[MUD-Dev] Re: MMO Communities

[HRose]

Jeff Freeman wrote:

> That said: Yes, I design games based on my own preferences and
> experiences, not based on how I think a million other people might
> feel.  I'm going to be fairly unapologetic about that, too,
> because I think game designers who design purely via survey
> results and data collection make crap for games.  hat we should
> just keep making EQs."

/applaud.

> And it can even fail to encourage social interaction, if the game
> is too fast-paced to allow anyone time to chat, or too shallow to
> provide anything to chat about.  Ah, but the closest we get to
> pacing is "socialization requires downtime" and no one ever talks
> about how important depth and complexity is to social interaction
> at all.

Actually noone reads what I wrote. I'd love a parser that translates
what I think in readable and fun english like Lum is able to. But
aside the millions of words, that what I tried to explain.

The socialization must happen in the game. Not outside it. The
social interaction must be about the gameplay itself, not outside
it. Downtimes are moments where the designer choose to break the
gameplay to offer a space. This space is empty to be filled with
socialization. Is a break for the game. I think, instead, that the
socialization must be brought back to the gameplay. Because I'm sure
it's able to provide a lot of *fun* Instead of hindering it.

The players shouldn't stop to play to discuss politics or
football. They should play the social part. Talking about the game
and for the game. This already happens with the roleplay, but then
the real roleplay is rare and it's not a design issue. What I think
is that it's possible to build structures where players have
communal goals to achieve. This excuses the social interaction
because you aren't providing a forced interaction to a personal goal
impossible to achieve otherwise. Instead you are providing a
gameplay that includes the socialization as a natural element. Not
alienating, but perfectly coherent within the game.

And this is all about "how important depth and complexity is to
social interaction". Till now to promote this social interaction the
solution was to add a forced timesink. Requoting myself:

"You know, I'm so stupid to think that you can encourage social
interaction WITH the gameplay. And not without it."

-HRose / Abalieno
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