The really big VW problems

The really big VW problems

19 September 2004

by Mike Rozak

I have read many a discussion on various newsgroups about issues in virtual worlds, such as class-based systems vs. skill-based systems, the best combat system, and what to do about spawning problems.

For whatever reason, most of the discussed problems don't impress me. From my POV, virtual worlds have a handful of large problems that dwarf the classed vs. classless (and ilk) discussions. These large problems are so huge that they may be unsolvable, or only solvable to the exclusion of other solutions.

Following are the major problems with virtual worlds, as I see them (in no particular order):

• 
  Sensory realism - Of course, looking at a 15" computer monitor with a pair of speakers is significantly inferior to real-life's sensory realism. True sensory realism requires many technologies to come together: At a minimum, a future VW experience should include much better 3D modelling, rendering, and animation that can currently be achieved, along with better sound. Add to this haptics, motion, smell, taste, etc.; humans have quite a few senses that need fooling.
  
• 
  User input - Player characters are controlled using a combination of mice, joysticks, and keyboards. Ultimately, user input needs to include speech recognition, face recognition (for emotions), gesture recognition, data gloves/suits, stress measurement, and maybe even mind reading.
  
• 
  Players - A world filled with other players has many advantages, which I won't bother to list. There are disadvantages though, the worst of which are cheaters and griefers. Further down the list are players getting in each others way as they play in the world, and players ruining each others immersion. Unfortunately, the solution to the problems produced by multiplayer environments is not to make a single player game, since that throws out the advantages of having multiple players.
  
• 
  NPC AI - Current NPCs are plain stupid. Those that fight are programmed with inferior combat tactics (probably so they're not too challenging), and as for their conversation skills, don't even try to start a conversation with a NPC. Most contemporary MMORPGs don't view NPCs as important, since they have so many players running around. I feel differently, that NPCs are necessary because their motivations can be controlled by the author; players can be coerced, but never controlled. Plus, as a player, I don't mind doing something nasty to a NPC because I know there isn't a real person on the other side.
  
• 
  Plot maintenance - Stories have a neat property called a "plot", wherein just about every element in a story "advances" the plot and leads towards the final conclusion. If part of the narrative fails to advance the plot, the author usually removes it. For some reason, people find plots satisfying, which is why stories use plots. Current virtual worlds do not bother with plots, however, because any plot the author designs will be instantly derailed by introducing a few (let alone several thousand) players into the world, even if they don't intend to derail the plot. The ultimate solution, I suspect, is to have AI (or real people) maintaining a semblance of plot in the background.
  
• 
  Personalization of content - The virtual world should know what the player likes and customise itself to the player's likes. This doesn't mean guaranteeing that the player will win, even if the player thinks they would like such a guarantee, because such certainty produces a world that the player won't like. Contemporary virtual worlds have limited content personalization, allowing player characters to wander to parts of the world that the player wishes. Furthermore, authors spend lots of thought and data collection figuring out what players (as a group) like to do. They do not, however, try to learn what activities an individual likes.
  
• 
  The static nature of the world - Contemporary virtual worlds are largely static. Some authors try to solve this (such as Asheron's Call) but haven't really succeeded.
  
• 
  Perplexity (physics) - In traditional VW lingo, the "physics" of the world controls what kind of actions a player character can take, and ultimately controls how complex this action can be. Speech recognition researchers used a term that worked better than "physics": "Perplexity" (in speech recognition terms) is a numerical representation of the amount of branching in the context-free grammar used for recognition. In plain English, if a speech recogniser knows that after hearing word X it will only hear words Y or Z, then the system has low perplexity. However, if after hearing word X the speech recogniser needs to listen for 5000 different words, the perplexity is high.

  Virtual worlds do not allow for enough "perplexity"; they don't provide players with enough choices. In most MMORPGs a player can only talk to an NPC or attack it. What if the player wishes to wave at the NPC? Examine it? Spit at it? Give it a present? Play chess with it? Etc. They can't. Ultimately, perplexity is limited by the user input modalities.

  
  
• 
  Cost of content generation - Virtual worlds cost too much money to create. Costs will only climb higher as money is invested to solve some of the other problems listed here.
  
• 
  A virtual world must be similar to reality - Most television shows (sitcoms, cops, dramas, hospital shows) and movies are based on near-reality; they take place in the real world, but with a few modifications. A few more occur in the near past or future (historical dramas). Even fewer take place in a fantasy setting. None occur in 4.52 dimensional space. Virtual worlds have the same problems... most people's imaginations are limited to the reality we know.
  
• 
  The network - The Internet is slow, expensive, unreliable, and has a high latency. These problems will only become more pronounced as sensoral reality and user input are improved.
  

How MMORPGs try to solve these problems

And you thought I was only discussing about virtual worlds... Single-player CRPGs and adventure games have many of the same issues.

And you thought I was only talking about computer games? Traditional face-to-face RPGs (like Dungeons & Dragons) encounter these same problems.

And you thought I was only talking about games? TV shows, movies, and books have many of the same issues.

You thought I'd stick to reality?

The act of solving one of the major problems often causes the other problems to become more difficult... for example: Increasing sensory realism makes network speed and reliability that much more important, since players are likely to notice lag and dropouts.

A VW can't solve all the major problems since the act of solving some problems causes others to get worse. Most MMORPGs have decided that sensory realism is the most important problem, so they tackle that to the detriment of the other problems.