Intertwined storylines

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5 December 2004

by Mike Rozak

In The Anti-MMORPG, I concluded that a virtual world with 1000 hours of content wasn't viable, not just because of the expense, but also because only a small percentage of the original player base would be around by the time the 1000th hour of content was reached. After all, if only 80% of the users finish each 100-hour chunk (which is a high guesstimate), then only 10% (0.8 * 0.8 * ... * 0.8) will make it to the end, since each 100-hour chunk of content relies on the previous 100-hours.

However, I just thought of an out... one used (albeit poorly) in many virtual worlds:

A virtual world could be composed of independent but intertwining storylines. After all, many novels occur in New York City, but they certainly do not require readers to have read prior NYC-novels.

Some MMORPGs already use a similar technique: Evil characters begin in Evil-land, and good characters beginning in good-land. Evil characters and good characters each experience different quests, and consequently different storylines.

This division potentially allows the game developer to sell two packages: one called "Be a good guy" and the other called "Be a bad guy". Each one could be 100-hours of content, and a satisfying experience (with an ending) in itself. Players that really liked their first experience in the virtual world, could purchase the rival package and get another 100-hours of enjoyment. Those that had enough after the first pass wouldn't feel like they were missing out on anything, just as someone who has failed to read all of the novels based in NYC finds it easy to forget about NYC and read LA-based stories. Content development is cheaper for the virtual world company since it can use some of the content from good-land (like models of good races) in evil-land, and vice versa.

Current virtual worlds don't take full advantage of intertwined stories though:

• Only a few stories - Those virtual worlds that do have intertwined stories limit themselves to "good" vs. "evil", or fail to produce more than two or three storylines about the world.
  
  
• Similar stories - The good vs. evil stories really aren't that different, and often have very similar quests. Contemporary VWs don't have, for example, storylines targeted at adventure game players, romance players, or city-simulation players.
  
  
• Not enough separation - Usually, the good vs. evil storylines converge after the newbie quests are finished, and all the players are all thrown out into the wide world together. While I don't object to players from different storylines interacting with one another, or even undertaking a few common quests, making every quest beyond level 20+ common is like having two novels with identical second halves.
  
  
• Not cleverly used - The obvious thing to do with the good and evil storylines in a virtual world is to make it so that all throughout playing the good storyline, the player learns how despicable the evil side is, until the player feels hatred for the evil side. Then, when the player plays the evil side, they learn to empathise with the evil side and understand how despicable the good side is. (For example: The movies, Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, actually manage to make Hannibal Lector a "likeable and sympathetic" character, until you consider what he's really doing.) Current virtual worlds do not do this.
  
  
• $15/month price tag - The $15/month price-tag scares away casual players who are only looking to play for 100 hours since not only do they pay $50 for the box, but $15/month until they complete the game. If they only play 5-10 hours a week, a game will take 2-4 months to complete, which is another $30-$60.

So the next time you're designing a monolithic virtual world where any player can go anywhere and do anything, consider the alternatives. It's possible to have a virtual world with thousands of hours of content, divided up into shorter storylines targeted at specific personalities.