Multiplayer interactive fiction

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Multiplayer interactive fiction

18 March 2006

In this article I will explain what (I think) "multiplayer interactive fiction" (MIF) is, and how it differs from other game genres.

A definition of multiplayer interactive fiction

Multiplayer interactive fiction is an online computer "game" which:

Lets you play a character in a virtual world. The world isn't limited a standard fantasy or science fiction setting, and might take place in Victorian England, modern-day New York City, or even a dream world.
The world is centred around a story that your character participates in, such as a detective solving crimes in Victorian England, a romance in New York City, or the more familiar "save the world" fantasy and science fiction stories.
Your actions affect the story's direction, although this is limited by current technology and how much time the author had to write in narrative choices. You can even forgo the story altogether and follow your own muses, although the game experience may not be as rich.
The world is filled with sub-games. IF titles aren't limited to the standard combat sub-game (common to computer role-playing games) and puzzle sub-game (common to adventure games). Sub-games, which are customised to the story, might involve interrogating non-player characters, romancing them, or trying to run a property-rental empire.
In (multiplayer) interactive fiction, sub-games are used to enhance the story, much as music and special effects are used to enhance a movie's story... instead of the movie's story merely being a vehicle to show off music and special effects.
Much of an IF title's experience comes from the "scenery". You might find yourself spending much of your time in activities that have nothing to do with the sub-games, such as listening non-player characters' anecdotes, exploring the world, or chatting with other players, much like you'd do on a real-life vacation.
Many (but not all) IF titles are multiplayer. You can team up with other players, just sit around and chat, or stick to yourself. Sometimes you'll even compete against them.
(Multiplayer) interactive fiction titles tend to be short, requiring between two to ten hours to complete. When you finish one, visit the CircumReality web page and download a link to another. (Or for those who like a challenge, write your own.)
Most IF titles are created by hobbyists, who author the titles for the fun of it, just like people write blogs. If you enjoy a title, or even if you find some problems with it, make sure to tell the author what you thought; They like to hear that players are enjoying their works of art, and are always interested in improving their creations. Also, if you enjoy playing an IF title, make sure to tell your friends. Being hobbyists, authors don't have an advertising budget!
IF titles that use CircumReality will tend to be slow-paced and intellectual due to the way CircumReality uses still scenes and spoken narration.

Elements of multiplayer interactive fiction

Since the previous definition was probably insufficient, let me cover the elements of MIF:

Geography - The game takes place in a world that is not that dissimilar from reality. In my implementation, space is nodal (room-based), but it could be 2D, 3D, or whatever.
Devices - The world is filled with various devices that can be manipulated by the player, such as doors, locks, and machinery. In development terms, devices are simple pieces of code that are usually inert until the player manipulates the object.
Quasi-NPCs - Quasi-NPCs are your standard monsters, pions, or pets. They have some AI that makes them attack, obey orders, etc. In general, they don't have individual personalities, don't remember, etc. See NPCs for a contrast. Pets, especially "The Sims" characters, are half way between quasi-NPCs and full NPCs, but I thought them more appropriately categorised as quasi-NPCs.
NPCs - Unlike standard CRPGs, NPCs have a past, present, and several futures. They have personal stories that players can learn, as well as historical relationships. They go about their day-to-day business, working, socialising, having conversations, and perhaps even dinner parties, regardless of the player. They have goals, and will actively change the world, although for playability reasons, may only do so based on a trigger from a player's action, or lack of action. They may have several possible futures, such as a female NPC who could either elope with her true love or marry her parent's choice, affected by the player's actions.

NPCs also have likes and dislikes, memories, jobs, hobbies, friends, enemies, and relatives.
Director AI - Also known as a dungeon master, the purpose of a disembodied "Director AI" is to make sure the player has fun. Some simple techniques are to offer players hints if they're stuck on certain puzzles, recommend quests that the players might find fun, implant ideas into the NPCs' heads, or otherwise manipulate the world. The Director AI isn't always a monolithic entity, and its code might be scattered throughout the world and its inhabitants.
PC - The player's character might have a past. Its present and future are controlled by the player.

Due to technological constraints, the player's character may be limited to being a specialist, such as a hero (killer of monsters), detective, sanitation engineer, etc. Being a specialist, the player will only be able to perceive and interact with the world in certain ways.

How the player can affect the world and its inhabitants is likewise limited. As a fantasy-hero specialist, the player might be allowed to slay the evil overlord, but not invent space travel and transport all the overlord's oppressed subjects to another planet.
Other players' PCs - In a multiplayer game, the world is also inhabited by other players. They interact with the world and its AI inhabitants, as well as other players. They might even use the world's AIs to fight against other players, perhaps spreading malicious rumors to NPCs about other PCs.

