Fractured reality

Fractured reality

13 September 2005

I've mentioned fractured reality before, but I thought I'd put all my current thoughts in one place...

The problem with a monolithic reality

In the real world, we assume (rightly or wrongly) that there is one reality that we all live in. If our individual perceptions of reality are different, it's because we are misperceiving reality, not that reality is different for each of us.

A monolithic reality doesn't work well for virtual worlds (in my opinion). The problem was noticed from the very beginning of text MUDs, since in a monolithic reality, if one player changes the world, it remains changed for all players. This means that if a player kills the the evil overlord, then for all players thereafter the evil overlord is dead, which is a bit of a bummer for all the other players who wanted their chance at defeating the evil overlord.

Some workable solutions exist:

Re-boot the entire world every night - Thus, the evil overlord can be killed once a day.
Periodically re-boot sections of the world, usually on demand - The evil overlord is magically reborn when someone begins the quest to kill the evil overlord.
Periodically respawn and reset small areas - Players can kill the evil overlord, but he is resurrected in ten minutes. As long as a player isn't in the area when he respawns, the player can pretend that they actually killed him.
Spatial separation - Once the player has slain the evil overlord, they pass through a door and can never return to the lands once ruled by the overlord. That way, players can continue to believe the overlord is dead since they never hear anything to the contrary. Unfortunately, segregating the world in such a way makes it difficult for players to meet up with their friends, who haven't yet slain the evil overlord.
Don't have NPCs and other fixed content - Most of the problems associated with monolithic reality in a virtual world exist because the same NPC, traps, or other content keeps getting respawned so the developer's investment in the content isn't wasted. If the developer never invests in content, he doesn't care if it isn't respawned, and fractured-reality is a non-issue.

Fractures in reality

Some solutions exist that "fracture" reality, creating a different reality for every player.

Custom generated content - Every player has his own evil overlord created when the player's character is created. Each evil overlord is visible to the other players (if the other players look through the immensely huge world for him), but can only be killed by the player for whom he was created. The approach doesn't work well with evil overlords, but is great for NPCs whose cat needs rescuing.
Instancing - When the player enters the evil overlord's castle, a private instance is created that only the player and his friends can access. When the evil overlord is killed, or the players leave for more than 10 minutes, the instance is deleted.
Delusional - An evil overlord is created for each player. When the player kills the evil overlord, the player character's perception of the world is as if the overlord were killed. The world descriptions to other players (who have not killed the evil overlord), still mention the evil overlord. This approach gets highly confusing, since two players could be in the same room, one seeing the evil overlord and the other an empty throne.
Layered maps - Players that walk into the evil overlord's castle can be sent to one of two places: If they haven't yet killed the evil overlord, they are sent to a version where the overlord still lives. If they have killed the overlord, they get sent to a different version.
Private worlds - Each player has his own private version of the entire world where adventuring is done. However, whenever the player walks into town, they're suddenly transported into a shared world where they can meet up with other players. If several players join into a party, they play in one of the players' private worlds. Unfortunately, if a group of friends slay the evil overlord in on player's world, they'll need to slay the same overlord in each others' worlds.

Why fractures are important

The reason why fractures are important is that players want to be able to change the world. Even if they don't control exactly how the world changes, they still want their actions to have an effect. (See Choice and consequences.)

In all of the monolithic realities, except the content-free one, players have no real effect on the world. The next time they log on, the world is exactly the same as before. Players can and do turn a blind eye to this, but ultimately the inability to change the world diminishes the experience.

I am not a big of content-free worlds either. Players can change the world in the content-free monolithic-reality, but only in small ways. After all, if there are 1000 players in the world, their ability to change the world must be (approximately) 1/1000th of what can be changed. Furthermore, with so many "cooks in the kitchen", the world tends to be a chaotic place.

The fracturing techniques I described make it easier for players to "suspend their disbelief" and pretend their actions impact the world. Unfortunately, each technique has its drawbacks, some of which are psychologically disturbing.