One of the things that is, usually, enjoyable in a good book or movie is the interaction that occurs between the characters. The dialogue, when witty or poignant, can be quite provocative and memorable. Take a film like Snatch, for instance, or Boondock Saints. While many people might not have enjoyed the content of these films, they had some really hilarious and enoyable dialogues.
Another thing you might notice is that people, even in books and film, tend to go to sleep, wake up, and do crap during the day, and then rinse and repeat. And while this is a bit of a generalization, I feel that it is true of almost every inhabitant of the fantastical worlds we watch and read about. Unless everyone is a zombie in the book you're reading, or an insomniac, there tends to be some semblance of life as we might see it in the real world.
"What's the point?", you may be asking. Well, look at the mmorpgs you've played lately. How many of the npcs, or players, take time to sleep, go to the bathroom (in game), or eat meals (again, in game). Uhhh, none? With all of the advances that have been made concerning scripting in raids and such, why are the npcs so static and unbelievable? Well, most likely it is because developers fear that if a banker npc decided to call it for the day and go home, the players would have a fit. And while I can conjure up some semblance of sympathy I must acknowledge that the virtual world would be richened by a properly implemented ai for npcs.
If shops closed for the night, and people went home to spend time with their families you would suddenly have a real community, with families, and that would mean they would have needs too. And imagine if these npcs could carry on conversations with each other, and players. They might talk about what they did the day before, what they'll be doing tomorrow, the latest events in the town/city/village/whatever, about their families, about politics, religion, or about making a deal. And if the world around them was never exactly the same as the day before then what they would have to say would always change.
And given the change in seasons, in weather, and other changes everything would be able to change over time. And this would make the world much more believable, because a static world is boring and predictable. This predictability is great if you eat McDonald's everyday, some of us like to see things change in the world we live, whether things get better or worse, we know that they will continue to change.
Now let's consider a family unit: father, mother, son, dog. They live in a city. The father is a banker, his wife is a magician who teaches at the local academy of magic arts, their son has shown some promise in the field of magic and is attending the academy. Every morning they get up and eat breakfast together. Then the father heads to the bank, and his wife and son to the academy. The wife might serve as a teacher for players in the academy, while her son would, of course, learn new spells. Everyone would age over time.
In the evening they would all leave their places of learning and work and head home. They might eat dinner, and then spend time together, or head to the entertainment district (assuming it isn't too seedy of a place). The son would be anxious to show his father some of the new spells he'd learn. They would all talk out loud, and if you were in the room with them you'd hear each other their voices.
Now let's imagine the father was offered a bribe to look the other way during a robbery that will happen in a few days. He refused the bribe, but was afraid to tell the police because he didn't want his family to be involved. So the person who attempted the bribe hires an assasin to kill the father, which the assassin is able to accomplish.
Now the assassin would need to be hunted down, and of course law enforcement would need to try to figure out who had done it, and no stupid game mechanics would tell people the name of the player, or npc, who had done it. The wife of the banker would be able to use magic to help identify the assassin, or perhaps to locate him. And players or npcs could be hired to hunt him.
Oh, that brings up another point. The cycle of birth and life and death would also need to be part of a virtual world as well. And, personally I think permanent death is worth a shot, but not with any current games. But that's another blog for another day.
Two Worlds did a much simpler version of this, and well it didn't really change the game at all because it sucked.
Sun Mar 01 2009 6:25PM ReportMMORPG.com writes:
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