Jason T Clark.net

If anyone here is interested in raising the level of immersion in your virtual worlds or online games, especially those that leverage bots and NPCs, then take a look at this post on gamasutra.com. I found it this morning as I was doing my morning sweep through the game industry sites (as usual) and this one stopped me in my tracks. It takes a look at the idea behind using dialogue and the various forms of communication that have emerged over time with respect to NPCs in games and virtual worlds.

One thing that I thought- environments like Second Life could use more NPCs and bots. Not everyone you run into HAS to be controlled by a warm body. Often times with environments like SL, that touts the idea that everyone you encounter is REAL, isn’t really a selling point for me. For example, there are plenty of virtual stores in Second Life, and upon entering them, you’ll notice that there is no one around, which leaves you to experience that store’s products and services through menu driven screens and text-based dialogue boxes. IMHO, the NPC element adds a level of “warmth” to an otherwise ghost town-like environment, that isn’t very inviting at all if no one is around; breathing or not.

MMO designers get this, but the mission is a bit different from social marketplace environments like SL. Quests are given from NPCs in MMOs, that allow you to experience what the game has to offer on your own to a certain extend. Shop owners are often times NPCs too. This is where I think SL can borrow from. I mean, even in real life, the customer service employees of certain establishments have scripted communications with is customers. This seems to translate well in the metaverse I think for very specific social and business related communique.

But I digress, check out the post if you’re into it…..and by the way, we do cover a bit of this in the Platform Second Life book as well…sorry, shameless plug