Gender-inclusive quest design in massively multiplayer online role-playing games

Studying the genealogy of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG), it is easy to trace their lineage back to table-top RPG systems such as Dungeons & Dragons. Because these table-top games were built around a discrete system of rules and calculations, it was very simple to transfer these systems to their computer-based counterparts. Unfortunately, the majority of these calculations focused primarily on combat, leaving the dungeon master (DM) to integrate the players' non-combat role-playing efforts such as story-arc and character development into the game. While the math-based rules of the table-top RPGs were easily integrated into the computer role-playing games, it was not possible to convert the DM into a computer system [11]. With the loss of the DM, these games also lost their depth; typically becoming combat-centric systems with a thin story veneer and a shallow quest system focused on combat.