5 1/4" floppy drive) and hooked up to the antenna input wires of an 11" color tv. I don't like to brag, but I *had* that kind of money to throw around back then...

Wow, that is going WAY back.

ordeith · November 2005

64? bah! I had a c128DD with the internal 5,25" floppydrive! *boasts*

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Libraries, stories, and world background

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