The importance of community in an MMO, and a little about the "Solo" player.

You are just so correct in everything you say. Like you I also entered a total new world which I had never experienced before. In many many years I enjoyed playing games (In my young days I was a Toy Store Manager and that was FUN - back in the first Nintendo-versions time :D) - platform games - strategy games etc. - but single user games. I actually for years dreamt about the possibility of being able to explore the world WITH other people - but it was first in a late age I found out it was really possible. And I was incredibly thrilled.

The personal connections definitely teach us things, we might never learn in 'RL'. You would rarely stop a person in RL and tell her *wow, I really like the shirt you're wearing* (just to take a stupid female example .. could be .. nice car .. or bike ... etc.) - but that's really not rare in an online world. It opens up and help people, who might be shy in real life. And being able to approach other people, strangers, with an open mind and an honest curiousity - is precious. You also tend to talk more freely online, than if you sit face to face with a person, where it's easier to read the persons face - and personally I found out, that you also talk on a much deeper level - often - than the superficial 'how are you doing?'-talk in real life.

When I entered Entropia I never ever expected, that this would be the place where I would find the love of my life (Peter) - and I was not prepared either. But it happened, and through the game we where able to explore a whole other world together - have other kind of chats and yes, just interact in other ways that we would have, if we met in real life. We got to know each other deeply and well, I guess fell in love with each others souls first (sounds cheasy, perhaps, but it's true).

The community is what carries a game. And the community is very important also on a forum. As you say, the graphics of course means something, but if the community is not LIVING in the game, interacting and feeling the game - it doesn't matter how good the graphic is. This doesn't go for gameplay. A game needs to capture it's players - give the community a home to evolve and grow and interact - get experiences, discoveries etc. which will bring them together. After this I agree, friendships goes way abroad borders - the Universe becomes much smaller - and those friendships can be the best ones you have ever had.

 

I first want to acknowledge Ed and his willingness to not only share his thoughts about MMO communities, but also for becoming an active participant at EntropiaPlanets. As a Planet Partner, this is quite key in keeping the line of communication open between player and developer.

When I first stepped into the Entropia Universe 5-1/2 years ago, it was my first, and I didn't know what to expect. My brother had already been playing for a month and said I needed to check it out. It didn't take long for me to realize that we were dealing with a globally-diverse environment, and that the potential was unlimited.

Not long into my experience, I also realized just how important community was, and how it came in all different shapes and sizes, but the one common thread was ... people were helping people, and it was incredibly inspiring.

Thus began my journey into the realm of bringing the community together in ways that gave benefit to those who participated in-world, or interacted in the forum environment, which is what so many of us do within our universe. Collectively we have a better chance at success, and I think we've witnessed this over and over again. This community never ceases to amaze me.

I have to agree ... the graphics can be off the hook, as I feel they are now, just stunning, but ... if we aren't engaged as a community, then the dynamic is quite different (yes, I used that word :D).

For those who have followed my Entropian path the past 5-1/2 years, you know how extensive my involvement has been within the community, and while I've had an on again/off again relationship with our universe, it had nothing to do with community. ;)

Recently, Lykke and Peter gave me an opportunity to develop and head up a Media Center here at EntropiaPlanets, and I can tell you this ... you haven't seen anything yet with regard to our community-building efforts ... we're just getting started, and the more the Media Center and Media Team grow, the more the community is going to benefit as a result. I will be running a blitz campaign for the Media Center soon, so stay tuned for that.

I can't wait for this community to be the recipient of what we have in store. ;)

Thank you Ed and Lykke for your perspectives on community, it's incredibly valuable.

 

Wow, you really spoke my mind there. In fact it was only today that Freja and I were talking about this very phenomenon!

Recently I managed to do exactly this; attract one of those solo players out of his shell, even getting him to join his first team ever! He had been in Entropia for a while already and hunted on his own all the time. While searching for a healing job at the Longtooth spawn last time, I randomly healed him on one mob. He enjoyed the heals and decided to hire me.

During the Longtooth migration I healed him often, most nights in fact. We chatted a lot and had a lot of fun. During this period he wrote his first ever post in EF, in my healing thread thanking me. This was a really monumental moment for me and I felt honoured that I managed to get the guy to come on to the forum!

He claimed that when his money ran out, he would be out of here and probably see me next time the Longtooth came. Fortunately, due to my encouragement, he is still around and logging in actively :) I hope he will build more friendships now that he is logged in more and that he really sees the benefits of such social communication.

Most of the guys you find who are "solo" players tend to be lonely people lacking self esteem, which is a shame because they're usually so polite and nice to talk to!

This kind of thing I absolutely love about the MMO genre though, to prize open the shell of a person and encourage them to come out. They usually enjoy themselves more from that moment onwards :)

Thanks for a great blog entry!

(Joining the wall of text crew here)

 

Hi Ed,

I appreciate your write up, and its refreshing to know that someone else in this community knows who Raph Koster is. Of course you'd have to, being youre involved in ambitious game development. Raph Koster is nothing short of the person to study up if you want to know about MMOs.

