The Connection between Social Psychology and Video Game Design

The Connection between Social Psychology and Video Game Design

                The world of interactive media has grown increasingly popular with each consecutive year.  People are tending to gravitate towards an experience that can give them an occasional escape from the doldrums of reality.  These games can range anywhere from a simple, one-tap control mobile game to immense open world alternate realities.  “The video game industry’s revenues surpassed the movie industry’s several years ago, and it surpassed the music industry’s in 2008.”(Gentile 2009)  These games have expanded to be available on almost every kind of electronic device.  One aspect of these games has started to become the center of a lot of research on interactive media.  It started with the obsession that playing video games always tends to have a negative effect on the players by making them more violent, but then it was taken one step further.  Not only was the question why do people play violent video games but instead was why do people play video games?  One of the most popular games in recent years has been a title called the World of Warcraft which had 12 million active players worldwide in 2010. (Blizzard 2010)  The main reason World of Warcraft was able to achieve this massive player base was the fact that it was a social experience, designed around meeting and interacting with other players in a virtual world.

World of Warcraft was classified as a massively multiplayer online role playing game or MMORPG.  MMORPG’s have become increasingly popular after World of Warcraft opened the floodgates into the realm of online gaming possibilities.  The game’s players would start the game with a character they were allowed to customize from many different fantasy races.  Anything from orcs to elves, gnomes to the undead, World of Warcraft was a diverse place where you could usually find a character type that would personify yourself as a player.  In the beginning of the game you would have to go off on your own and start the process known as “questing.”  Questing was a way to accomplish small tasks within the game that would give your character experience points, gold and sometimes even equipment to use in your adventures.  Then with these experience points, you might “level up” and increase the base statistics and strengths of your character and even occasionally acquire new skills that would help you in your quest to make your character more powerful.  These abilities could be anything from a new offensive power that can help you destroy more enemies or a defensive ability that reinforces the survivability of your player character and sometimes other players.  Eventually in your questing you would encounter what would be a “group quest” or a “dungeon quest.”  These quests suggested that you would need more than one person to accomplish them. 

The first group quest in the game for players that chose the Human race in game would be the slaying of a beast named Hogger.  This was the first time within the game that the player would need to branch out of their solo experience and enlist the help of others.  If you could gather extra players to assist in eliminating Hogger, the rewards were great.  There were always other options though.  Through clever gameplay mechanics, some players might find a way to destroy Hogger on their own, and others would just avoid the quest altogether to favor the solo questing experience.  The convenience of having options to choose from when met with adversities in the game was always one of the best selling points World of Warcraft ever had.  This appealed to a wider audience of introverts and extroverts alike.  Even though the ability to avoid the quest was apparent, the rewards for completing it were always tempting.  The game was designed around the group experience.  Later in the game, players would encounter the first dungeons within the game.  Dungeons were a zone that would be within the game that would have a series of smaller battles leading up to a confrontation with a story-relevant boss battle.  Boss battles were usually non-player characters within the game that had some relevance within the game’s lore and would usually require dispatching, but they were too powerful to be taken on by a solo player in the main game world. The game was designed that a small group of five players could accomplish the imminent boss battle.  Now you had players branching out from not just introducing themselves to just one other person within the game world, but now you had to make a small community to accomplish a shared goal.  Throughout the game’s history, these group sizes would increase to 10, 20 and even 40 man encounters that would later be called “raids.” 

The first raids needed a coordinated group of forty players working together to be able to accomplish the more difficult content within the game.  These raids would then usually split up into some form of hierarchy.  A designated raid leader, sometimes decided by a democratic or authoritative leader, would be chosen, as well as other leaders within the raid that would get chosen in both formal and informal ways.  Raids would sometimes have class or role leaders depending on the level of organization.  Class leaders would be leaders among any given in-game player class.  The classes in World of Warcraft were warlock, mage, paladin, priest, warrior, rogue, druid and shaman.  Then other times there were role leaders.  These roles were tanking, damage dealers, and healers.  Tanks were the players that were in charge of handling mob aggro.  Aggro was defined as maintaining the attention of the enemies around you.  The tanks were in charge of protecting the rest of the raid group from harm.  The damage dealers were the players that specialized in dispatching the in-game enemies.  The healers were the players that were more interested in a support role.  They were in charge of keeping their allies alive and using abilities that benefit the other players in some way.  This combination of tanks, healers and damage dealers has been described as the “Holy Trinity” of MMO gaming.  It has been a popular game design style for a majority of these massively multiplayer online experiences.  These are roles that players can immediately understand and predict their role in a group setting.  The many different group challenges in World of Warcraft then lead to the forming of Guilds.

