Friday, November 13, 2020

The Bandits Do Their Laundry

Elder Scrolls Online is currently one of the most popular MMOs with over 15 million players and while I’m sure there are many reasons for its remarkable success, I believe one is that the world is carefully crafted and not just made.

While exploring one of the many dungeon delves across Tamriel, I noticed that the bandits who lived and would soon die by my hand had done their laundry. It was hanging up between a few tents with a desk in it, near some barrels, weapon rack, cooking fire, and various other details like a very nice and out of place chair—all stolen no doubt.  

It was completely unnecessary and they could have had the NPC bandits just standing around near some crates, barrels and maybe a fire and nobody would have complained. Zenimax, was not content with that level of detail and immersion so I carefully made my way around the dungeon, slaughtering its inhabitants as I went, to see the details. Remarkably, this sort of immersive detail was scattered throughout a simple dungeon delve.

I believe there is a very valuable lesson for any writer, dungeon master, game developer, or cartographer: the little details make the world. This isn’t to say you always have to mention the laundry, but adding small details instantly adds to believability and immersion.

Think about the most popular fantasy worlds like Middle Earth, Azeroth, the Imperium of Man, Gotham, Krynn, the Star Wars universe, Narnia, Hybora, Westeros, and Tamriel (Skyrim at least), and they are all filled with depth starting with small details. So take a moment and add a few small things to your world if you are creating one, or at least stop and smell the fresh laundry before continuing the slaughter.

 

3 comments:

  1. Too many details overwhelms the player, like reading procedural historiographies in Dwarf Fortress. Too little detail exposes the mechanics too much and the world's lore is lost. An extreme is in immersive sims. Usually the levels are too small to justify a procedural system for detailing, so the handcrafted aspect of environmental storytelling becomes a vital part of the design. Skewed position of props, loose messages, crumbling walls, and empty wine barrels are the starting points of hidden quests, deep lore, and the all-too-familiar disappointment of ~minor loot~. Yet always, it is deeply satisfying to see.

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  2. Back when I had time, those were the "fun" details in filling out a RPG party, like a low-stakes game of darts or arm wrestling (next round of beer) to estimate strength or dexterity. Made the evening more enjoyable, and it didn't take much work for it.

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  3. It’s a difficult balance adding a few elements of extra detail to ‘sell’ the player that this is a real, breathing reality vs overwhelming them with too much clutter.
    I think it’s a matter of drawing them in first with interesting characters, and a handful of intriguing elements to begin with, then expand them so the player cares about more and more of the world until they’re drawn into it and actively want these extra elements to support them continuing to buy into the setting.

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