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
- Concerning "Groups" Jeff Gaskill
Sean Kelly wrote:
> 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.
> One common vector for measuring prestige in MMORPGs is ownership
> of difficult to attain items.
> 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.
You've brought attention to my exact motivation for analyzing
grouping. Grouping is a tool for advancement and acquisition of
prestige and power: two things that cannot exist in single player or
even smaller multiplayer games. Perhaps I am just a sucker for
fantasy, but when I think of grouping I think of fellowships and
coming together to complete difficult tasks, ones that are only
possible with high group cohesion and cooperation. In World of
Warcraft their purpose is more of an economical and political one
rather than an interaction between players. Of course, the digital
divide hinders much of personal connections for many reasons (time,
consistency of seeing other players, etc.), but right now I only see
one type of tractible cooperation designed into games. Level +
Items + Level + Items etc.. (PvP aside) A sort of capitalistic focus
on the individual player proliferates and seems to be the best
formula for keeping players around for extended periods of time.
Perhaps this is just another look at the classic treadmill argument,
but when the power of a single player well exceeds the power of a
group of lower level players (Everquest 1 and 2 are much worse about
this than WoW is), then grouping is reduced to a relationship of
convenience rather than a relationship of meaningul interaction.
Arguably though, the players who have the most fun are the ones that
turn it into something meaningful via guilds and raids. Design can
never force a player to experience something as intractable as
cooperation, but the accummulation of a designer's decisions can
influence the motivations of players towards or away from a more
cooperative environment.
~Jeff
- Concerning "Groups" Jeff Gaskill
- 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