Amy Pond":3i62ybk8 said:
MMORPGs are tricky mostly because of one reason - player interaction. Millions have played RPGs about the same characters, played the same backstories, without a problem. But in online games, because you're interacting with other players in
real-time, a player's immersion can easily be broken.
Amy Pond":3i62ybk8 said:
I tried, with books, to try and force a backstory on the game but that didn't really work; through quests I am trying to go along those lines, but basically with a character which is in the same game with hundreds of others, I'm finding it hard to give them their own backstory. I mean, would the players mind if every player's mother died when they were 8 and as such they became introverted and stayed in during the Great Fire War where all the great men were wiped out and thus they became the only suitable soldier to go on and fight the new army that entered the realm (not my storyline, just an example)? In an MMORPG, does it matter if everyone's following the same story?
I'd say that this is dependent on how much your players will be interacting with other players. If you can interact with other players in real-time and have conversations, do quests together, etc. then it could be a serious problem.
You need to ask yourself if it's really
necessary to develop your player's character. What does it add to the game? Does giving your player a backstory truly contribute to the overall experience? Will the player's history make a tangible difference in the world of the game?
I think of the Elder Scrolls games, where your character has no backstory other than "you're going to jail/execution", and that's about it. Which is fine, because the player doesn't really care - they have an entire WORLD to explore, and a backstory for the player would simply make things cluttered and confusing. They care about the NPCs, the setting, the history of Tamriel, and the player's character is merely a gateway into that experience.
If you
really feel the need to introduce a backstory and personality onto the player's character, seriously consider limiting their interaction with other players. I'm sort of against the idea because I think MMORPGs aren't really ABOUT the player, and shouldn't be in most cases. MMORPGs are about the WORLD your character lives in, the people that live in this world. When you shift the emphasis from the world to the player's character, you risk limiting how expansive and engrossing your game can be.
A class example is Fallout, the wasteland already has so much depth, so much character as a whole ( including the npc's, side characters, monsters and even just the scenery and environment/towns/e.t.c ) that if the game where to have a specific protagonist instead of a character creation system or a specific story/plot instead of wide free-roam it would have lessened the depth and atmosphere of the game.
This, basically.
It's important to make the actions of the player feel IMPORTANT in an MMORPG. If what the player is doing doesn't feel like it matter, then their incentive to continue playing will dwindle. As long as the actions of your player MATTER and have
tangible impacts, your player's character shouldn't need too much development. Remember: keep the stakes high and worthy!
Well, basically, what I'm having trouble with is creating believable NPCs that have their own stories and are more than just background/instruction givers.
It depends on the importance of a particular NPC in the game. If you have a character that will reappear numerous times in the game, I would treat them as I would treat a main character in a novel - not giving them the attention of a protagonist obviously but still giving them a full backstory, personality, and character arc. If your NPC will only appear for a single quest, you can give them a very simple, watered-down history, and never need to go beyond that.
If your quest involves killing rats for a restaurant owner, you need to ask "What does the player NEED to know?" If the player never needs to know much about the restaurant owner beyond "he wants the rats dead", don't expand on him. If you want to do a little world-building, consider something like "these pesky rats are becoming more common in this town! they keep invading from the Dark Forest and are giving us a real headache". You still know nothing about the owner, but the player feels like he's in a more engrossing and immersive world.
tl;dr: If it feels like you're FORCING backstories onto your NPCs, don't give them any. If you feel there is a genuine need to introduce character development for these NPCs, then go with your gut and give them some. Don't even force more character development onto an insignificant character if you don't feel it's necessary.