Regarding community, it is very important. One thing to note however is that community in an MMO needs to span the entire spectrum. There are generally three classes of MMO player -- the starter, the player, and the master of the game. The weakness of EU's community lies in their (the community's) catering to only the master. Any way you look at it there is a severe split in EU between the masters and the beginners, and Im not referring to gear. Im referring to the actual game people play! The leaders of EU are completely out of touch with the new player base, so much so that they have within them a sense of psychological denial. They claim to be helpful and supportive, but in fact are little of these things. This directly contributes to the games high attrition rate.

Sure, people claim to help newbies with endeavor X, endeavor Y, etc -- but to that I call bullshit. Helping a newbie complete a teleport run does not contribute to the new player experience in any way, shape or form. It never has, and it never will. Why? Because its something that a new player can do on their own with relative ease. Social integration is what keeps new players involved in a game. Not the collection of esoteric objects that only posess value if you are present in the game world.

My hope is that the new worlds offer more mechanisms to allow for social gatherings to deepen. You are in a position to spur MindArk to develop EU and make the game deeper across the board. Raph Koster for all his success unfortunately fails to ultimately define what a virtual world is -- he is stuck on raw mechanics. This ultimately resulted in development teams moving away from his design at both Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies as they attempted to refine his design in pursuit of the living virtual world. Modern development by contrast to original MMO development has made the games more accessible, a move in the right direction, but theyve also made games easier -- and this is something Raph Koster would have balked at as it sidelines community and turns MMOs into Massively Single Player games with a multi player option.

Mr Koster was on the right track, but ultimately he failed in a crucial area -- the virtual world needs to come to life! The environment needs to be one where all players are absolutely necessary, and socialization is encouraged on all levels for greater success. EU does not encourage great socialization, instead we bring it over from other games because we feel the element should be here, and rightfully so! But ultimately it is unnecessary. EU can and often is played as a single player game with a society acting as nothing more than a chatroom free of spam.

As the closest game platform I have played to old Ultima Online, EU has alot of potential. As such a title contender I can see its successes in the same areas as UO, and failures in similar areas as well.

 

I don't think enough is said about the value of the community. I mean, it's often cited as being very important in terms of gameplay and player interaction, but not that much is said about the benefits recieved by participants. I've been fortunate to meet quite a large number of Entropians over the years, right around Australia and also in Singapore and the USA.

I often relay to RL friends how fortunate I am to have friends all over the world. As an example, anyone who has travelled for business will know about the boring nights alone in hotels, eating alone etc. Thanks to being part of this community I had an awesome night out in Hollywood with ND eating at a Mexican Cantina I never would have found on my own and had the most amazing home cooked Indian dinner ever at Mylcat's home in Singapore.

I've often had friends and work collegues comment on how the hell do i have so many friends overseas (invariably asked after I comment that I was chatting with a mate in Kazakstan about new business opportunities opening up there).

I love to relay the story of the English school kid who asked on Entropia forum for help in writing a business plan for his homework. He had chosen setting up a shop in EU, his forum post resulted in him having responses from numerous CEO's, heads of marketing, entrepreneurs etc with fantastic advice. I don't know the outcome of his homework, but I can just imagine his teachers jaw dropping at the quality of his work vs his non connected classmates.

Particularly as people travel to work in new countries, the benefits of having some local contacts outside of work is gaining in importance. I know employers who are looking into people's social contacts to try and guage the likelihood of people being comfortable in the new location and therefore not getting homesick and quitting. When one potential employee can state they have friends already in that location, their chance of being selected skyrockets. It's worth pointing out that the biggest social network in the world, Facebook, does very little to introduce you to people outside your own network. I really see the diversity of contacts as a fundamental strength of communities in MMO's and especially of the global servers that EU operates on.

It's also noteworthy I think that the first employee I hired when I relocated to Singapore was a Malaysian that I met in EU 4 years ago. His friends are still dumbfounded as to how he got his 'dream job' (he calls it his dream job, I didn't make that up).

The benefits of being part of a large international community will become more and more prominent in the years ahead.

 

Due to this game being an RCE the solo route is the only safe way to play without getting scammed or cheated.

I used to be quite a fan of team hunts and by nature like team hunting. Even did big events like this one:
Hunt for a HoF

The opalo hunts with the largest members ever in the history of the game. We had to have multiple teams just to accomodate all the players.

My conclusion sadly is team hunts lead to various problems and disputes. There just aren't enough options in team looting to make it fair. Also it's virtually impossible to have a fair team loot rule due to it being an RCE and sometimes only items are looted. When you think about it everyone is at different levels and likely to use different weapons. This affects loot and how do you make a fair loot distribution rule? splitting it 50/50 the common rule thats often used can mean the people who spend more loose out.

These days I just avoid team hunts alltogether. Opting for a solo hunting career, although by nature I prefer team hunting to solo. By hunting solo I avoid all the headaches and just play for fun...

Planet cyrene I think is likely to have teamed up options and areas where teams would be required. I can foresee an increase in disputes and scamming on planet cyrene. I might be wrong but the scenario to me seems to be set for scammers to thrive there...