[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] [REPOST] MMO a temporary phenomenon?

[John Buehler]

Tess Snider writes:

> On 6/25/07, John Buehler <johnbue at msn.com> wrote:
> > As the fidelity of the online experience improves, I'm wondering what
> > will happen.
>
> One should begin by asking what you mean by "fidelity."  Are you
> referring to the realism of simulations?  Are you referring to better
> graphics?  Are you referring to 5.1 surround sound, smell-o-vision,
> and vibrating seats?  What, exactly, are you suggesting by "fidelity"?

I'm referring to fidelity.  Definition 1a from

http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fidelity

"Accuracy in details"

>  And then, as an additional question, is whatever you are defining as
> "fidelity" actually improving at all?

Yes.

> > Right now, the people who are enjoying our bronze age are
> > either comfortable with alien experiences, or they're comfortable
> > with the traits of this bronze age.  As things change, the
> > xenophiles will stick with it, while the bronze age players will
> > drift away in dissatisfaction, to be replaced by the iron age 
> > players.
>
> Drift away to what, though?

It doesn't matter.  The point is that they will be out of the mainstream
for online entertainment.

> > If the fidelity of experience keeps improving, grief actions by
> > others will be that much more impactful.  Something will have to be
> > done to guard players against the negative actions - and simply negative
> > experiences - that an MMO can bring.  That's true whether the
> > negative actions are intentional or accidental.  To my mind, that means
> > either a loss of anonymity, suggesting a certain accountability on the
> > part of those who visit a given experience, a reduction of interaction
> > (e.g. watching a baseball game through a privately-controlled set of
> > cameras), and/or a supplanting of the MMO model by a GO model.  Groups
> > Online. Playing with buddies.
>
> All games devolve (or evolve, depending on how you look at it) into
> cliques.  This was true, even in MUDs (or the "stone age," if you
> will).  TinyMUSHers, for example, tended to become increasingly
> balkanized over the lifespan of a MUSH.  This is nothing new.  It has
> happened, is happening, and will happen again.

Agreed.  What happens to that phenomenon as the fidelity of the online
experience improves?  I believe that it becomes more pronounced, more
significant to design decisions.

> > As the fidelity of online experiences improves, will the sort of
> > people who then come into the online arena want to retain their
> > ties to their existing social circles, or will they too decide
> > that the value of the experience itself is superior to the value
> > of experiencing something with their real world friends?
>
> People already have to make that decision.

I offer the same response as above: how will improving fidelity alter
the impact of that decision-making process?

> > Remember that I'm not talking about the current crop of folks who are
> > content with the online experience as it is (even as they hope for
> > something better).  Those are people who are happy to do the stuff
> > that we can do online without the touchy-feely experiences of another
> > person when they talk to them or interact with them in some way.  As
> > the fidelity goes up, that will change the appeal of the experience
> > to the world population as a whole.  I can understand wanting a
> > fairly sterile experience when interating with many strangers, as in
> > an MMO experience. But as the fidelity goes up, will the dominant 
> > group of people interested in that higher fidelity still want to be
> > surrounded by strangers?
>
> I think you're making an incorrect assumption.  In general, those
> games with the broadest appeal for "the world population as a whole"
> have tended to have low hardware requirements, and could not be
> described as "high fidelity" in any real sense.  Your hypothetical
> iron-age players don't have bleeding-edge hardware.  Unless your
> definition of "high fidelity" has nothing to do with technology, their
> mere existence would be a paradox.

High fidelity need not be found across the board in some astounding way.
Voice chat through an online experience is a form of high fidelity.  It
can have a significant impact on a person's decision to go online as
well as who they will interact with while online.

That iron age users won't have bleeding edge hardware is a canard.  They
will have standard equipment that might well be used for work, for
school, for shopping, for travel, for experiencing live concerts,
football games and all manner of other experiences.  Tomorrow's
state-of-the-art inevitably becomes today's state-of-the-shelf.

JB