as requested, development of setting: "The Game" (long)

[Turg]

This is long, but it is only part one. It's all I have time to write for now, but future posts will expound further. Any commentary or criticism is welcome. The original goal was to come up with some sort of consistent explanation and connection between all the different game worlds that people will want to create. I accidentally posted this at first in the book forum, probably a subconscious thing due to the length of the post, heh.

The Game

Prologue

A misted haze of blood, a flash of light, a period of oblivion. All his life he had known that he was being watched. He had known that the gods existed, even when the scholars spoke of reason and his boyhood friends had impiously cursed the gods with no resultant flash of lightning striking them down; the gods watched him and judged him in every action he took, he felt this in his soul. This terrible certainty drove him, he accomplished more in his life by the time he was twenty-five than most men achieved in their lifetimes. He drove his armies against impossible odds and emerged victorious. He conquered wherever he went, whatever he saw. Every major decision was blessed, it seemed -- a guided destiny that would end in unimaginable honor. Although his arrogance was legendary, was it not justified? The afterlife would surely be even more glorious.

However, this dark oblivion was not such an afterlife. Somehow consciousness, free from memory and sensory input, remained. Gradually the gloom around his soul began to resolve itself into vision, sound, and the realization that he had a body. Vague shapes coalesced above him. He was lying on some hard platform, but was unable to move even his eyes. Open, they somehow did not sting, and yet the only thing they saw were gray clouds hovering, seemingly judging him, assessing him. After a time, they moved away. Oblivion closed around him again, but this time he had memory, the memory of having had a memory and a memory of what had just occurred. This nothingness was more a hell than an afterlife. It did not last long. Brighter light, grief and loss and joyful emotion, a combination of every possible physical sensation both painful and pleasant, assaulted him all at once. He staggered and almost fell, before catching himself. Staggered?

Suddenly he was walking at the back of a multitude of people streaming forth from what seemed a wall of stone, towards what appeared to be a city. He turned to see a strangely attired woman stumble out through a section of the Gate that briefly liquified, almost clinging to her body as she passed through before quickly springing back and seamlessly reforming behind her. He looked down at his own clothing, and Remembered. His toga was still punctured and torn, but feeling at his body revealed none of the stab wounds from the knives of the traitors, not even scars. He felt young again. He reached into the strange pack hanging from his shoulder...


The Lobby

The Gathered come from many dimensions, galaxies, and times. The Gatherers, among other things, are masters of the “possible.” They are shadowy figures, impossible to see, and yet there, creating a very uneasy presence. They have created The Game. Whether that they have done so is for some high purpose or for their own amusement, is immaterial to most of the contestants. Although a few question these things, most focus on the reward. They are told that the Winners of The Game receive the ability to reshape their world to their will, or if that is not desired, to Create their own "best of all possible worlds."

The Lobby itself is not an entire world unto itself, but rather a nexus, a meeting place where all possible worlds intersect. From it, those who have mastered the “possible” can reach into any existence, and alter it. For those who are Gathered here, they are able to enter the Game Worlds. The physical manifestation of The Lobby was constructed for just one purpose: to house The Game. The Gatherers need no such physical realm themselves, but the Gathered indeed all are mortal beings, even though the human definition of immortal may be met by some few of the creatures competing in The Game.

The Lobby is the meeting place, the dueling arena, the living quarters, the marketplace where all manner of goods and commodities from the diverse and teaming Game Worlds are bought and sold and stolen. While most life forms live within the same area of the Lobby, other areas are reserved for some of the more exotic species, especially where their native environment would prove naturally deadly to other races. Often arguments arise from such mingling of species so extremely divergent from eachother, but since death is meaningless in the Lobby, where any vengeance and quarrel is swiftly rendered pointless with the instant resurrection provided by the Gatherers for those who perish within the Lobby, most have learned if not tolerance, at least forbearance. Even though the consciousness swarm of a Drochton may grow angry when some hulking clumsy Guun smashes one of its insect entities, it typically refrains from swiftly converging on said helpless Guun and picking it clean to the bone. The fierce looking types may turn out to be gentle in reality, while the harmless appearing furry ones might just have some surprises hidden in their soft folds of flesh.

