Hey, all. Thanks for checking out my first blog. I'm going to start a weekly column about the WoD MMO, what we hear about it from the Powers That Be over at White Wolf, and the larger topics of gamification and game theory. I hope you enjoy it.
So, assuming we've all already seen the interview from a couple of weeks ago, so other than a single screen shot of a street corner comprised of a dull grey building and a dull grey car, it's been a slow news week. Odd time to start my blog, for sure, but it does give me a chance to talk about the structure of games, and what they're trying to get you to do.
Most single player PC and consul games offer a simple answer to this question: They want you to enjoy the game. They want you to play the game, like the game and tell as many of your friends as possible that just how much you liked the game so they'll buy it too. They want you to enjoy the game so much you'll buy the expansions, sequels, merchandise and, well, you get the idea. All they really have to do is make a superior game, and they've done their job. It's a daunting task, but from the stand-point of what the company wants from you, it's quite simple.
This starts to get interesting when you take steps away from this model. Take, for instance, PC and consul games with a multi-player option. We're still trying to get you to enjoy the game, talk with friends about it and all that, but there's a subtle difference: they want you to contribute, in some way, to the other player's enjoyment.
In other words, it's your job, in part, to help them to entertain the other player.
Whether the game is competitive or cooperative, the designers have to set up the rules of the game such that the things you do will contribute to another player's enjoyment. This is far more complicated a job than it might appear on the surface. The competitive game has to be fun to win, for sure, but it also has to be at least a little fun to lose. The player who just got blown to pieces has to feel like she had a fair chance, and that she could do better next time. Cooperative games offer an even more daunting challenge: creating a world in which you'll be glad you have your buddy along, whether she's way better than you, or way worse. Either way, it's got to be better for her to be there.
This matters for conversations about the World of Darkness game because of what we already know about it: It's going to be heavily-focused on player interactions, rather than pre-scripted developer content. For this, you know they've got people beating their brains, trying to figure out how to encourage the kinds of behavior players want to see from one another in a game about blood-thirsty monsters, without burning everyone out in a blood-soaked series of protracted flame-wars. As with the competitive games above, they'll need to make the conflicts between players fun to win, and at least a little fun to lose. Like the cooperative games, they'll have to give players a reason to interact with one another, rather than just wandering off and playing Castlevania.
As we develop this blog series, we'll talk about what we've heard of the MMO, sure, but we'll also talk about how games influence our behavior, with an eye toward how CCP will design their game to do just that.
Homework for the week: Go play a game that wants something from you. Facebook App games are a clear example, but all MMO's operate on this model, as do games with DLC. Spend some time thinking about how they try to influence your behavior, and what they do to do so. Post below what you find out, and we'll talk about it next week. Cheers,
-Jeff
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