[MUD-Dev] MMORPG Cancellations: The sky is falling?

[Mark Mensch]

Sean Howard writes
>"Mark Mensch" <mark at larping.net> wrote:

>>  First, there is the huge numbers of people playing a single
>>  game.  I won't go into detail this aspect has as any developer
>>  knows what happens when you get thousands of people together
>>  online.  I do not know of other gaming in the past that had that
>>  many active 'real time' players.

> Massively multiplayer is nothing new. Habitat/Club Caribe on the
> Commodore 64 had massive amounts on online people. MUDs aren't
> exactly new either - and while they have generally been between 20
> - 100 simultaneous users, there have been ways that these users
> can interact with the world so that you are effectively playing
> with thousands, a few dozen at a time.

> Whether you have 100 players or 1000 players, the end result is
> essentially the same. There are too many to interact with
> directly, and too many to know personally. Basically, asynchronous
> strangers. So far, I have yet to see any reason why MMORPGs need
> to have multiple thousands of users compared to multiple
> hundreds. I don't see any significant understanding that these
> numbers have over something like Battle.net or even just the
> GameFAQs forums.

I look at the impacts upon a community and society - including that
within virtual space.  The advent of the PC was just a little over 2
decades ago and at that time the communities were between the
'intellectuals' - those that had an understanding about computers,
BBS and other such areas.  There was no mass Internet where everyone
could hook up from one point of the world to the other - you had to
dial with your modem into a message board - and that usually would
be one within your area code - so the communities were small enough
that everyone knew everyone else and you tended to flock towards
like minded people (since the selection and time was low).  So
people tended to behave themselves and treat others the way they
wanted to be treated.  I believe that this worked within the ways
that modern US society had come to expect relations between people
to work.  But when the group's numbers go from 100 to the tens of
thousands, all sorts of personality types collide - and the picture
is (often entertaining but) rarely pretty.

BTW, I will acknowledge my lack of knowledge about the Commodore 64
world.  My friend in college had one (Comp Sci major) and he never
mentioned anything about MMO's.  I was an IBM guy.

>  You don't need MMOGs to understand people.

But you do need MMOG's to understand how they relate to otherw when
their actions affect the enjoyment of another directly with no
meaningful consequences to their actions.  The only ones who can do
that these days IRL are Dictators and Diplomats. :)

>>  Next is the anonymity.  Everyone is basically an unknown.  You
>>  don't know if you are playing with a 13 or 80 year old, male or
>>  female, etc.  Whereas this is not inherently a problem (if they
>>  can play, let them play) the issues come up when people feel
>>  they can take that anonymity to the edge - using it to grief
>>  people, cheat the game and basically do things that they would
>>  never even consider if they were in a face-to-face game.

> That's not anonymity. That's the context of the game. The rules
> you go by - the decisions you make - are defined by this
> context. You aren't anonymous. Sure, you aren't an 18 year old
> nymphomaniac Japanese schoolgirl either, but people can identify
> your avatar out of a crowd. It just doesn't reflect on you
> personally because it is a game. If you get griefed by BuzzCut76,
> you can avoid him and tell others to avoid him as well.

But sometimes you can't avoid them.  They can camp rare spawns,
disrupt your quests by killing your 'boss', loot and kill steal,
entering an event you were going to run and create a scene and
basically just make the game an "unfun" experience.  This has
nothing to do with roleplaying but rather those who find validation
in their own lives by making others suffer.  And this is done with
impunity because of the anonymity of cyberspace.  If such actions
happened in real life - there's police, courts, bodily throwing them
out and many other areas that just aren't possible in an MMO.  I can
lock my door so the pinhead doesn't come into my friday night game.
But all I need is a credit card number (even a stolen one) and I'm
online and in your face again.  SWG has a person on their boards who
totes as a badge of honor the fact that he has been warned, censored
and banned 3 times so far.  And his response?  "Eh, if they lock my
account, I've got 2 more and can always buy more."  Not to mention
the grief I have witnessed first hand when they have found out that
I WASN'T an 18 year old nymphomaniac Japanese schoolgirl :)

> I've seen the effects of the nearly anonymous social adventuring
> go on all the time with my webcomic. You wouldn't believe the kind
> of hate mails I get from people who don't fear having to see me
> the next day or ever again. I certainly don't think that MMOGs,
> and MMOGs alone, are the only place you can find that behavior.

I'm not saying that MMO's is the only place you can find this
behavior.  Definitely on boards and other areas of the Internet.
The thing was that in your original post you mentioned that there
has been centuries of history that wouldn't teach us anything new
about the society and its effects on gaming.  I believe that we are
learning one right now.  What would society be like if there was
absolutely no real consequences for your actions.  And, without
acknowledging these avenues and planning for them in design the
'community' as a whole for that game will decline.  Luckily, many
MMO's now do their best to retard such behavior - but given the
tenacity of the 'griefer', they will find a way.  Example - CoH I
thought had NO WAY of griefing people other than some exp/kill
"steals" (more like sharing but I digress).  Then along comes
"Teleport bosses onto newbies" and BLAM!  Or my favorite - teleport
a wounded teammate high into the air and have him smack into the
pavement INSIDE a mob of high level creatures.
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