Comparison to other genres

To understand how MIF differs from other genres, I'll first explain how other genres use the above elements to create gameplay:

Platform games - These are some of the earliest computer games. The core gameplay of a platform is the geography, namely geography that requires much leaping and climbing to manoeuvre around. Devices and quasi-NPCs are weakly implemented. NPCs and a Director AI are non-existent.
First person shooters (FPS) - First person shooters are platform games where the core gameplay is killing quasi-NPCs.
Adventure games (and traditional interactive fiction) - Adventure games rely on devices that are constructed to create puzzles. Quasi-NPCs and NPCs, if in the game, are weakly implemented. The amount of Director AI is very small. The player character's specialist role is often non-violent, such as a detective.
Computer role playing game (CRPG) - CRPG gameplay is centred around killing monsters (quasi-NPCs). NPCs exist, but they are typically nothing more than vending machines with a name. The amount of Director AI is very small.
MMORPGs - Like CRPGs, MMORPGs rely on quasi-NPCs for core gameplay. Other player's PCs also contribute to the game. In some MMORPGs, game masters (real people) act as the Director AI.
Pet and god games - Pet and god games, such as The Sims, include quasi-NPCs that must be indirectly controlled, akin to herding cats. There is no player character. The amount of Director AI is very small.
Interactive storytelling - I don't profess to completely understand Chris Crawford's designs, but interactive storytelling emphasises NPCs and the Director AI. Geography, devices, and quasi-NPCs are practically non-existent. Interactive stories are intended to be single player, so other players' PCs don't exist.

What players do... (a 30,000 ft. view)

Here's a high level view of what players do in MIF:

Players can wander around the world's geography.
Players can do whatever their specialist character allows them to do, such as slay monsters, solve crimes, or clean up garbage (if they're playing a sanitary engineer). Devices and quasi-NPCs may come into play.
Players can "people-watch" NPCs, watching them carry out their daily lives without any interaction from the player.
Players can talk to NPCs. If they ask the right questions, they'll even learn about the NPCs' past and personalities. They might also hear about what the NPCs are currently up to.
Players can form limited relationships with NPCs. They might become friends or enemies, or fishing partners. Players might employ NPCs, or NPCs might hire players (aka: quests).
Players can interact with NPCs and affect the NPCs' futures. This might involve convincing NPCs to perform actions, stirring up a rivalry between two NPCs, etc. Perhaps the player character's specialist skills come into play. The action might even be as blunt as attacking the NPC.

As the player affects NPCs, they "travel" in possibility space. It's possible to have a one-room world with a couple of NPCs, which is what Facade does. Chris Crawford's description of Interactive Storytelling emphasises the small number of rooms (called "stages") in the world, and the ability for characters to travel instantly/freely between rooms. Personally, I don't think I'd go that far in eliminating geography, but it's possible.
Players will be able to hear/see what happens to NPCs whose lives they affect. If a player convinces a NPC to elope, several weeks later the NPC will return and be able to tell a short story about the events. Or, if the development budget allows, the player may even be able to follow along.

I want to emphasise that, unlike CRPGs and adventure games, PCs are not the centre of the universe. In a CRPG or adventure game, not only does nothing happens without the player's instigation, but the player is almost always given a heroic "save the world" role.
NPCs can affect the players. The parents of the NPC that eloped won't be too happy with the player, and may make life difficult. This could include turning the town against the player, or even be as crude as combat.
Simply put: "NPCs are the game!" Quasi-NPCs, devices, and geography are accompaniments that are used to synergistically strengthen the NPC game.

MIF's core gameplay loop

In, The game loop, I described a loop of actions that seems to be common to every avatar game. For example: In a CRPG, the game loop is to kill small monsters, to get treasure and experience points, to enable the character to kill even bigger monsters. In an adventure game, the game loop is to solve puzzles, to enable the player access to other parts of the world, allowing them to solve even more puzzles.

In MIF, players wander around a world filled with hundreds (perhaps thousands) of NPCs. The core gameplay experience comes from interacting with the NPCs, mostly by talking to them, although combat and other forms of interaction are possible. In simplistic terms, the game loop is:

Players encounters a NPC somewhere in the world.
They figure out how to befriend (or defeat) the NPC.
Players then act on their plan and try to befriend (or defeat) the NPC.
Once friendly (or defeated), a NPC may provide material assistance, information, or contacts that help the player befriend (or defeat) more NPCs and/or access other parts of the world.
Repeat until all the content is used.