From The Lobby the Contestants can enter any of the Game Worlds at any time, whether they are equipped for that particular World or not. If the atmosphere turns out to be toxic to their species, or the logic system proves to render them quickly insane, they will be returned to the Lobby unharmed and somewhat the wiser. Is it possible to lose The Game? That is a question that remains unanswered. The population of Contestants does not tend to grow, however due to the fact that frequently Contestants are absorbed into the Game Worlds never to return. They may find that they would prefer to live their life in one of the possible worlds that they originally entered to conquer, or else they may lose their way to the extent that they are forever lost within it.

For each Game World that a Contestant conquers or gains a mastery of, that Contestant grows closer to the goal of Victory in The Game. The conditions of each world are different, and each takes years to master. The time matters not because once mastery is reached, the contestant returns to Lobby with no real time having passed. With each mastered Game World, the Contestant reaches a further understanding of how to control the “possible.” When a full understanding is reached, do they choose to use that understanding to return as a mortal to the best of all possible worlds, or do they choose to ascend to immortality as a master of the game and a Gatherer of new Contestants? Each has its own draw, and each Contestant their own motivation.


For actual development of The Game, it would not be necessary nor would it be desirable in my opinion to get too specific about the Gatherers, because the actual mmo itself will focus on the worlds within The Game and the journey to a mastery of the “possible,” and not what happens after that mastery is reached.

My thinking is that with each increase in rank of “possibility mastery” you gain in ability, such as the ability to emulate another type of Contestant. For example once a human character reaches a certain rank he is able to diverge himself into a swarm of Drochton or gain the strength of a Guun. This is totally different from the gaining of skill or level within any particular Game World, but would allow for example, areas that are accessible to only certain races, along with other possibilities.

[Faille]

Good decription with some nice writing, but does serve to highlight one problem we're about to facing (facing?) and that's wether the design should follow the lore, or the lore follow the design. It's almost like a chicken and egg situation 8)

Do we build up a great deal of lore and then endevour to implement it, or do we make the world and then try and fit the lore into it?

Ideally, for the best results, I think the former is the best option, lay a good foundation of lore and use it as a guide for the design. For our project though, I'm going to have to go with the latter, and worry more about getting the game, a game, implemented and then tie in the lore during or after that process.

Why you may ask? Because you guys all talk too much. Just like we wouldn't be able to get a consensus on which setting / theme to use, we wouldn't be able to write a Lore background we all liked, and even if we did, it would take too long and it's not something I would want to wait on before starting other facets of the project.

Also, one the main goals I want for this project is for people to build up the skills and knowledge, as well as developing a good system of management so that eventually we could design and deploy a mini MMO 100 times faster then the first one takes. That means people getting used to doing rather then talking, even if initially it might be misdirected effort.

Rest assured that I, like most people, understand how important Lore is for an MMO, even if it's put somewhat on the backburner for the time being.

A better exercise might be how you would convey this lore into an MMO setting. Would what you describe be an opening cinematic type presentation? Would it be more something players eventually learn from wandering around Lobbyworld and speaking to NPCs, and if so what format would what take? Quests, just straight speach?


As for your specific writing, it definitely helps me visualize Lobbyworld a little better, though I don't think I like the emphasis on the Game. Originally I had imagined more of a raiders type place, so imagine Vikings who had the ability to travel to other worlds, they would pillage their way and bring back their loot and stories, though I don't think that is quite as sanitized, or civilised, for what I now what LobbyWorld to be like.

[Turg]

I totally agree with you about the "doing" thing. That's going to be the biggest challenge and it always will be since everyone here is doing it for free and there's no boss demanding effort. I guess if it works out you have the opportunity to get your name out there as a game developer if you are trying to break into the industry. But that's a pretty indirect motivation.

We do just have to start making stuff. I'm sure everyone would have fun adding lore as we go. I can already see that the biggest shortage is going to be art. I will try to recruit some artists I'm going to school with, but that's going to be a longshot. However before that even comes into play we have to have something to add art to, some sort of environment to wander around in running on a server somewhere.