Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs)

[Damion Schubert]

On 9/22/07, Michael Hartman <mlist at thresholdrpg.com> wrote:
>
> I don't really see designers dismissing raiding as inherently lame. It
> seems like every designer out there is enthralled by the concept of
> raiding and makes sure to include raiding in their games. Unforunately,
> they just copy what they have seen before instead of trying to improve
> upon it.


FIrst off, I think that's completely inaccurate.  Raiding in WoW when it
shipped was much better than raiding in EQ when it shipped, and they've
made significant improvements in the Burning Crusade.  There are
definitely things I'd like to see improved upon still, but to say that no
progress has been made is very misleading.

But I definitely do not think we are in danger of raiding going
> away. The tiny minority of players who really get into raiding are also
> the types who dominate the forums of every MMO out there.


First off, they tend to dominate the forums of the game because they
tend to be the most devoted customers of the game.  When devoted
customers reach max levels, they don't want to walk away from their
characters.  They aren't ready to say their character is done - they
want to continue to move their character forward.

Secondly, it's not as tiny a minority as you think.As an example,
879K pieces of armor from Attumen (the entry boss in Karazhan, the
entry level raid for WoW) have been spotted on the WoW Armory
over time by WoWJutsu.

    http://www.wowjutsu.com/vault/raids/karazhan/attumen/

This doesn't count kills that dropped no usable gear, gear never
seen by WoWJutsu, or gear on lower ranked guilds (all limitations
of WoWJutsu).  Other numbers I've seen and managed to get hold
of suggest that raids are vastly more popular than most people
give credit for in WoW, and that the majority of characters who
hit max level actually raid.

It's not hard to see why.  Raids tend to fire on all four cylinders of
the bartles four:
* Raid bosses require complex strategies to beat, with much
experimentation and learning.  This appeals to Explorers.
* Raid bosses drop ph4t loot and give bragging rights, and are
one of the few things in an MMO which are truly HARD, appealing
to Achievers.
* Raid bosses require cooperation between players, and require
coordination, socialization and strong incentives for group play,
appealing to socializers.
* Raid bosses create a strong metagame on a server, which acts
as a huge motivator between guilds, as evidenced on sites like
WoWJutsu.  This appeals to killers.

The developers
> always listen, and end up focussing too much on this aspect. So they get
> into the idea of items that only 5 people per server can ever hope to
> obtain, and then wake their epeens at others in whatever public space is
> most common for gathering. The net result is pretty darn negative in my
> view.


In that case, you're strongly discounting the power of a player horizon.
Players want to know that there's more out there, there's more to achieve,
there's more to see.  Seeing those items in town is a reminder, and a
motivator.  For many, it's a positive.

Again, I am not saying that raids are flawless, cannot be improved, nor
am I saying that there are no negative effects from the raid experience
on a guild or a server.  But let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater
until we can at least learn if the baby can say 'mama'.

--d