What players do... befriending NPCs

In MIF, non-player characters are (relatively) complex AIs. They have personalities, relationships with other NPCs, and opinions about the player character (as well as other NPCs). Just as with real people, every NPC has a different personality.

To befriend a particular NPC, the player must first figure out "what makes that NPC tick"...

The obvious approach is to try every trick in the book and see which stimulus the NPC responds too. First try offering a gift of a box of chocolates. If that fails, try a monetary bribe. Failing that, offer to go fishing or dancing with the NPC. However, just as with real life, a failed attempt will cause the NPC dislike or mistrust the player character, making subsequent attempts even more difficult. Thus, trying every approach on the list won't work.
With perfect AI, players could spend some time talking to the NPC, starting out with innocuous topics like the weather, and gradually working up to politics and religion.

Unfortunately, contemporary AI isn't good enough to sustain an intelligent conversation, so most of the talking comes from the NPC, in the form of rumors and anecdotes... "Did you hear that Mary is having a baby?" and "I went fishing last week and caught fish that was this long! Wanna hear about it?" In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, each pilgrim chose a story to tell on their trip; The pilgrim's choice of story revealed much about the pilgrim. The same goes for MIF NPCs; the rumors and anecdotes the NPCs chooses indicate something about their personality. A NPC that wants to talk about his fishing trip is obviously into fishing.
Sneaky players might observe the NPC, see what he wears, what he eats, who he talks to and what he says to them, or where the NPC goes and what he does when he gets to his destination. Fishermen will wear fishing-flies attached to their hats and occasionally skip out of work to go fishing. Members of secret organizations will wear special signet rings and rendezvous for midnight meetings.
Players can manipulate the NPCs. They could "accidentally" cause a NPC to run into an old friend and listen in on the "good 'ole days" stories. Or, players could get a NPC drunk and make him so sad he tells his life story, revealing any skeletons he might be hiding in his closet.
Alternatively, players could ask (or bribe) the NPC's friends, co-workers, and family members about personal information they'd never ask the NPC directly for fear of offending him... "Does Bob like to fish?" This creates a recursive game loop, since to befriend an important NPC, a player might need to first befriend his friends.
A virtual library might also be a good source of information. If the player discovers the NPC is part of a secret organization, researching and using the organization's secret handshake might improve the NPC's attitude.
Since "multiplayer interactive fiction" is multiplayer, a player could always ask the other players. While this makes the NPC portion of the game less challenging, it introduces the challenge of socialising with real players.

Once a player learns what makes a NPC "tick", they need to act on this. Such action might include:

Doing odd jobs for NPCs is a good start (and a commonly-used device from CRPGs). Some of the jobs might even be heroic, such as saving the NPC's kidnapped child... or kidnapping the NPC's enemy's child. Of course, NPCs won't give out the big jobs until the player has done a few small jobs (like fetching some coffee and donuts) to prove their reliability.
Conversation matters: How a player greets the NPC (formal vs. informal), a funny joke (in the NPC's eyes), a little anecdote about the player's past adventures, or an intelligent comment about a book the NPC is reading, might break the ice. In fact, what the player says to the NPC affects what rumors/anecdotes the NPC replies with.
The clothes and jewellery that the player character wears might be important. An expensive suit earns points with businessmen, but not with construction workers, who prefer jeans.
Gifts of chocolate, roses, antique cans, alcohol, or shiny coins might work.
Some NPCs prefer "gifts" of gossip or information over material things.
Regular patrons of merchant NPCs will get on their good side.
Knowing the NPC's hobbies and activities is useful: Inviting the NPC to a dinner party, playing a game of cards with him, or going fishing might make the NPC friendlier.
Knowing a NPC's skeletons can also get his attention... as well as knowing his enemy's skeletons.
Befriending the NPC's friends, co-workers, and family is a good way to get on the NPC's good side.
A forged introductory note from the leader of the NPC's secret organization might suddenly make the NPC friendlier.
Players might find that improving their own reputation as a hero, thief, or scholar might help.
Players with the right skills might get further. Spending some time learning Elvish might impress the Elves. Or, knowing enough accounting to do the NPC's books might get the player a job... as well as reveal some of the NPC's skeletons.
Likewise, organizations and guilds that the player joins will help (or hurt) relationships with NPCs. The player's race and gender also have an effect.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Just being willing to sit and listen to all the NPC's incredibly dull stories might be enough to get on his good side.

Once friendly, what does the NPC do for the the player?

