[MUD-Dev] Star Wars Galaxies: 1 character per server

[Amanda Walker]

On Monday, December 30, 2002, at 05:20  AM, 
Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com wrote:

> I think we are betraying the games we've played the most. Whilst I
> know it was common in UO to ditch the chat system, I'm certainly
> not convinced it is in EQ, AO or DAOC.

I don't know how common it is in the population at large, but it's
very common among the people I know who play MMO games regularly.
One group (who play both EQ and DAOC) ignore the chat system
completely, and rely on Roger Wilco and telephone conference calls.
I was talking to the guild head last night at a New Years Eve party,
and she noted that the reason for this actually had nothing to do
with the chat system itself--it was a matter of not wanting to
switch modes from "combat" to "typing" and back.  Her guild is group
PvP and group PvM oriented, so combat tends to get complex.  The
membership is also mainly ex-military folks, who are used to using
voice for tactical communication and organization.

For socializing, *all* of the groups I've been involved with in MMO
gaming, no matter what game, have used ICQ, MSN Messenger, or AIM
for cross-server/cross-game/out-of-game chat.

Now, I may well have a very biased sample.  I tend to hang out with
other networking geeks, where email is second nature and IM is
pretty close.

> My main point is that certain tools help people socialise with
> each other (/who, /friends, guildchat & etc) and ought to be
> available all the time if you want to cement in game
> relationships.

I agree.  AO & EQ's out-of-game chat clients are a great step in
this direction.  I'd also enjoy other types of out-of-game
communication from the game itself, not just other players.
Notifications of significant in-game events in email or on my cell
phone, for example.

> It's the same with the zone wide shout channels in EQ, [...]  Its
> funny, I've come to the conclusion that I like old-fangled zone
> based systems purely for the chat aspect of it all. You just don't
> get the same type of interactions in zoneless games.

Hmm.  I enjoy good implementations of vicinity/radius channels.
Zone-wide or server-wide shouts mainly annoy me because they turn
into spam conduits.

Amanda Walker


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