Story-driven PBBG

[Jackolantern]

I was tossing around this idea today. I am surprised why more PBBGs are not heavily story-based. Traditional graphic-based MMORPGs really wanted to be in the beginning, with FFXI probably going the furthest with it by having story-based Missions. But the issue with all of those types of attempts is that it always felt hollow. You are being told by an NPC that you have to save the princess/city/world, but then everyone else in your group is standing in line to see what you know is the same cutscene where they are being told they have to save the world lol.

But PBBGs don't have that problem. You as the developer are strongly in control of what the players see and when, and players really don't expect constant, live interactions with other players. The text-based slant of PBBGs would also work well for this. What I am envisioning would essentially be an open-world game where the player can do the normal PBBG things, but there is a large quest chain that runs all through the game that constitutes the "main story". Updates could further the main story arc as time goes on, and it could even be tailored to what is happening in the player community, such as major item finds, large boss kills, etc.

Since PBBGs are already typically a mix of multiplayer interaction and single-player play segregated from other players, I think this would play to the strengths of the genre.

[hallsofvallhalla]

I love the idea and would love to see it. Problem is there is a fine line between a wall of text and a quick boring story. At least to me. I hate a long wall of text that does not intrigue me yet I also hate a quick one liner that is mundane.

[Jackolantern]

Yeah, it would have to be balanced out. For the game's main story, sprinkling extra illustrations around would help, too (and also give the feeling more that this quest is special). I think exactly how much is on each page would have to be adjusted per-game, but if you really needed a wall of text to move the story along, you could split it up with some interaction in between to make it not feel like you are hitting the player over the head with a book chapter lol.

[Callan S.]

I think I'd have to be so issolated from other players to not notice others are doing the same story, that it'd cease to be a multiplayer game.

It'd be interesting to use the power of a computer to generate individualised quests which contribute to events in the story much like a voting system, leading to different results. If the story can go two ways, players get two individualised quests and can choose which one they do, which affects which way the story goes.

[Xaos]

I worked on one in the past where the game revolved around a story that the community made. Initially it was a role play forum and then we introduced a game that allowed us to actually monitor our stats not just what we said our stats were, then we made monster battles so you would actually die so the game gave the restrictions to the RP, but we used the RP as the basis for the story for the game. We noticed that two couples in the community RPed a marriage, so we created a wedding zone, and items that went with it. It was probably the most fun I've had as a game maker. You would hear of the community stating a rogue group of some sort that did something to there family and that was why they were on their mission. So we created a mob that was actually responsible for destroying their town.

I think this is where I would like my game to head back too although I'm not really sure how, but it sounds something like what your envisioning i don't know maybe it's just me.

Yeah, I'd think it would HAVE to be something like this to work. There'd have to be some roleplay involved and a general community amongst every player, otherwise I think it'd be too complicated and extremely hard to implement if you wanted to do a full story MMO type pbbg. Now if its just a single player with outside influence (IE you get a partner for a quest), I think it would work. Take MapleStory for example. They're more of a single player game, with outside influence available to help you kill monsters and trade and whatnot. But it still feels like a single player, even though there's not one true story.

[Jackolantern]

Now if its just a single player with outside influence (IE you get a partner for a quest), I think it would work. Take MapleStory for example. They're more of a single player game, with outside influence available to help you kill monsters and trade and whatnot. But it still feels like a single player, even though there's not one true story.

That is pretty much what I was thinking, since 99% of PBBGs already work that way. Full-on multiplayer requires real-time coding, and most people just don't have that in their games right now (even though node is making it more accessible). What I was thinking of is if instead of walking around a map alone and solo killing mobs or solo'ing simple quests (the main activities of most PBBGs), there could be a main story arc pushing the players forward and hopefully keeping them more invested.

[Callan S.]

So sort of small scale multiplayer - like a group of four players or even just two?

Works for the Borderlands 2 FPS, I'd totally grant!

[Jackolantern]

It could be large-scale multiplayer as well. Some text-based PHP PBBGs have hundreds of thousands of players.

I guess I forgot to mention that, that this is more aimed at fairly simple text-based PHP PBBGs, not ones that use dynamic maps that represent the players moving around. The player mostly acts alone outside of possible chat and item trading.

[Xaos]

It really sounds interesting. I'd be willing to help out a bit too in terms of story and whatnot if you needed any of that. I'd give it a try for sure, in terms of the game.

[a_bertrand]

For NEaB (Nowhere Else and Beyond), I took the following approach:
- The game is a RPG based on stories and missions (either staff created, random generated, or written by other players).
- Players can interact in many different ways, yet quests are mainly single players.

Does that work? Yes perfectly. I actually wonder how you could have full multi-player stories where the story goes on and new players just see half or even less of it.