A guild is just another name for a tribe.  Tribes are a social group that is usually a close-knit community based on relationships, the exchange of goods, and a common location.  In MMORPG’s these tribes have different names like Clan, Corporation, Guild, Conglomerate, or even Fireteam.  In World of Warcraft, they are simply referred to as guilds.  Guilds are formed by people that are friends or related in the real world, and then expand by meeting new people online, communicating with them, and discovering that they have similar goals within the game that they would like to obtain.  These guilds would come together for a variety of reasons in World of Warcraft.  Some players enjoyed the small group setting and playing several different characters through the questing experience and just doing the five person group content.  Other players would strive to be competitive and defeat the hardest content in the game with their large forty person groups.  There were even players that were not concerned with the boss and dungeon encounters, but instead wanted to prove themselves in combat against other players in what was called the player vs player content or PvP.
                Player vs Player based games have become very popular.  The most popular of these recent PvP based games have been the titles League of Legends and Call of Duty.  In most instances of PvP games, it is similar to the world of competitive sports.  You form teams to compete against one another in the spirit of friendly and occasionally non-friendly competition.  In League of Legends, there are two armies that are in a constant struggle.  These two armies are sending forces at each other and through defenses to destroy each other’s headquarters.  A group of five players then aligns themselves with either side, and join this battle to destroy the opposing forces’ headquarters.  Then the results of the battle are tracked online and the players’ accomplishments and statistics are tracked and they can get a feeling of satisfaction, or identify areas of which to improve their gameplay for a competitive edge.  These players get to take on the role of a virtual being and get to feel powerful.  Many players are attracted to these kind of games because of the feeling of accomplishment they get from it.  In some cases the stats and achievements are used to “prove” that they are better at the given game than the other players competing.  PvP games usually use the statistics and achievements to reinforce the players accomplishments, but games also have other ways of rewarding players.
                The other main game type is called player vs environment or PvE.  This game type is where the player is set against the world that has been crafted to challenge them.  This is where the main game challenge will not come from competing with other players around you, but instead working with them to achieve a common goal.  The rewards can be anywhere from something as simple as a notification that you’ve completed the event, to new equipment for your character that will help your adventuring in some way.  The most challenging PvE content was the raid content.  The players within the raids would be rewarded with in-game currency and equipment for effectively slaying the boss encounters.  This positive reinforcement was even expounded upon in later iterations of the game.  World of Warcraft was an evolving online world that continually had content added to the game to keep the players satisfied.  Players were further reinforced for accomplishing any task in game by receiving in-game achievements.  Achievements were special awards you received for meeting certain conditions within the game.  Then these awards would be tracked in a list of your achievements.  Players could then use their achievement list to prove to other players that they have accomplished tasks in the game, or just to remind themselves of everything they’ve done.  World of Warcraft was able to maintain their player base through repetitive positive reinforcement.  Do what the developers intend, and receive rewards for doing so.  Giving this constant reinforcement was a way to make every player within the game feel like they were succeeding at something within their lives.  It is this idea of temporary and immediate satisfaction that has been drawing in players of all age ranges and personality types.

These multiplayer games teach prosocial concepts.  “Games can provide models, give direction, require practice, and prove immediate reinforcement or feedback.” (Gentile 2009)  While games are so multi-faceted, they can also effect aggressive and prosocial behaviors.  Video games are a carefully crafted space in which a player can practice behaving in ways they don’t feel comfortable with outside of the game world.  “It is, therefore, a continuous cycle of learning and reinforcement.” (Gentile 2009)  If establishing communication and fellowship with other players is being accomplished and reinforced by the game’s environment, then the players can take the lessons they’ve learned from within the game, and apply them to their everyday life.  The games still require a form of social mastery.  This mastery can be in many varying degrees of expertise, but the majority of players will see and effect on their social skills from these games.  In some cases, the results can be negative.  Games can cause hurtful stereotypes to come out because the players believe they are behind this impenetrable wall of anonymity. 

