Issues for MMVW Managers

[Nalates]

GAME COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
With Uru Open Source coming fans will be managing a Massive Multiplayer Virtual World (MMVW). Ok, massive may be pushing it but we can hope. Looking at what others are doing can give us some clues to what is ahead. Match that to what we see people posting in Uru related forums and one can have a reasonable picture of what to expect.

One of the new RPG w/combat games is Dune. Originally Dune RPG was a single RPG known as LemonYellow Dune, it eventually failed. Why it failed is unclear and finding info, as opposed to opinion, is difficult. Opinion has it that it was intransigent players fighting over story canon. The result was a split into three separate RPG’s and now only two separate RPG’s remain. The Splintered Rock Dune RPG is unusually open in how they are managing their game and its finances. They actually publish monthly financials on their wiki. They are trying a sort of democracy. They are taking some progressive steps and are daring enough to work with other competing RPG’s.

For the Uru Community there are several interesting aspects of the Dune RPG. This is not the Dune fans first attempt at Dune RP. The fans have learned from participating in other Dune RP’s. Now they are creating and running their own. Dune Apocalypse was started by 6 core fans. They had the challenges of maintaining the original Dune story and extending it. Dune Apocalypse uses both original reference material and creates extended material. For Dune Apocalypse RPG they decided to use an alternate ending to the Dune story and a 100 year time gap to allow more freedom in their RP and reduce the canon lawyer’ing that went on.

This suggests that we may want to create an IC story timeline post DRC to deal with the DRC story IC issues. While having age stories is an issue that has to deal with MOUL timeline the current day IC is also a factor. I think it points to a need to find out what is going to happen with the DRC. Is some IC corporation going to come in and open the Cavern? May be individual server operators will create their own IC explanations… However I expect a near canon and controlled extended canon Uru to appear on a GoW run server (opinion). If that happens how will they handle the DRC issue and those IC characters? I think we have a reasonable idea what Cyan is likely to do. I think any surprises will be pleasant. So, I do NOT think this is a premature question.

The initial Dune group broke into three splitter groups resulting in the Dune RPG’s: Splintered Rock, Dune Imperium, and Dune Apocalypse. The last being the one a writer named Paypabak participated in. In an article she wrote she describes steps Apocalypse took to attract new players, things they were doing to pay for the RPG sim, and the down fall of Dune Apocalypse. In the case of Dune Apocalypse it was player intransigence in regard to Dune canon wearing out the RPG owner’s patience, the rumored downfall of the initial RPG. Both Dune Imperium and Splintered Rock continue. Apparently many of the Apocalypse players have not been able to accept the RP in the remaining two RPG’s and stopped participating.

While Dune Apocalypse started their RP 100 years after the novels’ time frame, Dune Splintered Rock starts their role play before the novels at time when the Harkonnen and the Atreides Houses first arrived, 20 to 50 years before the novels.

Dune Imperium starts their RP at the near end of LemonYellow Dune. This allows players to continue RP in which they previously invested time. I am not sure where that is in relationship to the novels.

All of the Dune RP’s recognized the problems dealing with story canon, as we do. It obviously was a serious point of disagreement and split the commuity. Two of the RPG’s set their time line outside the main story. I think we can expect canon and extended canon to be an ongoing problem in MOOS. If the IC character play in the original and MOUL portions is continued, who gets to be those characters or will we all have important characters? If not, who gets to choose? If Cyan prohibits use of their IC characters, what happened to them and who is running the Cavern now?

Both Dune RPG’s have web sites that set out the RP rules, important canon and important extended canon. While Uru has the GoA, it is not currently set to provide new players the background they would need to make an easy start or to explain the odd IC/OOC RP that is used in Uru. If you are not into RPG’s you may not realize how big this difference is between Uru and other RPG’s. Consider a recent post on MOUL (or was it UO?) asking about how the Bahro fit into the story… New players will need help.

Dune Imperium’s web site is well organized for experienced and new RP players. MOOS will need a web site that provides this level of OOC help to new players. If we can decide on where new players will arrive, we could begin work on the MOOS support site now. We could start putting together the storyline canon for new players too. Something that is short and to the point to establish a quick easy framework for new players is needed. Zandi's speach is not going to go far enough in an age where most people have experience with RPG's.

While there is no consensus on how to control canon and enforce it, there is a lot of discussion. Consensus seems to be moving toward having the GoA archive the story. Also, to have them maintain the extended canon. There is no real discussion, or I’m missing it, on how disagreements will be settled or enforced. It appears issues in this area killed two versions of Dune. Player fighting wore out the RPG operators. I think sorting this out now is possible and desirable. I think finding a workable solution may also be a significant part of Uru’s survival.

[dahni]

Nalates: I have to 'noodle around' a lot to find information. Found this message from you, and decided to reply directly to this issue. I believe the most difficult problems revolve around the 'control' aspects. It looks (and probably is) very disorganized at this time because we're much like a bunch of kids showing up at a playground on which a lot of different games could be played; ie baseball, soccer, basketball, field hockey, softball, volleyball, etc. Then asume that few kids know how to play more than a couple of the different games, and not all the equipment needed to play is out in the open, but locked up in a storage shed having only one dusty window to look in through. In addition, the actual perimeters of the playing field are a little unclear.

Some kids must play now, others can wait until they feel like it, some play more than others, some are 'leaders' and others are followers and others are in a couple of other psychosocial categories that are well documented. Some kids(11.4%) will play any game, and follow rules, decided upon by the group. Others(11.4%) will oppose any decision by the group, prefering to do what they want, while most kids will decide based on what the group decides would be fun to play.

With URU, at this time, we have a playing field ......

I am fully intrigued by this entire situation and by the opportunities to see if 'the ending has yet to be written', or whether we will be forced to go to another playing field where the game to be played is already decided.

Anyway, imo, we first, or pretty quickly, need to develop a set of objectives for our joint efforts. With an agreed upon and well described goal, whoever wants can get involved by agreeing in advance to follow the guidelines set up by the organizers of that 'game'. We could have several different 'objectives', with none or little or a lot of intercommunication. But we can't play a real game until we know what IT is and what the rules are. Once we know where we are heading, we can form the organizational chart needed to keep track of progress. Dealing with individuals within a group, say URU1, can be pretty straightforward; i.e. those that do not want to be a helping member can be pretty much ignored by the rest of the group. it's not like working for the same company anc sharing the same office and 'having to get along".

I think, what I'm looking for, is some movement towards generating some completely new 'games' using the current playing field, playing equipment, and players. Probably will need some new tools to be invented as well.

I'm still intrigued by the possibilities. Please keep up the good thinking.