quote: Original post by Falden

in a fantasy setting, though, you must keep in mind that their techniques for making alcahol probably aren''t as efficient as nowadays, so it would probably be harder to get hammered. (unless, of course, they hire mages to do it for them)

Actually, in the Middle Ages children drank stronger beer than most beers are today.

-Jussi

I think ahw''s point about the difference between meeting someone on-line (be it in a mud or chatroom) and meeting someone in RealLife is extreamly valid.

(Just thinking of the top of my head, may be 100% BS) This is why.

Population.
Average mud game I''ve played has a population of 1 to 100 people. Avegare city/town is quite a lot more.

If you walked into town and there was only 2 people there, I think the chances are you would start chatting. Probally something like "Where the f*&% is everyone!"

When you go into a pub, the world of 5 billion is suddenly reducted down to twenty. The Pub becomes the entire world for the duration... BS maybe but just a thought.

I think when the online population of games becomes more, pubs will become more important (though the drink wouldn''t be (unless M$ can invent DirectBooze)).

Though still online and RealLife will differ. There are no monster infested forests in RealLife..


What else do you need; besides a miricle.
Money. Lots of Money. or I''ll never do a sequel!

I should have stated earlier that i''m not making a mmorpg, this is all just theory and learning from my behalf.

Ok now that that''s out of the way. I''d like to eleborate on the issue of "Balloon Talk".

quote: By Moth
Fourth, if you want people to have to be nearby to hear stuff, make it so they can''t hear a person unless they can see them-

This is exactly what i was thinking. "What would happen if" you made it so that if people wanted to talk then they would have to be able to see the person they are talking to? You would open a pandora''s box for new game design elements to work their way in. Think about if a character could gain the skill to be 99.99% invisible to other players. You''d have clans sneaking into other clan bases to eaves drop on each others plans. The list of new game elements would really multiply from this one game element like a cataylst.

quote:
You can still have a nice, normal, scrolling textbox for chat.

So this "normal scrolling textbox" would only read what people in you''re viewing area would say? Similar to Diablo Online.

You''d want a pretty big world wouldn''t you, or you could just have lots of worlds.






I love Game Design and it loves me back.

Our Goal is "Fun"!

Paul : I agree with Moth that ballon text is cluttering. BUT I agree much more with the tons of benefit you can do by simply making the simple fact of talking a much more complex feature. First there are the cool eavesdropping features you mention, but there also could be some cool things like different languages.
Personally, I think you could actually mix balloon speech and scrolling textbox. Just use a method similar to what I have seen in the Sims. I think they simply have a ballon indicating their emotion above their heads. Actually, this would be pretty useful, allowing the players to use moods ... why not have their face doing smiles, or crying, etc, popping up above the players sprites ?? And the actual text would be available if you can hear/undestand it in a scrolling textbox, that you could scroll through without problem; though I think you shouldn''t have a buffer ... after all, in RealLife, if you don''t listen to people, that''s your own problem ... just allow the game to make it possible to have a better memory, or some spell, etc.

Neoreality : actually, I was more pointing to the fact that pubs are not needed, because the main goal in life is that in a pub you get drunk (well, first you get merry ). you get drunk not because you are an alcoholic, but because it help and facilitate social contacts ... which is a hard thing to do most of the time.
you point that few people around will make people want to talk to each other is actually quite good. But my opinion is still that the main difference is the absence of the physical element in the communication process.

Selkrank : you should taste the stuff we got up here in Ireland I you are judging beer on piss like Budweiser ... I sure think there are stronger things out there.

youpla :-P

The only thing I know about alcohol in the middle ages is that it was often safer to drink than the water.

I think that unless you''re going to be playing some online rpg you won''t even come close to the essence of that which is the pub experience. At least when it comes to the talking to people socially bit. Otherwise they make nice little springboards for plots. I thought it was really cool in Baulder''s Gate when your party encounters another group of adventurers that are ticked at you for your good deeds or something. It would''ve been cool to see more of that, other good guys running around in competition or something.

I''ve never cared much for the way alcohol/drug consumption is portraayed in games. There never seems to be much point. Raising a stat by 1 temporarilly has always seemed pointless. It won''t get that door open, you still won''t convince the guard to let you in, and your character suffers later. Not that I don''t want it in a game, it''s just a "what''s my motivation" sort of thing. (Fallout 2 came close to jumping this hurdle).

Yoshi''s Island for SNES had little things floating around that if you ate (usually accidentilly) the directions on the contoller would reverse, and the screen and terrain would go all wobbly (a flat surface would look like a wave and you had to treat as such). Not anything particularly special, just a sample of how a platform game did it once.

How about if all the text appears in the textbox. When someone speaks to you their onscreen character has a little red dot above it, this little red dot also appears next to the text in the textbox. If someone just talking aloud then you see a orange dot and if your eavesdroping its a black dot. It would be pretty cool spooking people when they can''t see you by talking from shadows. Ventroquilism would be a very handy skill.

If it was a futurist or modern day rpg then you could use radios and com devices to talk long range too.

I love Game Design and it loves me back.

Our Goal is "Fun"!

quote: Original post by ahw

Selkrank : you should taste the stuff we got up here in Ireland I you are judging beer on piss like Budweiser ... I sure think there are stronger things out there.

I count (the American) Budweiser as water (with a slight taste of urine, from what I''ve heard, I have not tasted it myself), not beer. I didn''t say there aren''t strong beers today, just that beers normally(?) aren''t as strong as they were in the Middle Ages.

-Jussi

quote: Original post by Selkrank
I count (the American) Budweiser as water (with a slight taste of urine, from what I''ve heard, I have not tasted it myself), not beer. I didn''t say there aren''t strong beers today, just that beers normally(?) aren''t as strong as they were in the Middle Ages.

-Jussi

Well it was all ale and mead back then. Mead was a very common drink and very strong, like a cross between wine and a liquour by today''s standards. It wouldn''t suprise me if some of the irish drinks like guiness had a lot of history behind them. I think i''ve heard that a lot of the ale''s where quite thick, but don''t take my word for that though.



I love Game Design and it loves me back.

Our Goal is "Fun"!

Well I''ve only ever drank Tetley''s Fine English Ale myself, but
it is a very smooth, creamy drink and damn it I want one now!

Paul : that''s basically what I was trying to describe.
Simply replace your dots by something meaningful, like an icon describing a mood, with different colors like you say for instance. Or why not simply a portrait of the onscreen character (a close up that would show jsut next to the guy onscreen).