Multiplayer Interactive-Fiction Game-Design Blog

Theme in virtual worlds

6 April 2005

by Mike Rozak

Stories typically have a "theme", such as "If you work hard you'll succeed," "Don't accept apples from strangers," or "Never trust a man that sells you magic beans." Personally, I like themes. The MMORPGs and MUDs I've played don't seem to contain any theme other than, "Kill enough monsters and you'll grow up to kill even stronger monsters."

How does one add theme to a virtual world?

The problem

If I wanted to add a theme to a story, I'd do the following:

1. 
   Have the protagonist (or secondary characters) make decisions and act upon them.
   
2. 
   The results of the actions would be adjusted to agree with the theme.
   
   1. 
      If the character chose well, something positive would happen to the character or his friends/family.
      
   2. 
      A poor choice would produce the opposite result.
      

Another example: I can imagine a book in which the protagonist changes religions, such as from Christianity to Hinduism. If the theme of the story were "Stay true to your roots," such a change might result in ostricization from the character's family, friends, and society. If the theme were "Follow your heart," bad things would happen to the character until he followed his heart and changed religions.

In a virtual world, the author can give a player the option of taking revenge, or of changing religion, but the author can't control the outcome very well. For example:

1. 
   The author can't cause anything bad/good to happen to the player's NPC friends or family.... Not only does the PC not have any NPC friends or family, but if he did, he wouldn't really care what happened to them. Even if the player did care, the plot device would only work once.
   
2. 
   There can't be any significant world-changing consequences because, due to the nature of virtual worlds being shared by thousands of players, the world can't be significantly affected by any single player. A single-player game could have consequences, but not a player-vs-environment virtual world.
   
3. 
   The author can't guarantee that a bad choice will lead to bad consequences. The choice can lead to negative probabilities, but then players will (rightly) whinge that they've been given a choice between two options, and one option is inevitably inferior. (See Choice.)
   
4. 
   In a player-vs-player or player-with-player world, a player's choices could have all sorts of interesting (and relevant) effects on other players. Unfortunately for the theme, its up to the other players to decide how to respond. The author has no input, so any attempt at the author's version of theme is tossed out the window. (One of the reasons that players like PvP worlds is that their actions have consequences.)
   

While virtual worlds are horrible at tying specific results to actions, they're great at algorithmically calculated results, and very good at having choices change the "physics" that the player character experiences.

In the Moby Dick example, the author can't guarantee the loss of life, ship, and crew, but the author can design the world's "physics" such that:

1. 
   The PC needs collect so much whale oil or he won't be hired as captain again.
   
2. 
   Moby Dick is a nasty whale that has a good chance of destroying the ship, along with the PC and crew.
   
3. 
   The PC gets a non-monetary reward (XP?) for killing Moby Dick. XP may not be necessary as a motivation, since the satisfaction of getting revenge might be player driven, not PC driven. However, if the author specifically designs in the choice, "Kill Moby Dick or make money," then both choices must have, on balance, equally good/bad outcomes. Since killing Moby Dick is more dangerous than killing lots of smaller whales for their oil, killing Moby Dick must provide some additional reward. It can't be money though, since choosing to collect whale oil returns a monetary reward.
   

Alternatively, in the religion scenario:

1. 
   Different NPCs may be friendlier towards PCs of one religion or the other. Choosing the change religions means that NPCs that used to like the PC may not, but other NPCs may suddenly like the PC. It's up to the player to decide how to deal with the change.
   
2. 
   PCs following the Christian religion may have different restrictions and abilities than those of the Hindu religion.
   

I chose the change-religion theme because it's very similar to the choices a player makes about his character's race, class, armaments, etc. In a virtual world, many important choices don't lead to positive or negative consequences for the player. Instead, they result in changes to the "physics" under which the player's character operates. A fighter can wear armour and wield large weapons, while a magic user must forgo weapons and armour, but can cast spells. The fighter and wizards exist under different physics regimes. A fighter attacking with a sword experiences slightly different physics than one attacking with a mace since a sword works better against plate armour, while a mace is more effective against chainmail.

An author can impose a theme on the virtual world by controlling the specific consequences that result from the player's choice. The consequences must balance out, or it won't be a valid choice. (Obviously-idiotic choices excepted.) (See Choice.)

