Lessons I've Learned No. 1: Stop Kicking the Anthill

It's no secret that I've drawn a lot of inspiration from series television, especially the space opera epic of Babylon 5. That show got particularly good the moment John Sheridan stated that the station was declaring independence and standing against the government he no longer believed in.

I loved watching those walls fall down.

So, when I started OtherSpace, it was with the intent for the game to grow and evolve with similar dramatic peaks. That's why we saw events like the near-collapse of the Stellar Consortium and the civil war in the Parallax. It's why we ended up putting the entire playerbase aboard Sanctuary and shifted the game off to Hiverspace for six months, only to come back and fit it was now the 31st Century in normalspace.

I liked kicking the anthill. But I can't keep kicking the anthill.

This lesson I've learned: Soap operas and series television, with their slate-changing dramatic moments, are fun to watch. They are NOT so fun to live and breathe.

A fundamental truth that I've come to accept is that although we make a very clear divide between the player and the character from a storytelling perspective, there's no denying an emotional connection between the two. When a player creates a character on OtherSpace, it's with a sense that the character will change and grow based on events and interactions with other characters - not necessarily that the character and the player must constantly adapt to the dramatic whims of the game's lead storytellers.

The best moments on OtherSpace aren't when I kick the anthill. They're when I break out a magnifying glass and hold the lens over the hill's inhabitants.

So, that's why Event Cards came to be. That's why Roleplaying Belts now provide encouragement for players to become referees and event managers. And that's why the more intensive activities on the MUSH these days are focused on the player level.

Grander changes are still afoot in the universe at large, so don't get me wrong. But I'm trying to develop those events through news articles and localized activities. Players deserve a chance to shine a lot more than I deserve to blow up another planet or raze a spacefleet with another mighty alien armada.

We've got lots of stories to tell. We don't have to keep blowing up the world to mine for new material.