Apparently, Fable was constructed along the lines of “do whatever, live with consequences”… but the dynamic world allowed for serial predators, among other things, and consequences weren’t really enforced. What responsibility do game designers have to permit things that are not tolerated in real life? And, what of the consequences? If someone in-game plays a serial murderer, do we really want that person playing the game? In Fable, the argument “for” relied on the single player nature of the game. What of an MMO in a similar boat, then?

A lot of this starts to delve into concepts of justice in the real world, how laws are defined and enforced, and how morals and ethics place bounds on behavior. Can we make a virtual world as complex and interesting as the real world? I think it’s possible, given enough effort. Assuming it’s possible, wouldn’t it approach true reality though, and thereby become just as mundane as the “life” that gamers are trying to escape?

Change the setting and framework, sure, but if people (the game’s laws) still tell you that you can’t just steal and kill with wanton disregard for others, where’s the escapist appeal? The “rules” are the same in that virtual world, or same enough, so why would people play when they could just live? As it stands, people play games because they aren’t like reality. They can be the dude that uses a sword that weighs more than them, or the oversexed vixen (rants for another time). They can kill animals and bandits and steal their stuff and be praised for it.

That’s what I mean by wanting reality… but not too much reality. Raph Koster once wrote something along the lines of: ” ‘fun’ is experimenting and learning in a safe environment.” Rules are absolutely necessary for a safe environment. Put another way, if you know where the fence is, you understand exactly what is and is not allowed, and are extremely free to work within those bounds. Without bounds and absolute definitions of right and wrong (or allowed and disallowed), literally anything can be justified.

I know, that’s looking at the extreme position, but it’s useful to look at as a way to define what we’re looking for in virtual worlds. We don’t really want anarchy, and we don’t want mechanics that pay attention to, reinforce, or encourage bad behavior. Giving players the awesome power to affect the world is a heady rush, but it must be tempered by checks on power, and strict limits to griefing.
…which isn’t to say that I disagree with giving players more choice and freedom, just that there are some very real ramifications for that course of action. Neither am I disageeing with your comments, I’m just writing more on my thoughts, mostly because this is the first venue I’ve seen take these things seriously. I’m happy I found this blog.

I’m not sure that the game playing population is mature enough for the sort of freedom we’re talking about. The industry itself isn’t really mature enough for that sort of thing. (Using the real definition of “mature”, not the ESRB misnomer.) We may never know until we try, but if it’s not handled with firm reins, it could get ugly fast, and it could put us the proverbial “two steps back” for the step forward we take into deeper creativity.

The key here is to have consequences for actions. Use the carrot to reward players and use the stick to penalize players. As long as the rules were upfront, fair and universal I think players would flock to a virtual world such as this.

Imagine if a player decides it’s cool to kill a blacksmith in a small town. He goes ahead and kills the blacksmith. Word spreads to the blacksmith guild. Suddenly this player will never be able to buy, sell or repair at any blacksmith again. This player is then forced to go to a renegade blacksmith where the prices are astronomically higher. Trust me, that player will think twice before killing another innocent NPC again.

The result is we’ve achieved a few important things:

1) We’ve created a unique groundbreaking world that has consequences (no MMO has a world like this right now)

2) We’ve given players unparalleled freedom to do as he/she wishes (again unheard of except for UO perhaps which was done poorly)

3) We created a vibrant deep world by having those that abide by the law and those that live outside the law

I agree with you that the attraction of video games and MMO’s is that they let players live out their fantasies without any real consequences. Still I think there is room in a future MMO for in-game consequences. I’d like to be a part of that world. A play experience without a sense of choice is really not worthwhile game as far as I’m concerned.

Also I completely agree with your observations about people. MMO’s are really only as good as the people in them.

Thanks for your great comments Tesh! I really appreciate your perspective.

Tongue slightly out of cheek, commerce is the antithesis of progress in our world of investors and instant gratification.

I’ve long longed for a real virtual world, with real choices to be made, and perhaps more importantly, real consequences. If I participate in that world, I want to leave a mark. If I’m a griefer, I should be punished.

…but therein lies the rub. The anonymity of the web precludes real consequences. Also, when people can’t even take responsibility for their real life actions, what impetus is there for living responsibly in a virtual world? Sure, we as game designers can make vast, interesting worlds, but we as players don’t really want them too real. We still want our power fantasies, our “life without repercussions”, our holodeck.

Without players stepping up to the responsibility of a true “virtual world”, designers can only go so far. No, that doesn’t absolve us as designers of the responsibility to push for something better than what exists… but virtual worlds are only going to be as good, interesting, vital, moral, ethical, and relevant as the real people who populate them.

Somehow in the past few years as MMO’s have become more mainstream the virtual world concept got forgotten. MMO designers and developers stopped asking the important questions and started using the achievment archetype EQ/WoW model as their template. Hopefully this debate will engender some positive change that we can actually see and experience in the near future!

-Wolfshead