The only problem with Tobold’s idea to have MMOs play like the Fighting Fantasy choose your own adventure books, is that some poor developer has got to invent a way for the players to be able to simulate using their fingers to mark five or six different pages, such that that they can go back to previous decisions when they don’t like where the story is taking them; such as into a deep pit of spiky death.
And how would this affect PvP?
Player1: “Ha, haaaa! Critical hit!”
Player2: “Yeah? Well, I’m going back to page 71, and instead of choosing ‘If you dodge to the right, go to page 127’, I’ll pick ‘If you dodge to the left, go to page 1145’. So now I’ve dodged your blow. Ha!”
Player1: “Oh YEAH? Well, instead of picking ‘If you swing your sword in a broad arc to the left, go to page 276’, I’m going back to page 389 and choosing ‘If you kick your opponent squarely in the nuts, go to page 413’. So take that!”
Player2: “Ooooof. Awww <pant> now you’ve made me <gasp> drop my book and lose my place.”
Player1: “Woo! Winnah! And now I’m choosing ‘If you decide to teabag your opponent while stealing their equipment, go to page 1337.’ Let’s see now… 1334… 1335… 1336…”
Player2: “…”
Player1: “1337”
Player2: “Nooooooooooooo!”
What Tobold spectacularly misses is that the Fighting Fantasy books only really had a single story. There were minor deviations available on occasion, but in general if you strayed from the main plot you ended up dead.
We are already playing in virtual Fighting Fantasy books. No matter who we are or where we choose to travel we have lots of little individual quests to complete that cause us to end at the same destination.
On a slightly related note:
http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2008/06/23/bad-habits/
Fighting Fantasy books that never were!
So very true.
Ah, bookmarking previous paragraphs with fingers, the Quicksave and Quickload of Fighting Fantasy days…
The PvP reminded me of a couple of books that worked a bit like that, White Warlord & Black Baron, and some Googling around those turned up Project Aon, which has them and a bunch of other Joe Dever stuff (with his blessing), huzzah!
Back to our beloved MMOGs, I don’t think Conan was such an advancement really; the night quests of Tortage were just standard MMO fare, only without having to stand in a queue to be able to kill Invincible Geoff the Never Dying for the 4th time.
Did anyone ever actually roll the dice to work out the combat in choose-your-own books? I know I never did.
Of course I rolled the dice! It was, err, just a series of very lucky rolls that meant I beat every monster ever without being scratched…