One of the neat aspects of the MMO blogosphere is how writers will often interact and collaborate with each other. Recently, four bloggers ganged up on a shared topic to give their own essays on it. The issue dealt with what developers can do to foster community in MMORPGs.
“What games can do better or worse is set the stage for interaction,” posits Syl. “The games don’t carry themselves; they need to be accompanied by out-of-game resources and interactions,” Mersault noted. “I think that when we discuss ‘community’ in MMOs, what we’re yearning for is that missing ‘organic’ feel,” Aywren said. Wolfy thinks it boils down to two approaches: “Either make content that demands survival or strength in numbers, or foster places where social interaction is grown and encouraged.”
After you digest their thoughts and perhaps add your own in the comments, check out these other interesting articles from the MMO blogging community!
Superior Realities: Overwatch beta impressions
“On the whole, Overwatch has disappointed me. There’s so much potential in this game, but it’s just so over-caffeinated, hard to learn, and unforgiving of any kind of mistake or weakness. It’s a very repetitive game, too, with nowhere near enough variety in its game modes. I long for a single-player campaign, but even a decent co-op mode would work wonders.”
Gamer By Design: “Classic Blizzard-run servers? Code, logistics, marketshare point to ‘no'”
“Assuming Blizzard could actually get the correct code, get the hardware, and get everything set up for the modern internet and modern systems, they could probably make a neat profit. But because there’s little to no room for growth after that layout, I don’t see them making a huge investment here. It just doesn’t seem worth it in the grand scheme of things. At the end of the day, Blizzard — and all video game companies — are still a business.”
Inventory Full: Too much to dream
“Even in these days of game-hopping, when few new MMOs even scrape the three-month attention barrier, there seems to be some trauma involved in stopping playing any given MMO. When they decide to move from one game to another, people feel they have to make excuses, come up with a reason, explain themselves.”
“It was a pretty magical and immersive moment to stand and look around at the ships in the bay, the coast and the sea off in the horizon. This kind of moment is a reason why I love Lord of the Rings Online specifically: The world is very expansive and contiguous. Ignoring dungeons and the gates leading in and out of Moria, the explorable world is one space. People do crazy-cool stuff like swimming the navigable length of the Anduin river in game or running half-way across the world transformed into a chicken.”
“EverQuest hit the 17-year mark recently! Happy birthday to EQ! We made a couple of beastlords, Dire and I. It was fun to go back and check some old haunts, like unrest. I think the reason I still play to this day is because I know how much he loves the game still. We don’t play nearly enough though. Still trying to get him to return to EQ2… sigh.”
“I’m sure everyone has already heard the term virtual world before, but this is what game worlds used to be like. A living and breathing world filled with danger around every turn, yet encouraging exploration. This is a tough balancing act, but I feel players are up for the challenge. Zones used to be multi-leveled with a wide range of levels within them. I’d like to see that make a comeback at some point. I understand why the change happened, due to questing and story elements forcing players down a linear path. I just don’t agree with the change.”
“If you played on Nostalrius, you automatically had a whole lot in common with everyone you happened to encounter. One, you’re all filthy pirates. Two, you’re capable and willing to download cracked versions of MMOs and play them. Three, you are extremely invested in the vanilla World of Warcraft experience. And fourth, you are a member of a self-perceived persecuted group: one that Blizzard doesn’t cater to any longer.”
Every day there are tons of terrific, insightful, and unusual articles posted across the MMO gaming blogosphere — and every day, Justin reads as many as he can. Global Chat is a sampling of noteworthy essays, rants, and guides from the past few weeks of MMO discourse.
