Tattered Page

I have another favorite quote from Secondhand Lions (my other one can be found here).  It’s a great tale of coming of age, adventure, growing old, and, important for here, adventure.  When Hub McCann (brought to life by Robert Duvall) is confronted by an overconfident troublemaker, hub replies:  

I’m Hub McCann. I’ve fought in two World Wars and countless smaller ones on three continents. I led thousands of men into battle with everything from horses and swords to artillery and tanks. I’ve seen the headwaters of the Nile, and tribes of natives no white man had ever seen before. I’ve won and lost a dozen fortunes, killed many men and loved only one woman with a passion a flea like you could never begin to understand. That’s who I am. Now, go home, boy!

Text really doesn’t do this justice. see the movie.

So, what does this have to do with gaming?  

In MMO’s, our heroes- whether knights or ninjas, space pirates or superheroes- are adventurers… and Hub’s words exemplify what a true adventurer is to me. 

There are different playstyles and preferences out there, certainly, but as designers, we shouldn’t forget that we have methods to subtly influence motivations- we craft our own player base in many ways. 

I like Hub’s description because it identifies so many of the motivations we know from Bartle’s Taxonomy… all wrapped into one.  Sure, we may gravitate to one or another extreme, but too many people have taken the taxonomy as an either-or, rather than all parts of a complete person.

… led thousands of men into battle…. (achiever)…seen the headwaters of the Nile (explorer), and tribes of natives no white man had ever seen before (explorer). I’ve won and lost a dozen fortunes,(achiever) killed many men (achiever/killer) and loved only one woman with a passion (socializer) a flea like you (killer)could never begin to understand.

Ok, maybe a little on the achiever end… but look at how those achievements are measured.  They’re experiences.  Not measured by level progression or any tiered system, but completion of a story, participating in something… epic.  What if we could somehow instill THAT kind of feeling in the game, rather than saying “achievers are rewarded by leveling and phat lewt?” 

(As I write this, I noticed The Gaming Bitch has posted something on classes & skills in storytelling, where she’d like to see players “qualify their time played by what they accomplished” rather than leveling… so maybe I’m not alone in this quest.)

I’m also drawn to Hub’s ”I’ve won and lost a dozen fortunes” line.  Every MMO I’ve ever encountered has been about trophy collecting.  The constant accumulaton of stuff.  Losing stuff is bad.  Losing valuable stuff is grounds for quitting.  If we can make the adventure, not the reward, define the hero, can we make things a little less immaterial?  Can we make the loss of stuff just another challenge to part of the epic journey? 

Now, Hub & Garth DO have a fortune in their old age… nothing wrong with ending up on top.  It just didn’t define their lives…and they lived.

What would it take to make players’ characters really live like that?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 at 8:04 pm and is filed under Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.