Creating An Online Game: Part 1- Basic Design Tips
After a lot of hemming and hawing, I did decide to go back to being an online Storyteller for White Wolf. I still stand by my earlier article that online games usually fail, but I'm willing to redirect some of that cynicism into a more creative approach and help establish what can be done to make large online WoD succeed.
The very first issue that needs to be addressed is measuring success. In any RPG, success is measured in the quality of the players' experience. Are all the players, not just one, not just the ST, but all the players having fun? Do all of the players feel like their basic needs both IC and OOC are being acknowledged and responded to? If asked to rate the game they are playing in or storytelling for on a scale of 1 to 10, would 95% of the group give the game 8 or higher? If the answers to these questions are yes, then your game is a success in my opinion.
Despite all of the problematical issues in providing both quality and quantity to a large player base, I believe that there are a few steps that a game administrator can take to drastically increase the odds that his game will become an Internet success story.
1. Establish Your Game Paradigm
Before you do anything else, before you create a plot or make a home page, you need to establish your game paradigm. Out of all the White Wolf game systems available, what is going to be your paradigm? This is particularly important in World of Darkness games, where so many paradigms are being offered. Even if your game is going to be crossover, you have to decide which corebook will serve as the cosmological and game mechanic foundation and then stick to it. Rather than attempting to run a Werewolf game and a Vampire game in the same chat, decide which of the two paradigms you will use. Let's say I choose Werewolf Revised. This is now my paradigm. I'll be using the combat rules for Werewolf Revised, and make any necessary adaptations to Vampire PCs or NPCs necessary so that they fit as vampire characters in a Werewolf game. You'll need to make it clear before the chat even opens what your paradigm is and how this will affect crossover.
2. Don't Skimp On Preparation
Chat games have a very high player to Storyteller ratio. Players could log in hundreds of hours as their characters between their opportunities to confer with a Storyteller, interact with an NPC or update their character sheets. Storytellers can expect to be bombarded with requests and demands from the instant they open their game, so they need to put as much time and energy as they can in being prepared to give all the players the information they will need to play in advance. Web pages with codes of conduct, character creation specifications, the story premise, noted NPCs with descriptions and/or pictures, a list of locations available for players, e-mail addresses, message boards, etc., need to be done and double-checked for spelling, grammar and continuity errors before the first player is ever invited in to play. Neglecting or postponing making all of this information immediately and easily accessible to all potential players is one of the most common failings for new online groups, and something we learned the hard way in New Bremen. Its better to write something up, and then alter it after getting player feedback then to have no guidelines for the beginning players to utilize.
Latest Articles