Narrative story

[merlekitty]

I wonder if it's plausible to have a narrative story in a video game without having a main character - or more accurately, the main character is you. In most games, there is a defined main character and an antagonist that drives the main character's progression through the story

Comments

[stormfeather]

I think it's possible, and even in some ways has already happened - look at games like Final Fantasy XII. Supposedly Vaan was the main character, but if he weren't declared such, and there were just a little more jumping-around between characters at certain points when they're not all together, you could pretty easily make arguments for Balthier, Ashe, or even Bosch being the main characters. Really the only ones that don't have a main character vibe are Fran (since she acts more as a sidekick to Balthier, albeit a very capable one), or Panelo, who mostly seems to just be along because of Vaan

[merlekitty]

Hmm, but all these instances are still "single player" with multiple characters within the framework driving this player forward... may the player represent another character or multiple characters. I'm curious in the framework of a multiplayer game where many people all interact in the same world. Can they all be main characters?

[boxie]

The downside to having a world where a single user can change the world is the fact that a player late to the game could be totally lost as to what's going on. And one "griefer" could ruin it for everyone else

[merlekitty]

What if griefing were an accepted action? What if the morality of your character affects the way the world reacts to you in fact, NPCs often griefed each other in this dynamically changing world? You could have entire factions, such as goblins, ritually waging war on human villages and they would pop up and boundaries would move based on this dynamic. The stronger villages survive, the weaker ones die.

Then your griefing is seen in a different light. You want to come in and kill a bunch of villagers, the city constable now considers you a threat so you now have a bounty on your head. If you die, you might respawn in the middle of a town you bound to - but now everyone tries to kill you on sight to collect that bounty. You'd have to flee to evil towns where they won't attack you on sight... but if you're unlucky, you might find half your possessions missing because someone pick-pocketed you.

With a dynamic system like that, would it be possible to have a narrative? Sorry for picking your brain, you'll get full credit for it, I

[boxie]

Griefing if confined to a certain set of limits could be an effective form of the narrative. Its a matter of how much is acceptable within the confines of the story, and can you bring them back in a believable manner

[boxie]

So narrative, quite possible. You would be limited to a certain amount of how much story is told, and you would probably have to have a patch system or quick expansion system to roll out the next part of the story. Maybe have a certain time frame to allow players to help decide the next part of the story

[boxie]

Something I was thinking about to increase the success of your game is how do you introduce it the masses. Watching games come and go lately, it seems you need to introduce the world first so you have a waiting audience

[merlekitty]

Well, the odd thing about this one is that I'm building it to cater to me. I noticed when I started coding, I lose steam because usually I'm trying to hard to build something I think other people would want. Recent conversation with my friends through skype while we play games lead me to start forming a basis of what they like to play. Through that, I was able to see what I wanted in a game, with a lot of "Wouldn't it be cool if..." moments.

So then I figured, hey, why do I keep asking that, why don't I just make that? :)

So right now, I'm working on old-school LAN type game framework. I don't expect more than a group of say 8 people... think of a night of D&D back in the day. Just a group of friends, joining an unknown world, banding together to play a game... but this time, there'll be a digital "DM" that sculpts the world to the players :)

[boxie]

Ah, ok, so that is a bit smaller scale than I thought from our previous conversation. I was just worried that you had something really big in mind... the kind of thing that would take teams of programmers thousands of man hours to push out.

[merlekitty]

Nah, I thought about it and even in the MMORPG "world", how frequently do you really interact with other people? You see thousands of them running around, occasionally you talk to them about random stuff, you buy stuff in auction from them... but you really only "play" with a smaller core group.

So I figured one could replicate that experience replacing the thousands running around with NPCs and your "core group" being you and your friends. As long as the world is dynamic and moldable to each person to seem like they're in a "real world" situation, to the player it should be no different.

[kisai]

The only MMO I've played that does this is Mabinogi. Basically there are "cut scene's" that are trigged during "mainstream" quests that allow you to enjoy the game much like a single player game. The cut scenes even reflect your current clothing and equipped weapons