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I think experiences should be layered over the map and filled with things to discover or do, but these experiences should be accessible based on certain conditions, so that players would slowly uncover these experiences as they met those conditions. In a system like this, players would need to memorize hundreds of threads just to know everything that could happen to them. And even if they did memorize it would be pointless, because some of those things would likely never happen.

Furthermore, the unique experiences of each player triggered by individual threads should be designed to be so surprising, inspiring, or magical, that the player themselves would choose not to look anything up, for fear of ruining their experience.


Making Content Replayable

The idea here is that the game contains enough threads and scenarios so that no 2 play experiences will be the same, although those experiences may share similar components.

Once you reveal an NPC, sure you know that NPC exists, but you dont know everything about that NPC. One day, due to certain conditions, that NPC might reveal something to you that you never could have guessed which will add spice to that days adventure.

While you fight a particular monster, you may come across a mutation that occurs 1 in 1000 times which again, adds spice to what you are doing. The idea is that the game is constantly surprising you and leaving you scratching your head in wonder or challenging you with new experiences.

Experiencing Unique Threads

You could be having a conversation with a friend one day deep in a forest and one of you uses the /laugh emote, and suddenly an NPC pokes his head out of some tree stump to see what the commotion is. The NPC could then open up a whole range of actions.

The idea is to create many hundreds of threads that players can follow under certain conditions, so that they are encountering new threads of exploration at short intervals. Due to the conditions implied by some of these threads, such as perhaps being skill or time dependent, it would be very impractical for one player to experience every thread in the game in less than several years.
Furthermore, when you introduce other players into the mix, each player can further create other unique combinations that activate certain threads further adding to the magic of the game.

For example if you travel with your friend with lvl 50+ bard skill and happen to pass a minstrel sitting under a tree that heals stamina, that minstrel who normally seems rather boring, might suddenly spring up and request a duet with your friend the bard which not only heals stamina but now grants you an extra buff. Then, using the /dance emote (which you learned from a dance instructor) while they perform the duet , might cause the music tempo (and your dancing to increase), increasing the extra buff

An experience like this requires:

1. a friend in your party lvl 50+ Bard
2. lvl 5 dancing skill
3. passing by a minstrel

These are conditions which are not really uncommon to come across, but they add excitement and wonder.
It also changes patterns of gameplay. The next time you go to battle, you will call your bard friend and maybe your whole guild to come dance under the tree while your bard friends and the NPC minstrel perform a concert.

The idea is that these moments of wonder and excitement will be so precious to players, that they will treasure them and not desire to ruin any future experiences by googling every possible thread in the game.

Emotional Bonds with NPCS

This is the feeling I think an MMORPG should evoke.
Not a feeling of

"damn this quest is boring, but i really need that xp and gear i was promised by the random villager with the question mark"

but rather

"Samuel the Farmer who gave me 10 bottles of milk for free when i was dying, said he was attacked by bandits and lost something important and he's willing to impart with something precious if I get it back, i wonder what that precious thing is and I'd really like to help him since he was attacked and I'm really grateful for that free milk."

You know why MMOs usually avoid stuff like that? Because making such content requires a lot of time and then only 3 dudes will find it.

@ShubiMaja - I really like the feeling of your idea. I'd like NPCs to act differently on occasion, and to have random surprises. My concern with your suggestion is that it would be pretty time-consuming to implement and difficult to debug ( if nobody knows the special event is supposed to happen or what the conditions are for it, how can they make a bug report that the special event didn't happen?).

I do really like the concept of trying to make the NPCs more real, and the world more dynamic. I'm just not sure of a good/easy way to go about doing it. I'm trying to think... I think one of my favorite events in PG was the winter holiday when my NPC friends gave me presents. I still carry Yogzi's knife around now and think of him happily every time I use it. And I still smile at Gretchen's awesome present that obviously came right from her heart. Anyway, my point is that events like that work pretty well for me to make me feel more attached to the NPCs. So, maybe rather than having a hidden trigger somewhere, having announced events of the NPCs doing something special for a limited time may work better, so that players will actually get a chance to enjoy the interaction rather than missing it by accident?

Hidden triggers are fun, too, it's just that I think they are too easy to miss especially if they are very complicated and have multiple conditions. Which yes, may be the point, but then eventually people put all the triggers on the Wiki, and it becomes a boring checklist to go through to experience all the content...
( PG does have a few mini hidden triggers right now - I thought the rabbit hangout with Rick Snapley was awesome. :) C'mon, Rick, how did you think I was going to grip the knife? )

Anyway, just rambling.

It is difficult, but that doesn't mean it's not the target that they should strive for.

Perfection is a goal, even if it's impossible.

One thing I'd really like is more control over 'backscroll'. It would be great to be able to - maybe in another tab - to see the conversations and transactions you've had with an NPC. One thing which reduces player engagement is that once you've done a quest, the game basically forgets that you've done it. Or it remembers, but the player - who interacts with dozens of NPCs - forgets because that part of the story was months ago.

Anything to make the game feel rich and like what you've done, exists, and creates a story.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Crissa

One thing I'd really like is more control over 'backscroll'. It would be great to be able to - maybe in another tab - to see the conversations and transactions you've had with an NPC. One thing which reduces player engagement is that once you've done a quest, the game basically forgets that you've done it. Or it remembers, but the player - who interacts with dozens of NPCs - forgets because that part of the story was months ago.

Anything to make the game feel rich and like what you've done, exists, and creates a story.

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Ooh, yes. Having a record of previous quests, hangouts and small talk would be great. ( I guess you could just repeat the small talk to see it again, but I would actually like to have some kind of NPC history log that I could use to look up an NPC at any time without necessarily being near the NPC. )

Yeah. The flags (that you've seen content) and the content are there, all we'd need is some sort of UI that organized it.

I really do like features like this, since I don't play every day. Or even every week.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Crissa

I really do like features like this, since I don't play every day. Or even every week.

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Yes, definitely. I have also managed to speed click through an important one-time conversation a few times by accident and missed out on what the NPC actually said. I'd love to be able to backscroll in those cases.