The popular games have been designed in ways to promote positive social interaction.  World of Warcraft provides many different kinds of in-game rewards for making a group of players and maintaining that group while accomplishing in-game goals.  These games show the players that working with other people can yield great rewards.  They encourage less social players to branch out of their comfort zone while still providing them with a safe environment to do so.  Even if a player fails in one give social interaction, there are so many people within the game, that they could almost have an unlimited opportunity for practice.  The only limits to that practice are the amount of people playing the games.  But when this number is in the millions, it provides ample opportunity for practice.  In a chart about the General Learning Model referenced by Douglas Gentile in the article Prosocial Video Games and Behavior, he describes that the repeated learning encounters and practice are then effected by many different factors before coalescing into what is viewed as your individual personality.  Everything from your beliefs to your attitudes, stereotypes and emotions all play a role in interpreting these lessons and shaping your personality.  In one of their studies they “directly tested the hypothesis that habitual playing of prosocial video games would increase prosocial behavior assessed months later.” (Gentile 2009)  They studied Japanese children’s video game habits and their behaviors twice over a three to four month time span.  The results of these studies proved that there was a “bidirectional relationship between prosocial gaming and behavior.” (Gentile 2009)  These lessons and tasks within these games that promoted playing with other people really were affecting the players in positive ways.  There was a similar study done linking violent video game playing and aggression, but it just further supports that these games can have a psychological effect on the players.  The practice and lessons learned within the game environment have a definitive impact on the players in both short-term and long-term ways.

Games that are designed to reinforce social behavior are indeed having a positive effect on players inside the game as well as outside of the game world.  In other studies done by Gentile and other psychologists, it was shown that players that engaged in these prosocial video games would then be more likely to engage in helpful actions towards other players within the game on a more regular basis.  While on the other side, players that engaged in violent competitive video games would then have a tendency to have a hurtful stance towards other players.  “The present state of arousal can also be affected by both personological and situation variables.  Some people are chronically aroused, and numerous situational variables, including playing certain video games, can temporarily increase arousal…  This arousal effect is not specific to violent video games, but could occur with any game that happens to be very exciting.” (Anderson 2000)  This feeling of excitement and accomplishment keeps players involved in the prosocial or hurtful environments which the game creates.

Games can be a useful tool for positively and negatively reinforcing the behaviors of the player.  The game designers behind the game systems are usually iterating on game systems that have been financially successful in the past for other titles, but sometimes games are designed to give the player a new kind of personal experience that they have not had before.  Games are a powerful tool that can be used to influence players in a variety of ways.

Anderson, Craig A., and Karen E. Dill. "Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life." American Psychological Association, 2000. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. <http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/caa/abstracts/2000-2004/00AD.pdf>.

Anderson, Nate. "Sociologists Invade World of Warcraft, See Humanity's Future." Ars Technica. Conde Nast, 9 May 2010. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.

Gentile, Douglas A., Craig A. Anderson, Shintaro Yukawa, Nobuko Ihori, Muneeba Saleem, Lim Kam Ming, Akiko Shibuya, Albert K. Liau, Angeline Khoo, Brad J. Bushman, L Rowell Huesmann, and Akira Sakamoto. "The Effects of Prosocial Video Games on Prosocial Behaviors." Sage Publications, 25 Mar. 2009. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. <http://sitemaker.umich.edu/brad.bushman/files/gentile_etal_prosocial_2009.pdf>.

Happ, Christian, Andre Melzer, and Georges Steffgen. "Like The Good Or Bad Guy—Empathy In Antisocial and Prosocial Games." Oakton Library Databases. US: Educational Publishing Foundation, 03 Mar. 2014. Web. 08 Apr. 2014. <http://oaktonlibrary.oakton.edu/ehost/detail?vid=3&sid=f7a4aaec-21bd-4e2c-b00e-02425be9468b%40sessionmgr4002&hid=4109&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=pdh&AN=2014-07545-001>.

Routledge, Clay. "Death Love Sex Magic." The Social Benefits of Video Gaming. Sussex Directories Inc, 7 June 2010. Web. 06 Apr. 2014. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/death-love-sex-magic/201006/the-social-benefits-video-gaming>.

Stangor, Charles. "Principles of Social Psychology, v. 1.0." Flat World Knowledge. Flat World Knowledge, 2013. Web. 08 Apr. 2014. <http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/2105?e=stangorsocial_1.0-ch01_s03>.

"Press Releases." Blizzard Entertainment. Activision Blizzard, 7 Oct. 2010. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.

