The Ludology versus Narratology debate (which I’ll just call LvN from now on!) pops up in the most surprising places.

While at the Austin Game Conference, this little exchange took place on a panel about risk in massively multiplayer online games:

Damion Schubert (Shadowbane) was explaining that he thought massively multiplayer gaming had gone too far down the content road. He thought developers should focus less on content and get serious about mechanics. Why? Because content is consumed by the voracious appetites of the players for play time and developers are constantly behind schedule and over budget trying to feed the content beast. Besides, the stories these content updates represent aren’t even that interesting to the players—they want to make up their own stories based on their own play.

Rather, he thought the solution was to create places for 3,000 or so people to go and have fun. He wanted to focus on the kinds of fun things people could do while logged into the world. He pointed to football as an example and explained that people make their own stories out of the experience of being there. But it is the endless joy of watching the play unfold inside the rule system that brings the crowds back week after week.

In response, Raph Koster (Star Wars Galaxies) asked how many people had purchased the Star Wars movies. Lots of hands went up. “More than once?” he continued. Still plenty of hands in the air and a few nervous laughs.

His point—the story matters. Tons.

Raph and Damion didn’t square off (no PvP). But it was fun to watch. LvN. Right there in the middle of a game development conference with real game developers arguing the same basic questions that the academics kick around.

See, I knew all this Ivory Tower stuff was about real issues!