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

[HRose]

Douglas Goodall wrote:

> In my limited experience, teams are only relaxing when they are
> composed entirely of casual gamers and are not required to compete
> for resources. If you get just one impatient (or just plain dumb)
> person in your team, it is no longer relaxing. If you are forced
> to compete with other teams either by attacking mobs as soon as
> they appear or by out-damaging other teams, it is no longer
> relaxing (or even enjoyable most of the time).

>>From my point of view this is a problem about the PvE. A PvE game
isn't a real MMOG, it's more near to a form of cooperative play,
when you include massive aspects you finish to "complicate" the
situation and produce side effects like griefing and competition for
content. It's an inner problem. A PvE-only game works better if
instanced, that's why examples like CoH are successful, because they
aren't really using the potential of a MMOG. They are cooperative
arcades in a semi-static environment (the static aspect is just
related to your character).

The side effects and the problems happen because designers try to
denaturalize the PvE game. A PvE game works better when instanced,
and this simply because of its characteristics.

> It is also not common. There is alot that can be done to aid
> finding teams. DAoC came up with an excellent system (though
> there's still room for improvement). But I'm not sure how any
> team-finding tool could somehow only team you up with competent
> players... I suppose you could have a reputation or ratings system
> (i.e. my character has four gold stars!), but that's wide open for
> abuse, at least with any method I can think of right now.

DAoC works decently just because the players are packed together in
5% of the total landmass. The LFG tools works because everyone has
the same goal to achieve. That's why in RvR noone uses it.

The more you have a focused gameplay for everyone the more the LFG
tools will work smoothly. Paradoxically it works when it's less
useful.

-HRose / Abalieno
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