My time with Z and my ENC Family

 

  Yesterday I lost a good friend.  I wasn't part of his inner circle, or his high school crowd, but he was a part of my closest gamer family.  He was a profound influence on my growth as a man, and the development of my life's passion.  He was there for me when I needed friends the most.  He wasn't the most vocal person, but he always had a good heart and was loyal to his friends.
     Most people don't understand the world of gaming yet, and that's fine because it's still a relatively new medium and field of study.  Unfortunately it usually has this bad stigma attached to it, and the people you spend your time "playing games" with is viewed as a waste of time.  My time with my ENC family (ENC being the internet cafe I spent countless hours at) and my time with my friend, Z, were some of the best years of my life and I know I'm not alone in my feelings about my time there.  To those that choose to remain ignorant, it might look like we had been wasting our time on games, but it was hardly time wasted.
     The reason I'm heavily invested into the world of gaming is because of my time at ENC.  Our ENC family remains a band of brothers that I'll always have the utmost respect for and I'll care about forever.  We always had tough times in our life, but we could put that aside and share our time together playing games.
     Z was one of the main people in my life that taught me about the Mobile Online Battle Arena genre, which popular titles include Dota 2 and League of Legends.  They are popular player vs. player games in which teams of five compete to destroy each others main base.  The online battlefields are filled with both meta and micro managed strategies that takes years to properly master.  Z not only had achieved a level of mastery over this game type, he also had the patience to help someone new to the genre (Me) learn the ropes and realize how fun competing with friends can be.  We were always a competitive bunch at ENC.  We'd yell at each other about the nice plays being made, and heckle each other for the mistakes we'd make.  I'll never forget Mike Vo and Z yelling across the room, "OH NOOOO!  THE CREEEEEPSSS!"  Creeps were small cannon fodder-esque units in the game that represented the army you were fighting for.  When you'd attack another player, the enemy creeps would turn to attack you in order to back up their ally.
    Our group of gamers at ENC was very similar to a recreational sports team.  We were friends, but we also were a task-oriented group dedicated to killing bosses, slaying dragons, and defeating online opponents.  Then when we weren't playing the games, we'd hang out, talk, grab a pizza or possibly some Chipotle, and I'd usually join people outside for their cigarette break.  We were like any group of friends, we'd hang out, do activities (Monday Night Raids anyone?), and just have a good time.
  It was this group of friends that shaped me.  We might be tough on each other when it came to getting better at competitive games like Dota, but I feel like we were and are loyal friends to each other.
    Z epitomized this for me.  From my time with him, I could tell he had a good heart.  He enjoyed the company of his friends, and he enjoyed being a positive influence.  He'd buy people food when they were low on money, or just zone out and play some games with you if you'd rather not really be too social.  He helped make ENC into a very comfortable place for our group to spend time.  He'd invite you to play with him and was excellent at providing constructive feedback to make you better at what you were playing.  We'd have conversations about playing a paladin in World of Warcraft and the best methods of healing.  We weren't just gamers, we were serious gamers.  This wasn't just a tiny distraction in our life, this was our priority in how we spent our free time.  Some people go to bars, some go to movies, and some people even read books.  We would spend our time, effort, and money on our games.  However, it wasn't all serious.  We'd have a great time doing it too, and we made friends for life.
    I can't say that I spent enough time with Z recently, but I can say that the time I DID spend with him changed my life forever.  It was this social interaction that fostered my love of gaming.  It was this community that sparked my interest in psychology and sociology.  It was this group that helped remind me how important my friends are in my life.  It was looking back at my time with this group that convinced me to go back to school to learn more about gamer communities and why people enjoy them so much.
     Z was a wonderful person, a great friend, and one of the best Dota teammates you could ever ask for.  I'll miss him more than I can probably process at the moment.  Ultimately, I love you Z, and I love you my ENC family.  I know we're huge bros, but you're some of the best friends I've ever made.  We'll miss you Z.

My Titanfall Impression via Steam Conversation

This post is just a brief conversation I had on Steam about my Titanfall beta experience.  It sums up the issues I have with the game and sheds some light on the features.  I know it's not the most eloquent language, but at least you'll still get my raw impressions of the experience.


