April 2005
- [DESIGN] : Where to find information about mud design ? Lethal Thanatos
- [DESIGN] : Where to find information about mud design ? Jaycen Rigger
- DESIGN: Mini-VW contenst (Was DESIGN: The game with a thousand faces) Mike Rozak
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Christopher Bunting
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Michael Barton
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Christopher Bunting
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Hiddukel
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. David Wilson
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Christopher Bunting
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Christopher Bunting
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Hiddukel
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Christopher Bunting
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Chad Ziccardi
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Hiddukel
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Richard Lindsey
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Daniel O'Neal
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Brian
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Chad Ziccardi
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Christopher Bunting
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Christopher Bunting
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Chad Simmons
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Michael Barton
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Chad Ziccardi
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Michael Barton
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Christopher Bunting
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Christopher Bunting
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Hiddukel
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Christopher Bunting
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Christopher Bunting
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Hiddukel
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Christopher Bunting
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Chad Simmons
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Christopher Bunting
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Christopher Bunting
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Chad Ziccardi
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Davion Kalhen
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Bobby Bailey
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Davion Kalhen
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. David Wilson
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. mrpotatohead@urbanfallout.net
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Chad Simmons
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Christopher Bunting
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Chad Simmons
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Hiddukel
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Chad Simmons
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Hiddukel
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Chad Simmons
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Richard Lindsey
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Richard Lindsey
- Advanced Topic - Doing it differently. Daniel O'Neal
- DESIGN: Mini-VW contenst Mike Rozak
- DESIGN: More thoughts on the player pyramid Mike Rozak
- Procedural content Mike Rozak
- DESIGN: MMO Survey for College Class Bret Lederle
- Imagery from text J C Lawrence
- Imagery from text J C Lawrence
- Skotos Seeks Guest Voices Shannon Appelcline
- Twisted.reality Paul Miller
- Twisted.reality Peter Harkins
- Twisted.reality Jp Calderone
- Twisted.reality Eli Stevens (WG.c)
- Marketing Resources? Michael Hartman
- Marketing Resources? Elia Morling
- Marketing Resources? Pandora
- Marketing Resources? Christopher Allen
- Marketing Resources? Greg B
- Marketing Resources? Ren Reynolds
- Marketing Resources? Tom Hunter
- Marketing Resources? Michael Hartman
- Marketing Resources? Mike Rozak
- Marketing Resources? Jason Smith
- Marketing Resources? Mike Rozak
- Marketing Resources? Tom Hunter
- Marketing Resources? Mike Rozak
- Marketing Resources? Michael Hartman
- Marketing Resources? Michael Sellers
- Marketing Resources? Mike Rozak
- Marketing Resources? Michael Sellers
- Marketing Resources? Tom Hunter
- Marketing Resources? Tom Hunter
- Marketing Resources? Koster, Raph
- Marketing Resources? Mike Rozak
- Marketing Resources? Koster, Raph
- Marketing Resources? Tom Hunter
- Marketing Resources? Tom Hunter
- Marketing Resources? Johan J Ingles-le Nobel
- NEWS: And so it begins. (officially sanctioned in-game sales) David Wright
- DESIGN: The game with a thousand faces Mike Rozak
- DESIGN: The game with a thousand faces Jaycen Rigger
- DESIGN: The game with a thousand faces Mike Rozak
- DESIGN: The game with a thousand faces ceo
- Sony is getting into the virtual goods auctions Morris Cox
- SOC: Characters as Avatars Jaycen Rigger
- SOC: Characters as Avatars eric@enkanica.com
- DGN : Atomistic Creation Jaycen Rigger
- DGN : Atomistic Creation Thomas Tomiczek
- DGN : Atomistic Creation Jaycen Rigger
- DGN : Atomistic Creation cruise
- DGN : Atomistic Creation Ghilardi Filippo
- DGN : Atomistic Creation Kirinyaga
- DGN : Atomistic Creation Julian Leyh
- DESIGN: MMO Interviews for College Class Game Researcher
- Atomistic Creation cruise
- Concerning "Groups" Jeff Gaskill
- Concerning "Groups" Sean Kelly
On Thu, 28 Apr 2005, Jeff Gaskill wrote:
> Now I'll get to the point. I am both a player and observer of
> World of Warcraft. I've done an empirical study comparing group
> types and moods of players. I've found that casual groups tend to
> be the most friendly, whereas instance (dungeon/raid) groups and
> groups trying to take down elite quest monsters are increasingly
> unfriendly. These results are fairly obvious to the average WoW
> player, which is why I'm looking further into the reasons of why
> this happens.
