[MUD-Dev] Are gratification-based (online) societies doomed to being immatu re?

[Derek Licciardi]

From: Koster, Raph

[ snipped a bunch of stuff]

> Delphis
> Station Member
>   posted 07-11-2002 09:02 AM

> Nice essay, Singularity, and nice responses.

> There are many types of motivation and reinforcement. People
> respond to different stimuli based on their current needs. The
> [url =http://web.utk.edu/~gwynne/maslow.HTM] Maslow's Heierarchy
> of Needs[/url] is widely held as fairly accurate in determining
> how people will prioritize their values.

> As for MMOG's, I've had mixed experiences. RPG's are very much
> about constant improvement. We like to see our characters grow and
> progress, get stronger and able to do more things. Gratification
> doesn't need to be instant, but we like to know that we are
> working towards some goal, or completing some quest/mission. We
> don't like to have our progress inhibited by other people in any
> way, nor do most people wish to inhibit other people's progress.

> The issue I would argue with you, however, is that these "sterile"
> environments common in PvE games do not require a higher level of
> maturity.  When the goals/quests/missions become so difficult that
> there is simply no other way to accomplish them than by banding
> together with a large force of individuals, we see people coming
> together. Once people have a reason to come together, they become
> more social and generally exhibit much more maturity. Typically,
> someone or a few people will step up to organize the community and
> we have Player Associations or Guilds. Not everyone in the PA will
> act responsibly, but the leaders usually do or the PA breaks up
> shortly.

> People will gravitate towards the type of game that meets their
> needs. Like minded individuals will tend to stick around each
> other. Given the huge variety of options out there in the MMO
> marketplace it is up to the game designers and developers to
> decide which type of crowd they wish to serve.  In SWG's case,
> they're trying for the widest possible audience by incorporating
> so many disparate aspects of gaming: many different kinds of PvP,
> a wide variety of PvE, focus on RP, hundreds of Skills, thousands
> of Crafts, full support of PA's, a massive Civil War, thousands of
> Faction, three sides of Conflict plus Neutrality, etc. There is no
> doubt that SWG will be many different games to many different
> people. And if they do a good job, SWG will surely have millions
> of subscribers through the years.

As I was reading this thread, I became pretty depressed about the
human condition as perceived by the players posting.  Although, I
agree with the posts in the thread, I couldn't help but think, that
this couldn't be the end-all-be-all of MMOGs and psychological
behavior in MMO games.  I certainly couldn't believe that we have
already classified and learned how all behavior exists in MMOs
enough to call it a closed case.  This thread would have the reader
believe that this is the way it is, as much fact as the sky is blue
on a clear day.  I simply am not willing to accept this assertion of
the future as depicted by the empirical analysis in this
thread. (Please read the original thread as I snipped much of it in
favor of brevity.)

I think the "Future of MMOGs" thread discusses the empowerment of
the players to affect the game world/story and the above post seems
to do a good job at drawing a parallel between the SWG concepts and
the future of MMOGs.  It would seem to me that the conclusions that
this SWG thread arrives at (excepting the above post) are purely
empirical in nature and describe only what has been seen.  As they
say in the stock market, "past performance is not an indicator of
future performance".  To a degree this has to be true about MMOG
behavioral patterns; it simply can not be the end of the MMOG
behavioral study.

In my mind there has to be a way to empower the players to create
stronger societies such that the threshold for accepting loss is
raised high enough to support higher forms of cultural and societal
interaction.  We can't have every city war/trade war/political war
resulting in 50% of participants canceling subscriptions because
they lost.  If the threads assessment of players holds true over
time, then it is nearly impossible to build communities in game that
thrive from politics, tradewars, and other emotionally deeper PvP
types.  According to the assessment of players in the thread, most
players would opt out of more mature gameplay because someone had to
lose by engaging in said gameplay.  It also assumes that there can
be no fun on a mass scale where there are losers.  Are we so afraid
of losing customers that we need to restrict the range of emotions
we invoke out of our players through our designs, fearing that any
non-happy/sterile emotion is beyond the capacity of a paying
customer to handle and keep paying?  I'm not sure this will hold
true with the emotionally deeper games of the future; I'm not sure
anything other than the RPG method of old has been tried to prove
otherwise.  SWG may be the first to even begin down the path this
different type of MMOG.  Sure, given the gameplay of today, the
conclusions in the thread are pretty spot on, but again, its
empirical and hopefully not a valid indicator of the future for
these games.

As the post above states, MMOGs will be many things to many people.
That's a significant design challenge.  Perhaps the idea centers
around giving players the tools they need to interact with their
world and enforce the social normals that arise from their
interaction.  Given that power over the world, it seems to me that
it is possible to create a world that delivers a significantly more
mature experience where emotions such as loss, trajedy, and failure
actually enhance the experience rather than detract from it.  As
these games mature, I believe we will have to learn how to utilize
these emotions from our players to effectively enhance the
experience they have while in the game, otherwise we might as well
shut the book and write the thread's assessments on Raph's law
pages.

I'm hoping that SWG opens the floodgates for new and creative ways
to build MMOG communities.  The industry will be better off for it.

Derek


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