The dating game

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20 August 2005

by Mike Rozak

Why people play MMORPGs

Yes, it's back to that old question... Why do people play MMORPGs? Or, more precisely, why do they play a massively multiplayer game when they could be playing the single-player version for (typically) less cost and (typically) a better game.

Awhile ago I would have said the reasons for playing MMORPGs vs. their single player equivalents (usually CRPGs) is the other players, and it all comes down to socialisation. However, it's not that simple. Let me list the reasons why (I think) a player might wish to play a MMORPG (instead of a CRPG). The list isn't exhaustive; Feel free to add/remove items as you wish.

• Non-social reasons - Some people play MMORPGs because of non-social reasons.
  
  
  • Unlimited content - MMORPGs take 5x to 10x longer to complete than a CRPG. Players who spend a lot of time playing games like the unlimited content of MMORPGs.
    
    
  • Free content - Some MMORPGs and most text MUDs are free to play.
    
    
  • Good "AI" - Some people want to play a game with AI that's actually intelligent. Unforuntately, computer AI is still primitive and largely challenge-free at the moment. Some people gravitate towards MMORPGs because the other players (ironically) provide a good substitute for computer AIs. For example:
    
    
    • Competition - A lot of players who enjoy PvP do so because competing against other humans is much more challenging than computer AI. (Some people play because they enjoy beating other players, but that's a social reason; See below.)
      
      
    • Role playing - Some people would like much more intelligent NPCs in their games for better immersion, or to allow for more complex plotting. Since computer AI is completely insufficient, real players will have to do. However, role playing servers come with a caveat: Everyone must play their part. While it's fine if other people want to role play, it's too much work/inconvenience to do so oneself.
      
      
    • Populated world - Merely having other players wandering around the world makes it more "real" than a standard CRPG where all the NPCs sit in one spot and wait for the player to show up.
      
      
  • Make real-life money - Selling virtual objects allows players to make real life money. Of course, players wouldn't make the money if there weren't other players, but at the heart of it, they just want to make the money.
    
    
• Social reasons - Many people have social needs they wish to fulfil.
  
  
  • Working with other players - The player's success is not dependent on other player's failures; it's "win-win" social interaction.
    
    
    • Play with friends - Games are more fun when played with one's friends.
      
      
    • Be part of an organization - Many people like to be part of an organization/tribe, commonly called a guild.
      
      
    • Be an important part of society - Virtual worlds allow people to play an important role in society:
      
      
      • Guild leadership - Leadership isn't always about social rank; it's also the best position to be in if you wish to help people.
        
        
      • Crafting - If you're the only master armourer of the world, your an important contributor.
        
        
    • Meet new people - Some people would like to meet other people like themselves online. Large MMORPG's don't do a very good job of fulfilling this need. See below.
      
      
  • Working against other players - For the player to "succeed", other players must do poorly or must be subordinate; you could also call this "zero sum" social interaction.
    
    
    • Social rank - Some players wish to socially outrank others. Some examples of ranking are:
      
      
      • Levels - Character levels are an excellent way of showing rank, particularly when the level is visibly portrayed above the character's head.
        
        
      • Leadership - Leadership roles in guilds can provide social rank.
        
        
    • PvP - Actually defeating a real person is satisfying in ways that beating an AI can never be.
      
      
    • Griefing - Antisocial behaviour can be fun (for some people).
      
      
  • Neutral
    
    
    • Casual social contact - Sometimes people just like being around other people, even if only for casual encounters.
      
      
    • Change the world - People like to make their mark on the world, and there's no point making a mark if other people aren't around to see it.

Meeting new people

MMORPGs do a good job of catering to most of the above-listed reasons that people play. For example: MMORPGs go out of their way to encourage players to join guilds by providing built-in guild features such as: Guild E-mail, guild chat, guild management, guild web-pages, raid content designed for guilds, and clearly displaying which guild players belong to.

MMORPGs do not do a good job of helping people make new friends. Sure, MMORPGs encourage players to form parties and explore dungeons together. However, those dungeon crawls are 99% action with very little time for players to sit down and chat. MMORPGs are also missing some key features for meeting people, many of which were common in text MUDs.

The following features allow players to get an impression about other players from a distance:

• Races - The race that a player selects reveals a lot about the player. Someone who chooses to be a vampire is bound to have a different personality than someone who is a fairy. MMORPGs only have four to eight races, most of which are variations of short and tall humans with or without pointy ears.
  
  
• Classes/professions - Like races, classes provide clues to the person behind the character. MMORPGs typically provide a variety of classes, many of which provide a clue to the player's personality.
  
  
• Faces - Obviously, faces are important for socialisation. MMORPGs don't allow players to customise their characters' faces very much. This is partially due to the expense of allowing such customization, and partially because the camera angle most players use results in character faces 10-20 pixels high.
  
  
• Clothing - Most MMORPGs don't let players display what kind of clothing their character wears. Instead, they render the character's armour; this makes it easy to tell if another character is a fighter or magic user, but impossible to glean their personality from their clothes.
  
  
• Personal profiles - Text MUDs allow players to write up a personal description that other players can read. MMORPGs don't.
  
  
• Looking for group - The looking-for-group features of MMORPGs is primarily concerned with the character's class and level. They completely ignore the player's personality, age, schedule, etc.

