Random Dialogue: The Nature of the Game
Dialogue, 2004-01-26

The Massively Multiplayer genre has, for the most part, been dominated by games. So much so, in fact, that the genre now has "game" as part of it's name. Is Everquest really a game? When we log in to Norrath or Naboo, are we gaming? Today we're talking about virtual spaces, what they are, and whether in the end we are actually "playing" anything. With apologies to Richard Bartle.

In the course of this discussion, it will become very apparent that the terminology in this genre is a source of much confusion. Thanks to the fact that most people consider our hobby a subset of normal gaming, all of the language associated with it is game-related. Properly, an online space where a large number of people can interact in a relatively persistent fashion should really be referred to as a Virtual World. The most common appellation given these worlds is Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, even if the world is not role-playing oriented or game-like in nature. I prefer MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) as it includes worlds like Planetside as well as Everquest. The act of participating in a Virtual world is referred to as "playing". The reason for this, of course, is history. The first Virtual Worlds were games and most of the most popular worlds are games. It should be pointed out that there are many different types of Virtual Worlds, and not all of them are games. There are VW's used to teach other languages, VW's that teach history, and a plethora of VW's that are nothing but glorified IRC channels. In fact if we were to look at the overwhelming multitude of Massively Multiplayer spaces, most of them are not what I would consider games. MOOs in particular are incredibly prevalent online, and are not really games. While you can chat in them, create spaces and objects and verbally spar with a person from across the globe, there are usually next to no game-like elements to them.

We refer to someone "playing" Everquest and the generic term for an individual logged into a MMOG is "player". If someone isn't playing Everquest, are they still a player? The recent merger of IGE and Yantis should make it clear that not everyone logged into a Virtual World is playing. The people farming all the goods that made those companies successful were not playing by any definition of the word I'm familiar with. Similarly, if you've maxed out your character and spend 4 hours camping a spawning point with your guild-mates for loot that you won't even get, is that playing? At the highest levels, I would argue that it is not. As an individual advances through the character levels and begins to mesh more and more with the society of the Virtual World in which they are a part, studies have shown time and time again that the game aspect is less and less what draws the individual to the VW. The higher in level the character is, the more likely it is that the player behind the character is there for the people he has met and not for the game behavior. Some people start off that way, either because of their natural tendencies or because of social exposure via previous games and are generally known as socializers (or "care-bears" by their frustrated brethren). Is someone who has a pure entertainer character in Star Wars Galaxies playing Galaxies the same way that a Master Bounty Hunter is?

You'll have Fun, and You'll Like It!

All that said, player, playing, and Massively Multiplayer Online Game are all terms that are widely used right now within our hobby. People who participate in Virtual Worlds usually consider themselves players and the places they go to be game-worlds. What does this mean? It means that designers have a responsibility to their player base to actually make games. You can't release a product which you refer to as a game which is not. That's generally known as false advertising. The biggest reason that Star Wars Galaxies is getting bad press is because of the lack of content in the game. There are professions to climb and critters to fight, but the meat of what makes a Massively Multiplayer Game a game is the content, and there just isn't enough for everyone to go around. So, because MMOGs are games, designers should design with player fun in mind. This concept of fun should include more than the few dozen people willing to grind their way through an asinine number of hours to become the best of the best*. For the most part breadth seems to be what players want in their MMOGs. The vast majority of people who have taken the Bartle Test test as explorers of one form or another. Having another hill to climb, another peak to look out from or another tomb to plunder is what content is all about in the Massively Multiplayer genre. The sheer amount of stuff to do is undoubtedly a big reason behind Everquest's continued success. There is room in that game for actors, dungeon crawlers, guild leaders, crafters, PvPers, roleplayers, and storytellers because there is enough content to fulfill them all one hundred times over. Players are looking for a saturation point where the amount of content available is such that no one character can master it all. This is very freeing to the player base and allows for small victories to be very meaningful. If you want to spend your time dancing in a cantina, shouldn't you be allowed to do that better than the guy who is doing ten different things? Again, it all comes down to the fun factor.

Personally, I think the Virtual World vs. Massively Multiplayer Online Game argument is a non-starter. While games can be art, I don't pay fifteen bucks a month to be a part of a designers art. I play to have fun, and ultimately to improve the lives of myself and the people I interact with. I don't think it's necessary to have content updates every week, or even every month depending on the circumstances. Having stuff to do that I don't do in my everyday life is, however, the whole point of the thing. I play Jedi Knight to swing a saber, I play Civilization to conquer the world, and I play a MMOG to become a hero. Anyone else who tries to tell you different is trying to sell you something.

Next week, I want to touch on the importance of a MMOG...sorry, Virtual World's setting. Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Modern are all very different bags of hammers from the player's point of view, but is the same true for designers? If it is, how do designers have to treat each setting differently, and what can the designer do to ensure that the player connects with the setting?

* The best and worst example of this is the ridiculous methods by which players are expected to open their force-sensitive slots. Instead of making becoming a Jedi a content-rich journey that really challenges players to act in accordance with the code of conduct that we've seen exhibited by the Jedi in the movies, Jedi are open only to grinders with hundreds of hours of free time available to them. This cheapens what many players see as the penultimate accomplishment in the game, reducing it to just another profession to grind to. The catastrophic results of this revelation have partially destroyed the in-game economy as players grind their way through many professions, giving away or selling their goods and services while the players who are actually playing those professions must lower their prices or go without compensation. Out of game, these grinders are rewarded for their efforts by selling their accounts on eBay for hundreds of dollars. At the time I write this there is at least one Jedi up for auction on eBay being sold for over one thousand dollars. For you economists out there, that's somewhat equivalent to a job at a fast-food joint.