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

[Michael Hartman]

Aurel Mihai wrote:
> On 9/4/07, Damion Schubert <dschubert at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>Saying
>>"what if there was a monster that took FORTY of us to take down?"
>>is a uniquely evocative statement.  It is, as you state, an earnest
>>desire to be part of something big.  It's big, and it's visceral.  Having
>>your small 5-man squad win a battle which adds a few points to some
>>global scoreboard is interesting, in a fantasy football sort of way, but
>>what players want from their massively multiplayer games are actions
>>which are viscerally... well... massively multiplayer.
>>
>
>
> What's the motivation behind being part of something big? IMO it's the
> desire to be big oneself. A player that takes part in a 5 hour, 40
> player raid can later say "I was there!"


The sad problem with WoW is that it is more accurate to say:

"What if there were so many trash mobs, it took FORTY of us to press the
1 button for 5 hours and clean it all up! Oh yeah, then I think we
fought a boss in there somewhere between the hours of trash killing. Oh,
and we have to do the exact same thing every week for 3 months so
everyone in the group gets the item they need."

That is not epic, visceral, evocative, or anything of that nature. It is
just boring and repetitive.