[MUD-Dev2] [OFF-TOPIC] A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants

[Damion Schubert]

On 3/22/07, John Buehler <johnbue at msn.com> wrote:

>
> No argument from me on any of that.  What is the role of EMOTING in World
> of
> Warcraft?  None of this is about multiplayer games being social.  They are
> highly social.  We started off with "Why is the /bow command in certain
> games so weak?"  I think the game was World of Warcraft, but I can't
> remember.  Perhaps it was only implied.  In any case, I don't want to lose
> sight of the original premise.


In that case, I'd suggest that's because a huge amount of the communication
in
the game is from a distance - either in guild chat or zone chat - and emotes

don't do that well.  In WoW, this is made more significant by the fact that
the
game is soloable, and most people spend significant time doing so (which
trains
them to chat long distance).

We have seen at least one game where emotes meaningfully mattered -
Star Wars Galaxies, if you recall, required you view dancers emoting their
dances to remove their mind wounds.  In the short term, the feature was a
success, but in a long term, most cantinas became filled with automated
bots dancing for free tips.  Nothing feels lonelier than talking to someone
who you think is a real person, and not getting an answer.

I'm personally not a big fan of making such emotes a required gameplay
mechanic
in any way.  They should remain social tools.  If you want to see more
emotes,
I personally would try to identify ways to create cultural change inside the
game that made them more widespread.  SWG's bots not withstanding, there
was a huge culture in that game that encouraged more face-to-face contests,
as well as impromptu beauty pageants and dance contests.  A lot of that
came from simply giving them the tools, but also pushing people towards
other
people in the cantinas.

--damion