Mar

27

Musings: The need for conventions

March 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment

As I stroll through the world of Telon in Vanguard, I am struck by how much of it looks strangely familiar to me. Deer, panthers, tortoises roam the lands around me, elm, oak and pine trees grow in vast numbers and ores such as iron and tin can be found among the rocky cliff sides. And as I wander, I feel a vague sense of deja vu, like I had visited this world before.

Struggling to remember why I feel like I have already explored these lands, I run through the possibilities in my head. Was it in a dream? Nope. Did I somehow catch a glimpse of them in the murky mists of a fortuneteller’s scrying crystal? I don’t think so. Suddenly I realize I’ve got it all wrong. I’ve never been to this world at all. It’s simply the same as every other fantasy MMORPG I have ever played no matter which world it is supposedly on.

Oh sure, there are different races and different monsters in every game, but let’s face it – there are going to be: ants, bears, crocodiles, dogs, elephants, frogs, gorillas, horses, iguanas, jaguars, kangaroos, lions, monkeys, nautilous, octopi, pirahna, rats, sharks, tigers, vultures, wolves, yellow jackets, zebras… and plenty more of your garden variety species found right here on quite mundane ol’ Earth. This isn’t an exhaustive list.

But why? Why simply recreate real-world things to place into a fantasy game. Why do developers cede ownership of their own world to that of the one we already know?

Although I have never designed a game, I imagine the desire to maintain certain conventions from the real-world into the fantasy realm serves many purposes.

  1. They immediately enhance player familiarity with your world. Players know what to expect from real-world creatures. Looking at how they are portrayed in your game also gives them a yard-stick by which to judge other creatures which they may be unfamiliar with.
  2. Conventions are easier to design. Who wants to think up all new types for every single organic on a planet? New plants, new animals, new aquatics, new fliers… it’s daunting. So, use some of what you know and fill out the rest of the world with new ones.

I’m sure there are others as well.

When I began thinking about this, I was wondering how a developer might populate a world with all new creatures, plants and even minerals completely unique to that specific game-world. Could it be done?

And if it were done, what impact would this new range of creations have on other dependent sub-systems, such as crafting perhaps?

Would the minerals still be mined as normal? Would leather-working exist as a skill? Would having these kinds of craft skills break the mold of not having real-world conventions?

Should all the weapons be different? Should the fighting techniques be new? Should the classes be different?

It seems like there simply has to be a dividing line somewhere where some things are re-created and some are new, but is where that line is typically drawn the right place?

I’m still mulling this over.


 

 

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