October 2005
- DESIGN: Role playing Mike Rozak
- DESIGN: Role playing Michael Hartman
- DESIGN: Role playing Arnau Josep Rosselló Castelló
- DESIGN: Role playing Michael Hartman
- DESIGN: Role playing Arnau Josep Rosselló Castelló
- [SPAM] DESIGN: Role playing Dana V. Baldwin
- DESIGN: Role playing Mark Whittington
- DESIGN: Role playing Tess Snider
- DESIGN: Role playing ghovs
- DESIGN: Role playing Michael Hartman
- DESIGN: Role playing Amanda Walker
- DESIGN: Role playing Mike Rozak
- DESIGN: My current grand unified theory of avatar games Mike Rozak
- Reward system for social gaming? Martin Gundtoft
- Reward system for social gaming? Sean Howard
- Reward system for social gaming? Alex McGivern
- Reward system for social gaming? Sean Howard
- Reward system for social gaming? Arnau Josep Rosselló Castelló
- Reward system for social gaming? Kiztent
- Reward system for social gaming? Scott Jennings
- Reward system for social gaming? Sean Howard
- Reward system for social gaming? Scott Jennings
- Reward system for social gaming? Lachek Butalek
- Reward system for social gaming? Alex McGivern
- Reward system for social gaming? Sean Howard
- Reward system for social gaming? Damien Neil
- Reward system for social gaming? David Love
- Reward system for social gaming? Sean Howard
- Reward system for social gaming? cruise
- Reward system for social gaming? Damien Neil
- Reward system for social gaming? Adam Miller
- Reward system for social gaming? Arnau Josep Rosselló Castelló
- Reward system for social gaming? Sean Howard
- Reward system for social gaming? Damion Schubert
- Reward system for social gaming? lwl@black-knight.org (Lydia Leong)
On Oct 3, 1:06pm, "Martin Gundtoft" wrote:
> We believe that (MUD) games in general encourage people to
> socialize but that there are no strictly "game mechanical" system
> in any game that actually rewards the player directly. Of course
> one could argue that large raids or certain other actions would be
> impossible without a social game mechanic like the chat box, but
> what we are looking for is a more direct way of rewards than such
> a secondary relation.
The "achiever mechanic" on the social side, in multiplayer online
games (whether MUDs or MMOGs), is typically known as "politics". You
will see political play emerge on any game where players must
cooperate with large numbers of other players in order to achieve
goals, particularly when players must reach outside their immediate
tribe to negotiate alliances or at least deliberate neutrality.
However, politics online, as with politics offline, is something of
a subtle art. It's not just about tit-for-tat; it's also about
genuine affinities or natural enmities between people or
groups. Moreover, politics is a long-term game; purely opportunistic
political play isn't likely to get you very far. The political
machinations involved in online games that provide useful
motivations for it turn out to be an engagingly complex emergent
behavior, because people do not typically have buttons that you can
push to receive a pellet. Direct reward systems are all about
pushbutton pellets.
Trust me: You do not want to encourage players to objectify other
players. It happens enough already thanks to the anonymity of the
screen. Deliberately encouraging this by turning social interaction
into another pellet-grabbing game is going to get you the kind of
behavior that Philip Zimbardo could spend years studying.
Go check out The Sims Online if you need a crystal-clear
demonstration of what happens when you go for the _mechanical
trappings_ of socialization over _actual_ socialization. Conversely,
you can check out politics working as they should on Puzzle Pirates,
a game that has lots of socializer _enablers_, and plenty of fodder
for politicians, but no pushbutton people pellets. (EVE Online has
similarly interesting emergent behaviors.)
It is certainly possible to build games that strongly reward social
interaction, but unless you want to become your very own Lord of the
Flies experiment, you shouldn't turn such interactions into nothing
but a festival of pellet-seeking.
You can build compelling games around social interactions -- but the
activities and rewards are unlikely to lend themselves to
pelletization.
-- Lydia - Reward system for social gaming? Tom Hunter
- Reward system for social gaming? Christopher Allen
- Reward system for social gaming? Arnau Josep Rosselló Castelló
- Reward system for social gaming? lwl@black-knight.org (Lydia Leong)
- Reward system for social gaming? Matt Chatterley
- Reward system for social gaming? cruise
- Reward system for social gaming? Arnau Josep Rosselló Castelló
- Reward system for social gaming? John Buehler
- Reward system for social gaming? Christopher Allen
- Reward system for social gaming? Freeman, Jeff
- Reward system for social gaming? Sean Howard
- Reward system for social gaming? Sasha Hart
- Reward system for social gaming? Sean Howard
- Reward system for social gaming? Sasha Hart
- Reward system for social gaming? Sean Howard
- NPR - 'Virtual' Virus Sheds Light on Real-World Behavior Zach Collins (Siege)
- DESIGN: Role playing and Voice Chat Damion Schubert
- DESIGN: Role playing and Voice Chat Michael Hartman
- [SPAM] DESIGN: Role playing and Voice Chat Dana V. Baldwin
- [SPAM] DESIGN: Role playing and Voice Chat Michael Hartman
- [SPAM] [SPAM] DESIGN: Role playing and Voice Chat Dana V. Baldwin
- [SPAM] DESIGN: Role playing and Voice Chat Lachek Butalek
- DESIGN: Role playing and Voice Chat Damion Schubert
- DESIGN: Role playing and Voice Chat Tess Snider
- DESIGN: Role playing and Voice Chat John Buehler
- DESIGN: Role playing and Voice Chat Tess Snider
- DESIGN: Role playing and Voice Chat John Buehler
- DESIGN: Role playing and Voice Chat Ted L. Chen
- Newbie in-flow Mike Rozak
- EmlenMUD II - Can it be found? jason
- DESIGN: Role playing and Voice Chat lwl@black-knight.org (Lydia Leong)
- DESIGN: Role playing and Voice Chat Lachek Butalek
- DESIGN: Role playing and Voice Chat lwl@black-knight.org (Lydia Leong)
- DESIGN: Analysis of Fable Mike Rozak
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies Christopher D. Chapman
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies William Leader
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies rayzam
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies Tom Hunter
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies Jaycen Rigger
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies John Buehler
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies William Leader
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies John Buehler
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies Christopher D. Chapman
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies William Leader
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies Jaycen Rigger
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies Paolo Piselli
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies William Leader
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies Vincent Archer
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies Damion Schubert
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies Jaycen Rigger
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies Christopher D. Chapman
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies Jaycen Rigger
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies Artur Biesiadowski
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies William Leader
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies Kirinyaga
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies Adam Spivey
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies Jaycen Rigger
- DGN: MMOG Game Economies Christopher D. Chapman