[MUD-Dev] The Future of MMOGs... what's next?

[Amanda Walker]

On 6/14/02 11:18 AM, Koster, Raph <rkoster at soe.sony.com> wrote:

> I suspect (sadly) that if you want to make a MMMOO (to coin a
> terrible terrible acronym) you have to persuade the gaming market
> to buy it and use it. A long time ago I made the statement on this
> list (to Dr. Cat, I believe) that virtual worlds were going to
> have to include games for the foreseeable future, for precisely
> that reason.

One of the reasons I got back into multiplayer games after I'd
pretty much stopped participating in text MUDs is that it was
becoming very clear that games were where VR was actually happening.
VRML and such were all very well and good, but actual non-demo VR
was happening in FPS games, EQ, AC, etc.

One thing that games bring to VR is simply a reason to participate.
"pure" VR systems (like CommunitySpace, AlphaWorld, etc.) were very
cool but underpopulated.  And just like the value of a network
increases with the number of places that are reachable by it, the
value of a virtual environment increases with the number of people
participating.  Until they get large enough, and have enough content
available in them, to be self sustaining, I think that some "hook"
will continue be necessary for any virtual environment that doesn't
want to become a museum exhibit when the novelty wears off.


Amanda Walker

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