>>From what I understand, EQ is much the same way. Guilds tend to
camp spawns to corner the market on desirable goods. Instancing in
WoW sought to alleviate this problem and it has for the most part,
though it's cropped up in relation to the non-instanced portions of
end-game quests. The other obvious factor is power. If I am the
leader of a large guild I can influence others by granting or
denying favors. In WoW this often equates to raid invites, and I
imagine the Honor system will create similar methods of prestige and
resource control.
> Finally, the larger time investment of raid groups can create much
> crankier and easily upset players. What's more interesting is why
> players are willing to endure these periods of stress and
> uncertainty while they are playing a game for 'fun.' What exactly
> is 'fun' is of course, a very difficult topic, so allow me to move
> on.
One common vector for measuring prestige in MMORPGs is ownership of
difficult to attain items. This shouldn't be surprising, as the
value of minerals in the Real World works exactly the same way.
Other factors are the often significant time investment just to
enter the instance (often from completing preliminary quests) and
the difficulty of completing the quest at all with a sub-optimal
raid group.
> What I want to know is: Since when has grouping become a
> necessity? All MMOs I know of have it in some concrete form
> (except maybe A Tale in the Desert, I'm not sure) and at least all
> of the major MMOs do. I'm not sure of an text MUDs that had
> concrete grouping, that is, a hard-coded grouping implementation
> that gives some sort of benefit. Most groups implement experience
> bonus or at least shared experience for monster kills.
MMORPGs are 'social' games and it's not uncommon to design in
features to encourage social behavior. Grouping is a rudimentary
form of this. And it's much easier to make grouping a game mechanic
than to design a system to recognize cooperation :)
> If players wanted to group together, surely they would be
> friendlier with each other when they do so. My question is: Are
> groups doing what players and developers want them to do? Or are
> they just a consequence of the difficulty to track abstract
> concepts of 'achievement' through concrete computer-friendly
> means? Perhaps grouping could be saved somehow, the accomplishment
> of coming together and doing things bigger than just one person is
> exciting, but when group content is bypassed (say by grouping with
> higher level PCs to simply 'get through' the content) then there
> must be something missing. Raiding just isn't unique anymore.
Grouping typically requires a significant time investment in order
to be profitable. Worse, it's very difficult for a group to find a
replacement for someone who drops out midway through an instance. I
personally like that WoW doesn't force grouping because it's rare
than I have the time for it. This is one reason I chose to play WoW
over, say, EQ.
As for whether the mechanics of grouping could be
improved--undoubtedly. And as has been pointed out in other
threads, grouping mechanics in WoW aren't the greatest anyway.
Sean - Concerning "Groups" Jeff Gaskill
- Concerning "Groups" Sean Kelly
- Guild Wars ? Louis d'Ambra
- Guild Wars ? cruise
- Guild Wars ? Colin Fuller
- Guild Wars ? Max Battcher
- Guild Wars ? Don McGlumphy III
- Guild Wars ? Sean Howard
- Guild Wars ? Mordengaard
- Guild Wars ? Mike Oxford
- Guild Wars ? Max Battcher
- Guild Wars ? Corey Crawford
- Guild Wars ? Jason Downs