[MUD-Dev] DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviors spawnedfrom...]

[Michael Sellers]

Cruise wrote:
> Lydia Leong spake thusly...

>> Many of the people who play "The Sims", for instance, are getting
>> something extremely different out of that play experience than is
>> readily addressed using the A/E/S/K model. Until we figure out
>> how to address this audience, the market for MMOGs will remain
>> limited.

> Interestingly, though the Sims still has a reasonably large
> portion of "achievement"-orientated gameplay in it - getting a
> better job, getting nicer stuff, a bigger house, etc. etc. Most
> mainstream MMO's are about achieving levels and ub3r l00t. The
> Sims is only different in the method for gaining them.  What we
> really need is a game that lets achieve something else.

Actually most players of The Sims never get sucked in to the
achievement track for itself -- getting to the highest job level was
never the point of the game (by design or for most players).
Getting "stuff", making friends, falling in love, having kids (or
for some, killing Sims in strange ways) were the main draws; the job
(achievement track) was if anything a necessary evil to get to these
goals.  Most players never topped out on the job track, unlike the
relentless drive to level 60 or whatever in the standard MMO.

Moreover, getting "more loot" in The Sims is sort of a red herring:
what you discover is that the more stuff you own, or the more
friends you have, the more time and money you have to spend keeping
it all working (or reacting to failure).

Thus the game was fundamentally not about achievement, but about
relationships (between your character and friends/family, and
between your character and his or her possessions).  Not surprising
then that it was loved by women disproportionately, and seen by many
men as inscrutable (my favorite are the MMOG devs who couldn't
understand the game and saw its success as a fluke).  It bears
little resemblance to any MMOG today -- including The Sims Online.

Mike Sellers
Online Alchemy
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