MMO Communities (was RE: [MUD-Dev] MMORPG Cancellations:Thesky isfalling?)

[Freeman, Jeff]

From: John MacQueen

> It seems a real community of thousands only requires strong=20
> goals in common between those thousands, specific goals that=20
> require a community of thousands to achieve.

I think there are two approaches here, one being goals, the other
being infrastructure.  Give people a guild system and they'll form
up in ~60-person communities.  Gives those guilds an allegiance
system, and those communities will become subcommunities of a larger
whole.

The human brain cannot accommodate more than about 150 relationships
- not as a property of the group, but as a property of the
individuals in the group.  Many of those people will also have
relationships out-of-game (one would hope) that limit the number of
relationships they can maintain in-game.

So in order for larger communities to form, there must be some sort
of hierarchical structure which facilitates this.  Some players will
build the tools and social-infrasture required on their own and form
into larger communities (given goals), but given the tools out of
the box, many more of them will do it (just because they can).

Just as some players formed guilds in UO before there was even a
guild system (typically players with a specific goal which required
it).  But once there was a guild system, almost everyone joined a
guild - even the ones for whom it served little purpose.
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev