FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN, SECOND EDITION
THE PLAYER’S ROLE
In a single-player, plot-driven game, the player's role is defined by the actions he is allowed to take and is constrained by the requirements of the story. In a persistent world, the player doesn't follow a single storyline, so he may, in theory, choose from a larger variety of things to do and has more opportunities to define his own role. The early persistent worlds offered only a limited number of roles, but modern ones are increasingly rich and varied.
As the designer, you must supply an assortment of possible roles the player may take on and make those roles meaningful in your world. You should also give the player the freedom to change her role (though not always easily or immediately) as she sees fit. Because the world continues indefinitely without coming to a narrative conclusion, you can't expect the player to want to play the same way forever. Just as people change careers and hobbies over time, players need to be able to change roles.
GAMEPLAY
Finally, there's the question of the gameplay. Without a victory condition, you can't simply offer the player a predefined sequence of challenges and achievements as her ultimate objective. In the familiar persistent worlds designed like role-playing games, the player's objective is to advance her character. She (usually) accomplishes this by fighting AI-controlled opponents, such as monsters, although she could also attain many other things as well: wealth, political power, fame (or notoriety), and so on.
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In a single-player game, the player tries to read the designer's mind to some extent, to figure out what you want him to do, and then he does it. His play is often reactive, a response to challenges thrown at him. In a persistent world, the player decides for himself what he wants to do. He seeks out challenges if he feels like it, but he can spend all his time socializing if he prefers. His gameplay—and, indeed, the entire nature of the experience—is expressive and active rather than reactive. This quality of persistent-world play has profound effects on the design of such worlds, as you will see later in this section.
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WHERE DOES SECOND LIFE FIT IN?
Second Life is a widely publicized online environment that allows users (known in the environment as residents) to build landscapes and a nearly unlimited variety of artifacts, including avatars and buildings, and sell them to one another. They may also interact with each other in a wide variety of ways. Users access the virtual world through a client, just as players of MMOGs do. However, unlike MMOGs, Second Life does not offer quests to achieve, combat or other types of challenges, a system for leveling characters up, or any of the other gameplay features typical of persistent worlds. It is simply an environment, and what happens in it is entirely up to the users. They can build their own games within the game world if they want to, but the system does not include many tools for implementing and enforcing the rules. All land in the game consists of islands in the sea that are owned by the residents (except for a few islands used for training new arrivals). Users must purchase an island in the sea from the operators, Linden Labs, if they want to construct their own environment. A built-in scripting language allows objects in the game to perform behaviors when a resident interacts with them.
Residents in Second Life may instantaneously teleport or fly their avatars to any location in the world that is not private (most are open). Residents use the virtual world for social interaction, personal expression, education, evangelism, and as a means of offering virtual goods and services for sale. A number of corporations and a small number of countries have opened “offices” in Second Life as a means of informing people about themselves.
Because every object and even the landscape in Second Life may be modified or deleted at any time, the user's client software must continually download the graphics for the virtual world. This is not true of most MMOGs, where the landscape is largely static and cannot be modified by the players. The constant data transmission required by Second Life creates a time lag in displaying the graphics that would be unacceptable in most MMOGs. Second Life is not intended for real-time play the way World of Warcraft is.
For the moment, Second Life is unique or nearly so. It costs nothing to use, although residents must purchase Linden dollars (the in-game currency) with real money if they want to purchase in-world artifacts, and there is a price for some premium services. But it is not an MMOG.
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