[MUD-Dev] Community feeling (was: To good to be TRUE, in an MMPORPG?)

[Alex Kay]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave Rickey" <daver at mythicentertainment.com>

> Basicly, we're going to need some kind of major breakthrough to
> get cohesive community past the 150 player mark.  Scale alone
> isn't going to deliver it (unless "Guns, Germs, and Steel" is
> correct, and just making a 50,000 player gameworld will tip us
> over some magic boundary).

I've been playing AO a little, but having trouble getting 'into' it
for some reason. One conclusion I'm coming to is that there is no
sense of community. Maybe this can be attributed to it's youth or
currently buggy state. However, I believe the following points are
also playing a large part;

  1. One 'server' with a large (10,000+) population - This sounds
  good in theory, but in practice...

  2. No visible names, so no immediate recognition of others - PC
  appearance needs to be more visibly unique for this to work.

  3. No 'fixed' dungeons to explore & have a shared experience - and
  that doesn't mean having to be in a group either.

  4. Rewarding, individual quest dungeons - you aren't going to meet
  anyone in there.

The whole thing feels very impersonal, and you often feel your
playing a single player game. Despite EQ's flaws, and my tendancy to
play 'solo', I rarely experienced this feeling...

It's funny, because before experiencing them for myself, I was
in favour of those points above. A case of 'careful what you wish
for' it seems.

Alex


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