[MUD-Dev] Re: Meta-games (not META list ;))

[Jez]

Michael Sellers wrote:

> Game-oriented spaces, for all their current niche-ness, have
> proven literally orders of magnitude more popular and longer-lived
> than pure social spaces like graphical chat rooms, message boards,
> etc.. And, beyond the mechanics of chatting, game spaces really
> don't resemble chat rooms in terms of their use and mechanics.  I
> don't think the way we've been creating MMOGs is the way we're
> going to keep being able to create them, but neither is going
> (back) to chatrooms the answer.  Purely social spaces are, IMO,
> the past, not the future.

Forgive me for jumping in (I'm fairly new to the list) but this is
something of a pet interest of mine. It needs nurturing, mind...

A key part of MMOGs is, to many players, the social aspect. Both
communicating and teaming up - getting to know people halfway across
the world, and even making good friends. I know a MMOG won't hold my
attention for long if it doesn't have a half-decent social network
somewhere. In many MMOGs I've played, there has been either an
external chat system (e.g. IRC provided by the game provider - often
after a community has started forming; forums) or the ingame system
has been 'overloaded' for social as well as purely game-oriented
conversation (Both terrifying to newbies due to the huge number of
players talking at once). But, as you say, socialising with a
game-related purpose appeals to players a lot more than a game
having chatting as it's raison d'etre; TSO's pizza-making (and, in
other games, teaming up to kill a particularly scary monster) brings
people together a lot more than There's forced mixers, or, at least,
doesn't force the players to become outgoing and social for its own
sake.

I think MUDs got the balance right; a parallel communication stream
together with questing. You can chat and kill, chat and play a
sub-game, chat and solve puzzles, chat and do nothing else until
someone is in need of your skills, not chat at all... I've not seen
that level of communication focus in MMOGs, unless we count the TSO
and There type games (which you have rightly IMO pointed out lack a
real 'game' orientation). Is there a way to bridge the gap between
communication based entertainment and 'real' gaming? I think so. But
anything that tried would have to try pretty hard not to get
labelled as just another graphical chat room - and also try pretty
hard not to be boring.

A chat-only world is a kind of paradise. Strive for
self-improvement, be the best at Logic, make ten pizzas without any
burning (meta-games, eh?) but at the end of the day they are just as
boring as utopia itself. (Look at the reality TV shows - everyone
leaves the house/jungle/box saying 'but by gods, was I bored'). But
an interesting point is who is stimulated and who not by games like
TSO and There; I've noticed that the gender balance is impressive
(admittedly /perceived/ gender balance as gender selection is
free). Is it that chat-oriented games appeal more to female players
and quest-oriented games more to male players? Or is that just a
freak of statistics? *shrug* It's an interesting question, IMO. And
if anyone wants to point me to relevant resources, feel free.

  -J

[Disclaimer-type-thing: I'm not an expert and haven't played every
single game out there. If my sweeping generalisations offend you or
are Just Plain Wrong - if there are counterexamples - I'd love to
hear by private e-mail. =)]
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev