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Theme in virtual worlds 6 April 2005 by Mike Rozak
Stories typically have a "theme", such as "If you work hard you'll succeed," "Don't accept apples from strangers," or "Never trust a man that sells you magic beans." Personally, I like themes. The MMORPGs and MUDs I've played don't seem to contain any theme other than, "Kill enough monsters and you'll grow up to kill even stronger monsters." How does one add theme to a virtual world?
The problem If I wanted to add a theme to a story, I'd do the following:
For example, the theme of Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" is that "Revenge (against a large white whale) is a bad idea." As the book progresses, Captain Ahab increasingly shirks his job as manager of the Peaquod, whose responsibility is to kill whales, get their oil, and make money. He becomes more obsessed with Moby Dick, and ultimately brings himself, the ship, and its crew to ruin. Another example: I can imagine a book in which the protagonist changes religions, such as from Christianity to Hinduism. If the theme of the story were "Stay true to your roots," such a change might result in ostricization from the character's family, friends, and society. If the theme were "Follow your heart," bad things would happen to the character until he followed his heart and changed religions. In a virtual world, the author can give a player the option of taking revenge, or of changing religion, but the author can't control the outcome very well. For example:
Rethinking theme While virtual worlds are horrible at tying specific results to actions, they're great at algorithmically calculated results, and very good at having choices change the "physics" that the player character experiences. In the Moby Dick example, the author can't guarantee the loss of life, ship, and crew, but the author can design the world's "physics" such that:
The choice is then left up to the player. There are no guaranteed outcomes though. Alternatively, in the religion scenario:
Likewise, the player can make the choice and experience the results of their choice. A guaranteed negative outcome for one choice, while possible, will cause the player to (rightly) complain. I chose the change-religion theme because it's very similar to the choices a player makes about his character's race, class, armaments, etc. In a virtual world, many important choices don't lead to positive or negative consequences for the player. Instead, they result in changes to the "physics" under which the player's character operates. A fighter can wear armour and wield large weapons, while a magic user must forgo weapons and armour, but can cast spells. The fighter and wizards exist under different physics regimes. A fighter attacking with a sword experiences slightly different physics than one attacking with a mace since a sword works better against plate armour, while a mace is more effective against chainmail. An author can impose a theme on the virtual world by controlling the specific consequences that result from the player's choice. The consequences must balance out, or it won't be a valid choice. (Obviously-idiotic choices excepted.) (See Choice.) A world that wishes to make a point about religions would allow the player to select a religion, and make the difference between religions severe. For example:
What I propose is different to what contemporary virtual worlds offer. Even though they let the players make choices about their race, class, guild, and sometimes religion:
Reality vs. fantasy This brings up another point. MMORPGs err on the side of fantasy and "low impact"; MMORPGs give players the experience that the players expect, and don't try to add any surprises. They don't want players whinging that their magic user can't attack a monster using a sword, or that their fighter can't use magic. Consequently, and over the decades, they water down the restrictions until there is very little difference in the choices that players make, and very little possibility for "theme". The world loses its "flavour" and becomes like McDonalds' "Spicy Chicken Burger", which isn't at all spicy. My preference is to err on the side of reality, or at least "flavour". A fighter should be a very different experience from a magic user, cleric, or thief. Being a dwarf should be very different than being an elf, human, or halfling. As long as reality is not too onerous, some doses of reality should be thrown into the experience. If a player wishes to own an inn, fine. However, make them maintain a store room full of goods, hire NPC employees, deal with repairs after bar fights, attract patrons, etc. Or, if the player chooses a religion, they must experience some of the sacrifices that come with the religion. Adding a bit of unexpected reality turns the game into a learning and thinking experience, which is what a theme is all about. Without a theme, the experience is just empty, tasteless calories, a kind of "McWorld".
"Good-for-them" desires In Virtual world equation, I talked about virtual worlds fulfilling players' desires. Some desires are conscious and some sub-conscious. I also brought up the point that some desires might not be known to the player, but might be "good" for them. One example is Richard Bartle's "Hero's journey", where players use the anonymity in virtual worlds to experiment with different roles and determine who they really are. Stories frequently embed "good-for-you healthy bits" in their sugary entertainment. For example, if you read Moby Dick, you're going to learn a lot about the whaling industry of the 1800's, whether or not you wanted to. Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" is a social documentary about immigration and poverty. Even a medieval fantasy novel will contain some truths about the middle ages. Virtual worlds can also include "good-for-you healthy bits"... They can encourage players to:
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