[MUD-Dev] Re: MMO Communities

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad]

"Michael Sellers" <mike at onlinealchemy.com> writes:

> Solo play is a valid activity, but not one that catalyzes
> long-term player retention like group-based play does.  Also, solo
> gameplay seems to me to be much better explored than group-based
> gameplay.

I don't know about rentention, but social interaction does of course
make you feel more welcome in the system: "My role here is
meaningful". On the other hand, I think at least some designers
could do more to not create designs that make socialization
difficult... Hehe. Start by removing the barriers! LOL

Very strong requirement to grouping can lead to good and bad
things. It can lead to people getting over a threshold and start
socializing, but it can also lead to:

  1. Bad and tiresome social interaction with no repeated encounters
  so you don't get to know other players well, or groups with no
  social interaction, just powerplay/greed.

  2. Players sticking to only teams with players they know very
  well, which only works for hardcore players that play for hours
  every day. And... you risk them all disappearing at once.

I agree that you clearly need to reward teaming, soloplay can be
more efficient as you don't get the coordination overhead. And as
your essay points out there are many things you can do to encourage
teaming. Simple things like heal-others-but-not-self spells,
cooperative escape strategies from danger zones etc.

> You're right that you don't want to have people frustrated because
> they can't form a group or find the right people, but in terms of
> the overall game it's a question of which is the preferred mode:
> do you gain more benefits and have more fun alone or in a group?
> Right now the balance is often tipped toward solo play, or a few
> bonuses are given for grouping together.  IMO a lot more can be
> done for team/group-based play that will make it much more
> attractive to the players.

I think we all would benefit from thinking back on the situations
where we felt that we were having a truly good time in the
world. For me those tend to be situations where I walked into the
wilderness all by myself, and was helped by someone else and
continued teaming with them. Ok, so this is not your every day
experience, but to me these situations where you bond through action
then team are much better then the ones where you start out with a
one hour teaming contract, then leave the city...

I am not at all happy about the very cohesive designs. I prefer the
ad-hoc tag-along teaming over the enforced teaming.

Another issue is that players are allowed to be too powerful in some
designs... So cooperative efforts are only needed in the special
raid or camping cases, and not in your everyday virtual life...

--
Ola - http://folk.uio.no/olag/
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