Financially or materially reward the player character when they complete jobs for the NPC.
Do odd jobs for the player character... A friendly assassin might come in handy. Befriending a socialite might also prove useful for a player's reputation amongst NPCs.
NPC merchants provide discounts to players they like.
NPCs can teach player characters new skills. After all, where does one learn Elvish, but from an friendly Elf?
Keep the player informed about rumors, particularly when they benefit (or threaten) the player character's life or finances.
Reveal skeletons about other NPCs.
Introduce the player to other NPCs, either face-to-face, or with letters of recommendation. (Which is why forging documents comes in handy.)
Let the player into new regions of the world... You can only get into the speak-easy if you're a friend of Mickey One-Eye. Once in the speak-easy, you can meet Jimmy the Rat and befriend him.

Player vs. player

I'm not sure if I want to create a player-vs.-player game, but the same core gameplay could be used for player-vs.-player interactions:

Players who are friendly with a NPC could slander other players, reducing the other players' standing with the NPC and whatever groups the NPC is a member of. Of course, such slander would also hurt the player's standing with the NPC.
Related to the slander, players could get NPCs to send enemy players on quests that turn out to be traps.
Players could hire NPCs to do jobs (such as theft or assassination) for them, against other players.

One problem with including player-vs.-player is that it encourages players to use game walkthroughs in order to get as influential with NPCs as possible. Once players start using walkthroughs, puzzles have to be removed from gameplay because they're trivialised by walkthroughs. This leaves only "grind"-like gameplay, a condition that I'd rather avoid.

Story

I hate to use the term "story" because it's so overloaded with meaning. Having said that, one important way that MIF differs from other games is that the world is filled with stories:

Players can partake in larger pre-programmed "story", such as defeating the evil emperor, figuring out who the murderer is, cleaning up the city so it wins the "Tidy town" award (as a sanitation engineer), etc. This is nothing new, since adventure games and CRPGs always include this form of "story".
Players can become secondary characters in "stories" between NPCs. A player might help two lovers elope, then help later when their child becomes ill. While many adventure games and CRPGs incorporate such stories, MIF will make greater use of them.
NPCs have their own stories, regardless of what the player does. While talking to the village gossip, players might hear short tales about a villager that just won the lottery, or one that is having an affair... which might prove to be a useful skeleton to bring up in conversation with another NPC.
Being a multiplayer game, players will generate their own gossip (and stories) about what other players are doing.

What players do... Sample gameplay

Since gameplay might still be a little unclear, I thought I'd illustrate some sample gameplay.

The scenario is one in which an old woman, the local town gossip, knows a salacious rumour that the player needs in order to boot the town mayor out of office. Unfortunately, the woman doesn't trust the player at first, and isn't too eager to give up her prize rumour. She is, however, an avid collector of snow globes.

To demonstrate the gameplay, I'll also explain how the scenario would be implemented for adventure games and CRPGs, so you can see the difference.

Adventure game - At some point in the game, the player would find a snow globe object and pick it up. When they got to the room with the old woman, they'd notice her collection of snow globes in the background, and then give the snow globe to the woman. The woman would reply by giving the players a letter with the salacious rumour, which they could then take to the local newspaper to have printed.
CRPG or MMORPG - The old woman would be standing outside her house (all day). When clicked on, she'd give the players a quest to seek out a rare snow globe that's owned by the goblin king. The player would have to enter the goblin king's lair, kill lots of goblin minions, the goblin king, and loot the snow globe from the king's treasure chest. When the players return with the snow globe, the woman takes it and gives the player a letter with the salacious rumour, which they could then take the the local newspaper NPC.
Multiplayer interactive fiction - From other NPCs, the player hears that the woman knows an important rumour.

Trying to make a good impression, the player puts away his weapons and armour, and dresses in his Sunday best, assuming that the woman is prim and proper. Of course, snow globes litter the woman's house, but it isn't obvious that's what she wants.

The player approaches the woman, says "Hello", and mentions a rumour that he has heard, that "Mary [the woman's neighbour] is pregnant." This peaks the woman's interest (she likes rumors after all) and she mentions a rumour about someone else in town. The player follows up with another rumour, or an anecdote that somehow fits with the woman's previous rumour/anecdote. In some ways, the back-and-forth is like "Magic, the gathering", with each side pulling out an appropriate rumour/anecdote, combined with the old "Illuminati" card game, where only certain cards can be near one another. It wouldn't do for the player to tell a joke just after the woman related a sad story about her mother's death.

At some point, the woman decides she trusts the player enough, and mentions another anecdote, about how she used to visit the beaches of Amroth when she was a child, and look through the nearby shops. She mentions that some of her snow globes came from there. Assuming that the player doesn't get the hint, then perhaps some more obvious hints are given in later anecdotes; the woman may discuss various places she's been, and all the snow globes she's purchased as souvenirs.

