Books in MMORPGs

2006/03/31

Books? In a graphical MMORPG?

"There was lots of reading, much too much, in the game. ... We wanted more instant gratification: kill, get treasure, repeat. We needed to give people more of an opportunity to be a part of what they have seen in the movies rather than something they had created themselves." -- Nancy MacIntyre, senior director of SWG for LucasArts. (New York Times article)

Despite Ms. MacIntyre's position, I'd also like to see books in graphical MMORPGs – in fact, I believe there should be more opportunity for writing in MMORPGs generally. I can easily imagine many kinds of writing:

• "atmosphere" stuff just to add depth to the world
• quest starters
• lore information scattered over many places... but not completely at random
• chronicles of player or guild exploits written by players
• guides to places/quests/gameplay written by players
• extended fiction inspired by the game world

The important point to make here is that (following Ms. MacIntyre) while most players shouldn't have to read a lot to play successfully, there are plenty of people -- albeit mostly Socializers and Explorers -- who would enjoy having opportunities to read and write in a game.

Words shouldn't be mandatory in graphical games, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't exist at all.