On Rewarding Socialization In MMORPGs

Thanks to Skotos.net for their article discussing how social interaction affects gameplay in MMO titles. The piece suggests: "That the majority of MMORPGs, MUDs, and other multiplayer games ultimately support achiever players over socializers, or even killers, I think begins to outline how poorly we understand - and support - true social interactions in today's multiplayer games." It goes on to discuss freeform socialization ("We slap a chatline into a game. Then we spend as much time making it look nice"), competitive socialization ("the richest form of interaction possible in multiplayer games, yet ironically it's more often been seen as a problem than as a potential virtue"), and co-operative socialization ("One of the few games that has really tried to push this envelope is Asheron's Call with its ideas for feudal structures.")

Comments

Of Course Social Interaction Isn't Well Supported

[Anonymous Coward]

Most of the players of these games are geeks, like the /. crowd.

Therefore they have no social skills anyway. Most people play games to get AWAY from life and INTO a world where they can use their strengths and avoid their weaknesses.

So why spend time working on a feature that most of the players have little skill in using anyway?

Sure, someone's going to say how much geeks use text messaging. I'm sure they do. It's a nice way to communicate without having to learn social skills and to avoid REAL interaction while pretending to be openly communicating.