Who Am I?

Why Are We Here?

The State of Things

The Belied Promise of MMOs Things We Haven’t Achieved Massive Stories Player Driven Stories Meaningful Stories

A Brief Audience Interaction Interlude!

Story 3 OMG… Shut down the servers We’re all going to die I haven’t seen my wife in three weeks Story 3 Story 2 Story 1 Story 2 Story 3 Story 3

The Content Side Problem Choosing what content to build is easy Letting other people choose what content you build is hard Letting lots of other people choose lots of different types of content for you to build simultaneously for an ever fracturing and branching storyline is a good way to learn a lot about bankruptcy court There was a much better graphical representation here. Remember to rebuild it.

Unsharding: The Solution

How to Unshard… Interactors participate in a shared story space This does not mean that they participate in a shared world space

How Can Unsharding Be Accomplished?

Eve Online Video

Cart Rider Video

Battle Tech 3025 Video

Player Driven Story in an Unsharded Environment

Giving Agency Back to the Players Real Choices Real Consequences Less Restrictions

Giving Agency Back to the Players Voting by Action All Votes are NOT Equal Vote Equal to Level of Participation, not Power

Rules for Massive Choice Events Grand Scale (should effect everyone) Universal Participation (everyone effected should be able to influence the outcome) Be Willing to Accept the Result (and make sure you’re ready to patch for it…) Notify your players of your events!

Corollaries to the Rules for Writing Massive Choice Events Make Massive Choice Events as Cheap as Possible to Produce Make the Outcome as Easy to Anticipate as Possible Make Patching for the Outcome as Cheap as Possible Notify your players of your events!

Writing Massive Choice Events Refactor Existing Content When You Have to Create Content Try to Make it Reusable (your content team will love you) Ignore What I Said Above: Don’t Be Afraid to use One Offs for Big Calumniating Events

Writing Massive Choice Events Learn from ARGs Utilize All Aspects of Your World Simple Entry Points, Complex Interactions Reward Knowledge of the Game Lore

Patching According to Events When to Patch? How Many Patches Can You Stretch the Result Over? What to Do About the Unexpected…

GMs and DMs

Real DMs? In an Unsharded World, a Limited Number of DMs Become Cost Effective Should You Hire a DM? DM Tools are the Key (Keep this in mind through the next few slides…)

The Role of The DM DM as DM DM as NPC DM as Mob DM as Realtime World Builder

Writing for Player Politics

Writing to Shape Player Politics Incentivize Player Politics Allow Player Interaction to Effect the Storyline and the World Stir Up Trouble

Factions and Guilds Force Players to Choose Sides Give People Something to Associate With and Something to Root For Create Common Enemies to Bring Groups Together and Mix Up the Political Landscape.

A Brief Recap

Questions?