[MUD-Dev] Codename Blue & Facets - Nick Yee's new studies

[Koster]

From: Koster, Raph

A couple of notes prompted by an off-list reply.

>   Another thing worth observing is that despite the lower
>   "addiction" factor and the lower hours played per week, UO was
>   still just about evenly matched with EverQuest in terms of
>   likely retention and satisfaction. And on average, both EQ and
>   UO had pretty close levels of Relationship factor overall across
>   their playerbase. In other words, the least addictive and most
>   immersive game, was equally competitive in terms of
>   relationship-building and in terms of retention.

It should be noted that this is *for current users,* *for current
users hardcore enough to answer a survey,* and *for the current
state of the game*. Clearly, UO has had higher churn rate over its
lifespan, and the nature of the game has changed a lot. So perhaps a
better statement would be:

For devotees of each game, currently UO and EQ are pretty close in
expected retention despite the lower "addictive" factor in UO.

It's most revelatory when contrasted with the stats for DAoC. But
basically, addiction is not strongly correlated with what players
perceive as their retention. And immersion is not correlated with
addiction. And EQ's higher stats in general can be understood by
looking at its higher Relationship score.

> - Corollary: cooperation is not as critical in these games as
> commonly thought. Neither is the Skinner box.

>   Lesson for us developers: Build relationships. Not teams, and
>   not advancement ladders.

That should be "not JUST teams" and "not JUST advancement ladders"
obviously. :) My hyperbole ran away from me.

-Raph
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