The player has several possible solutions to the problem: The obvious one is to search around the stores, buy several snow globes, and give them to the woman. (By the way, the woman won't accept snow globes from players that she doesn't already like and trust a little bit. The conversation is necessary.) A better solution is for the player to notice that the woman's snow globe from Amroth is broken, go there, and buy just one snow globe; it's a cheaper solution for the player, but more valuable to the woman. Another solution might be to buy the old woman a train ticket to some place, since she obviously likes to travel... or, the player could always kill the goblin king and take his snow globe.

Whatever the solution, enough snow globes (or the right one) make the woman friendly enough that she's willing to gossip about the mayor. When she tells the player the gossip, it appears on the player's list of "knowledge". The player can then wander around town telling other NPCs the gossip. If enough NPCs are told, the mayor will resign in disgrace. Alternatively, the player can visit the mayor and tell the mayor about the gossip that the old woman told the player, and who the source was; the woman mysteriously falls down her stairs that night...

Note: This scenario isn't the only way that multiplayer interactive fiction can play out. It's just pointing out how the experience can be very different from an adventure game or CRPG/MMORPG. Multiplayer interactive fiction often incorporates elements from CRPGs, MMORPGs, and adventure games, and might require a few goblin kings to be slain too.

Usurping the term "Interactive fiction"

The term, "interactive fiction" (IF), was coined in the 1980's to describe the genre of game that Infocom were creating. Over the past 25 years, Infocom has died and professional "interactive fiction" has been superseded by "(action) adventure games", but the term, "interactive fiction", continues to be used by a small group of dedicated hobbyists.

People who write interactive fiction consider their work to be different than adventure games and CRPGs for the following reasons:

Interactive fiction is primarily text-based (with some graphics), while adventure games and CRPGs are graphical (with some text).

Multiplayer CRPGs are also differentiated by text: Text-based ones are called MUDs, while graphical ones are MMORPGs.
In interactive fiction games, players control their characters by typing commands, such as "Give the key to Mary". Adventure games and CRPGs rely (almost) exclusively on mouse clicks, or using the keyboard as a button-pad with "i" to show a character's inventory or "space" to jump.
Interactive fiction and adventure games are more puzzle-oriented than CRPGs.
Underneath the hood, the author (content creator) of an interactive fiction title creates it largely through programming, but with a small database. Adventure games, and especially CRPGs, are created by modifying a database and doing as little programming (scripts) as possible.

When playing an adventure or CRPG game, you get the feeling that you're "walking through a database" because, putting eye candy aside, what differentiates one object from another (or one location from another) is mostly numbers and strings. The difference between an ogre and an orc is the number of hit points, not the underlying code. Conversely, interactive fiction games feel more like "walking through a program" because the difference between objects is much deeper. It comes down to quality vs. quantity. Coding is expensive, and an IF world has far fewer objects than a CRPG.

Text MUDs differentiate themselves between code-based and database-based too. LP-MUDs are highly scripted, while DikuMUDs are database driven.
Some interactive fiction authors have been experimenting with better NPC conversations. Adventure games and CRPGs, relying heavily on mouse clicks, still limit themselves to dialogue trees.
Interactive fiction and adventure games are (almost) always single-player games. CRPGs are single-player, but they have a multiplayer counterpart called a MUD or MMORPG.

I have adopted the term "multiplayer interactive fiction" (MIF) even though the beast that I've created doesn't fall neatly into the traditional interactive fiction definition:

CircumReality (my implementation of MIF) is both graphical and text-based. Not having animation, it isn't as graphical as an adventure game or CRPG. It has more text than adventure games or CRPGs, spoken using text-to-speech, but not as much text as IF titles.
In CircumReality, players usually control their avatar using mouse clicks. Mouse is not the exclusive interface though. Players occasionally type in commands, and frequently type in dialogue with NPCs.
MIF is puzzle based, like interactive fiction and adventure games. However, the puzzles in IF and adventure games are usually derived from machinery (devices) within the game. In MIF, the puzzles come from the NPCs. MIF also includes combat, a feature rarely found in IF and adventure games.
Underneath the hood, MIF is code-driven with very little database component, just like traditional interactive fiction.
MIF expands upon IF's experimentation with better NPC conversations. Adventure games and CRPGs can't advance their NPC conversation ability further because they avoid text (or text-to-speech) and typing.
MIF titles can be single player or multiplayer. Traditional interactive fiction is only single player.