Other features are useful after a conversation has begun.

• Voice chat - A person's voice tells a lot about them, including their gender, age, education, and conversational nuances that are impossible in text chat.
  
  
• Emotes - Lots of emotes are good, so long as they can quickly and easily be accessed by players. Text MUDs, particularly role playing MUDs, provide a far more flexible emote systems than MMORPGs.
  
  
• E-mail - Some MMORPGs don't even have in-game mail.
  
  
• Bulletin boards - Most MMORPGs don't have in-game bulletin boards, although they all have ones accessible through the web.
  
  
• Sub-games that encourage conversation - The primary sub-game in MMORPGs, running around and killing things, is a fairly mute and frenetic activity. It doesn't require players to talk, and it's nearly impossible to type a conversation while attacking a monster.

Niche communities

MMORPGs don't provide many features for meeting new people because most MMORPG players don't want to meet new people. They want to play with people, but not actually meet them. They play with their friends, and if they group with strangers, all they care about is what class the stranger's character is. Half the time I've been invited to join a group, the party leader hasn't even chatted to me first; they just click "Invite into group" without a word.

In my mind, MMORPGs are large virtual worlds with tens of thousands to millions of players. Text MUDs are small social worlds with hundreds to thousands of players. Wandering up to someone in a MMORPG and striking up a conversation is like wandering up to someone in an airport and introducing yourself. The chances are, you won't have anything in common with the other person other than you're both flying to New York City. MMORPGs attract a wide variety of players, most of whom will have different interests than you... other than the fact they like to play MMORPGs. They probably won't like the same music, be the same age, have the same life philosophies, or have the same goals in life.

Most people don't try to meet new friends through random encounters in airports, and they don't try to meet new friends in MMORPGs. To meet friends in real life, people go to parties (organized by their own friends) or join community groups (like hiking or religious groups). The same applies to virtual worlds.

People who wish to meet other people will visit virtual worlds that target niche communities. At the moment, text-MUDs provide a better way of finding a niche community than MMORPGs. For example: You can find text-MUDs dedicated to:

• Tolkien and other fantasy authors - These MUDs aren't like Lord of the Rings Online, either. They're for hardcore Tolkien fans who live and breathe Tolkien. Lord of the Rings Online is for players that liked the movies and want to kill some orcs.
  
  
• Vampire/Gothic settings - A niche setting that attracts a certain sort of person.
  
  
• Anthropomorphic settings - Again, a niche setting targeting certain sorts of people.
  
  
• Role players - More niche players.

A niche community is one with a very small market, around 1% of the population or less. I suspect almost everyone fits into at least one niche community. Some people like hard core science fiction, others are into souped-up cars, while others like to make pottery. The list of niche communities is enormous; you can get an idea of how huge by browsing your local book store or magazine retailer. Hundreds of categories exist, some of which translate into virtual worlds:

• Car enthusiasts, motorcycle enthusiasts, etc.
• Common cause - Ecological groups, etc.
• Geographical - A virtual world could be targeted at inhabitants of a specific city, like Boston.
• Hard core fantasy - Robert Jordan or Tolkien enthusiasts.
• Hard core science fiction - Not Star Trek or Star Wars. I'm talking Asimov or Niven.
• History buffs - Some people like to re-enact Roman battles, the US civil war, World War II, or the middle ages. The quasi-historical middle ages presented in most virtual worlds is mass market.
• Philosophical orientation
• Political affiliation
• Puzzle players - One of the reasons I wanted to play Uru Live was because I wanted to meet the players who played Uru Live.
• Religion-specific
• Role players
• UFO and paranormal buffs
• Vampire/Gothic
• Etc.

Each of these groups attract certain personality types, and people with very specific interests. If you're a rev-head and walking around an auto show, the chances are pretty good that anyone you talk to will also be interested in cars. Talking to someone at random an auto show is much likely to result in a friendship, or at the very least a good conversation, than meeting a stranger at the airport. The same goes for a virtual world targeted at a niche group.

The dating game

What conclusions do I draw from all of these thoughts so far?

1. There are people who want to meet new friends... This is a bit of an understatement. Most of the world's population fits into this category.
   
   
2. Existing MMORPGs do not provide the features and design needed to meet new people, and the cannot due to their all-inclusive nature.
   
   
3. Virtual worlds targeted at niche communities are an excellent way to meet new friends.

Niche virtual worlds that are intended for people to meet friends must be designed differently than traditional MMORPGs:

1. The purpose of the world is for people to meet one another. Players who want to be the alpha (fe)male can go to a traditional MMORPG that emphasises levels and PvP. The same goes for players who wish to be part of a guild, who want unlimited content, etc. Most players will play in both mass-market and niche virtual worlds, just like many people watch mass-market television shows and still subscribe to niche-market magazines.
   
   
2. The world must provide the features that I listed in "Meeting new people".
   
   
3. The purpose of the world's content is to attract people of a specific niche all into one place so that they can meet one another.
   1. It must be considered fun and entertaining by members of the niche.
   2. It must be considered un-fun and boring by people who don't fit in the niche.
      
      
4. Once in the world, the content should encourage and help players to meet up inside and outside the game.
   
   
5. Each niche community will be supported by a handful of worlds, just like a few magazines exist for every niche community. Worlds will go in and out of fashion, just like everything else.