Okay, time for me to start a subject. Story Telling is a major past time in most cultures. I often find myself in the role of a story teller, it's always ad hoc, it's always accompanied with pantomiming and some form of audience participation. In games, we are fed a story. It's usually the same story that mostly does not change through repeated playings of the game. We also never leave a mark on the game (specifically, in the context of online community based games). For most people, as soon as you leave the game you are forgotten. Some of the users may remember, but the users are just as transient as you are, and they quickly forget things as well. At any rate, the game itself never acknowledges even your existance. The idea then becomes to make story telling an integral part of the game. Through story telling, people and thier actions become a part of the world of the game. A story itself is a living entity, one that lives even in the absence of the story teller him/herself, through mythos and influence on culture. I sort of imagine a game system in which users are encouraged to gather in groups, small and large, and listen to stories. Some kind of ranking/recognition system for good stories... some kind of encouragement to reference elements of the stories of others... who knows. I can see this being an incredibly difficult thing to achieve. Actually, it is by definition a "hard" problem, because the spreading and interrelation of stories has been shown to be an application of graph theory, specifically an NP-Complete application. One idea I immediately had was a concept of Accolades. Essentially, and Accolade is any tangible way in which you can show your appreciation for a story. By default, everyone is capable of the Applause Accolade. It's also valued very low, as essentially it's an infinite resource. So, if you can get a large group of people to applaud your story (presumably because you told a good story), then you receive very high Accolade for that story. Also, the length of time that people applaud could be factored as well. Since the Applause itself is valued so lowly, it would be very difficult for a single user to organize his/her friends to constantly clap for their stories top have any significant gains in Accolade. The only danger is the evolution of an implied Social Contract in which everyone gives very long Applause to all stories, so that everyone always recieves high Accolade. More powerful forms of Accolade could also exist. For example, you might toss a bouquet of flowers at a person, and that might be worth 100 times someone clapping. This is obviously limited to how many bouquets of flowers you can buy, so there is a real connection between giving very high Accolade and receiving a hit to your wallet. This also creates a whole new class of players, story reviewers. A story review can also be evaluated, and if it's well accepted, then it results in extremely high Accolade for the story teller. The stories that are told don't necessarily have to be completely contrived. They could actually be based on events and experiences that occur in the game. In most games, you kill the dragon, save the town, the NPC's are appreciative, and half an hour later the game world respawns and everyone forgets everything. The users in the game laugh at you for bragging about killing the dragon, they've all done it a million times before. In this concept of the story telling world, quest have to be HARD. They have to be truely heroic events. And they can't be repeatable. Hopefully, by making them extremely hard, and overtly dramatic, it will encourage people to create a cultural mythos. Think about it, where did the stories of Hercules, Odysseus, and Achilles come from? I think that a man named Hercules once existed, and he was a brave warrior. He certainly never cut the heads off of any Hydra monster, but he certainly did something that was of great merit and heroism for the time. Replicating this phenomenon of the creation of legends is the goal. So, users tell stories, attempting to build a unique mythos in the game world. This mythos represents a tangible impact of that user in the world. The game world evolves, and grows organically. Players recieve recognition for things they do in the game. New game elements are also created.

Keep in mind, my experience with online games is limited. Also keep in mind I'm currently on medication, and your comments surely deserve a more thorough response than I'm about to give them.

You describe an activity gamers don't normally take part in while gaming, storytelling. Well, perhaps they "take part" in the storyline, but they usually aren't actively telling a story. Most online games (or games in general) are competitive, and storytelling is typically a social, non-competitive (cooperative or even collaborative) activity. Establishing a game that's less competitive may require a different type of gamer (women perhaps).

It's interesting that you eventually describe a system for competitive storytelling. And what are the rewards for being a good storyteller, other than receiving accolades?

I think many gamers are or would be reluctant to heap praise on other gamers, simply because, since their single-player inception, games have put players in the role of the singular hero. Gamers are used to being the one and only hero in the game world. Sharing that spotlight isn't as fun (I don't think).

I think you're not only describing an issue with games, but with how gamers approach games.

I don't think that this is a problem of competition v. cooperation, so much as active v. passive participation. If I'm playing a game, I want to play the game -- not listen to somebody else tell a story about themselves (or someone else) playing the game. I already listen to my friends' stories of various incidents in WoW, and it's just like people talking about D&D campaigns -- great if you were involved, completely disinteresting if you weren't. "Accolades" might provide a reason for storytellers to sit around and tell stories, but what's going to convince anyone else to sit around and listen and applaud -- when they could be off finding their own dragon to slay?