A world that wishes to make a point about religions would allow the player to select a religion, and make the difference between religions severe. For example:

1. 
   NPCs are more or less friendly to PCs based on the PC's religion.
   
2. 
   PCs have dietary restrictions based on religion, that pose minor but frequent problems.
   
3. 
   PCs have religious duties, such as attending Church or praying toward Mecca five times daily. Can PCs do anything but worship on their holy days?
   
4. 
   How does a PC's religion affect the character's resurrection after being killed?
   
5. 
   How does a PC's religion affect their conduct in the world? In combat? In economics? (In medieval Europe, Christians weren't allowed to charge interest, but Jews were, which is why they became bankers.)
   
6. 
   What special abilities does a PC get from his religion?
   
7. 
   Etc.
   

1. 
   Contemporary virtual worlds rarely make the consequences of a choice severe enough to make them noticeable. For example: Classes are watered down so they're similar. Even if fighters aren't allowed to cast magic, so many magic items are handed out that it makes little difference. Magic users are archers who shoot fireballs instead of arrows. Etc. Ultimately, one class is pretty much interchangeable with another. Races are even more identical, and only vary in their appearance.
   
2. 
   Contemporary virtual worlds tend to use the same consequences as one another. Fighters in world A have similar advantages and disadvantages to fighters in world B. The same with magic users, clerics, etc.

   A thematic world might model fighters after medieval knights, and only allow them to initiate an attack against other knights or heathens, and require that they rescue all damsels in distress. A thief (or brigand) could attack anyone, but wouldn't have the weapon training, and would be disliked everywhere. A different thematic world might model fighters after Samurai, or Massai warriors, including their skills and belief systems.

   
   

This brings up another point. MMORPGs err on the side of fantasy and "low impact"; MMORPGs give players the experience that the players expect, and don't try to add any surprises. They don't want players whinging that their magic user can't attack a monster using a sword, or that their fighter can't use magic. Consequently, and over the decades, they water down the restrictions until there is very little difference in the choices that players make, and very little possibility for "theme". The world loses its "flavour" and becomes like McDonalds' "Spicy Chicken Burger", which isn't at all spicy.

My preference is to err on the side of reality, or at least "flavour". A fighter should be a very different experience from a magic user, cleric, or thief. Being a dwarf should be very different than being an elf, human, or halfling.

As long as reality is not too onerous, some doses of reality should be thrown into the experience. If a player wishes to own an inn, fine. However, make them maintain a store room full of goods, hire NPC employees, deal with repairs after bar fights, attract patrons, etc. Or, if the player chooses a religion, they must experience some of the sacrifices that come with the religion. Adding a bit of unexpected reality turns the game into a learning and thinking experience, which is what a theme is all about. Without a theme, the experience is just empty, tasteless calories, a kind of "McWorld".

"Good-for-them" desires

In Virtual world equation, I talked about virtual worlds fulfilling players' desires. Some desires are conscious and some sub-conscious. I also brought up the point that some desires might not be known to the player, but might be "good" for them. One example is Richard Bartle's "Hero's journey", where players use the anonymity in virtual worlds to experiment with different roles and determine who they really are.

Stories frequently embed "good-for-you healthy bits" in their sugary entertainment. For example, if you read Moby Dick, you're going to learn a lot about the whaling industry of the 1800's, whether or not you wanted to. Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" is a social documentary about immigration and poverty. Even a medieval fantasy novel will contain some truths about the middle ages.

Virtual worlds can also include "good-for-you healthy bits"... They can encourage players to:

• 
  Try something different, such different personalities.
  
• 
  Meet different people.
  
• 
  Learn through experience, such as how to be an innkeeper or how to speak Japanese to Japanese players.
  
• 
  Experience a different social role, such as my example with players choosing from different religions.
  
• 
  Understand the ramifications of their actions; I was recently playing WoW, killing bears for some random quest. One of the items the bears would occasionally drop would be "Bear gall bladders". The loot made me think about all the endangered real-life bears that are killed (or bred) in South-east Asia just for their gall bladders. I didn't like killing the virtual bears after that. Unfortunately, the designers weren't thinking about that issue and missed a great opportunity to promote thought and reflection.
  
• 
  Etc.