Elandrian: man
Elandrian: i am SUPER upset about titanfall
Elandrian: i need to talk to someone
Elandrian: hahahaha
I have a pwner: is it that baf?
I have a pwner: bad
Elandrian: yes
Elandrian: yes and no
Elandrian: hahaha, that's why i'm conflicted, but, overall, not worth 60 dollars
I have a pwner: boo
Elandrian: like, at all
I have a pwner: multiplayer good at least?
Elandrian: it's ONLY multiplayer
I have a pwner: lol
Elandrian: man, i'm SO salty
Elandrian: so here's the nutshell
Elandrian: It's a good evolution of call of duty multiplayer, the parkour and mechs make it feel fresh
Elandrian: BUT
Elandrian: It's fucking call of duty multiplayer, ultimately it's just dudes blasting each other
I have a pwner: lol
Elandrian: but they create a false sense of badassness by adding AI units
I have a pwner: sounds like typical console shittiness
I have a pwner: ahhh
Elandrian: like, there's AI dudes that are worthless on the battlefield "helping"
Elandrian: so it's only 6v6 players
I have a pwner: free kills
Elandrian: but there's AI dudes
Elandrian: EXACTLY
Elandrian: free kills, they're worthless
Elandrian: but they distract you from thinking you're bad because at least you're killing something right?
I have a pwner: sounds like a game for kids
Elandrian: exactly
I have a pwner: it's like giving everyone a trophy in little league
Elandrian: YES
I have a pwner: even if they're dead last
Elandrian: it's just the "grass is greener" issue
Elandrian: it's like, "man, I'm so happy that I can blast more dudes in new ways, and oo the graphics are pretty over here and ooo mechs are cool"
Elandrian: but then with no story or deeper objective to playing... what's the point?
Elandrian: i mean shit, at least give me character customization
Elandrian: NOT loadout customization, that means NOTHING
I have a pwner: wow
I have a pwner: that's just bare bones they gave you
I have a pwner: doesn't have the finess of a $60 game you'd expect
Elandrian: and it has no intention of being worth a full 60 dollars
Elandrian: It's a 20 dollar PC shooter title
Elandrian: that's what it's worth to me
I have a pwner: and this is why I wait before I play games
Elandrian: i mean fuck
I have a pwner: haha
Elandrian: make it free to play and give it character customization that you pay microtransactions for
I have a pwner: oooh
Elandrian: well... this is why i play betas
I have a pwner: that's an idea
I have a pwner: make it like league
I have a pwner: like that one first person moba
Elandrian: or just play Hawken
Elandrian: it's going to be free to play
I have a pwner: what's that
Elandrian: all mech titanfall
I have a pwner: ah
Elandrian: i've been in beta for it for like 2 years
Elandrian: it's on steam early access now
Elandrian: but it's 20 bucks for early access, but i got a free key for being in closed beta
Elandrian: but anyway, if i want to play a mech combat game
I have a pwner: niceee
Elandrian: i'll play mechwarrior online or hawken
I have a pwner: yeah
I have a pwner: word
Elandrian: both of which are/will be free
Elandrian: so if i'm gonna pay 60 bucks for titanfall
Elandrian: it better be the bees knees of mech games
Elandrian: and the content is has IS polished... but it's not enough to be worth 60
Elandrian: i should just post our conversation as to why it's bad
Elandrian: then i don't have to retype
Elandrian: lolll
I have a pwner: lol
I have a pwner: i'm fine with that
I have a pwner: especially if you keep my name as i have a pwner
Elandrian: yes, well now I HAVE to post it

An Open Letter to MMOs and Players

Let’s take a second and look at the recent release of Grand Theft Auto V.  Here’s a game that took around $265 million to develop, making it one of the most expensive video games created, then it rakes in over a billion dollars from sales.  There’s many reasons why this was so profitable.  From the superb voice acting, animations and music… to the sheer amount of content within the game providing players with variety and engaging gameplay for over 100+ hours.  I know this seems like just a pitch for GTAV, but I’ll get to that in a second.  This game really is memorable, because honestly it proves to the industry that taking the time needed, and spending the right amount of money to get the necessary resources to produce a top-notch triple A game release is worth the effort. 

Many companies are looking to cut corners and reduce costs… heck, it’s not even just the games industry.  It’s the current state of the American economy.  The average citizen can’t afford to purchase every new game release.  That’d be financially irresponsible and impossible.  However, if you give them a title worth shelling out cash for, people will clamor over any and all barriers to get it. Step back and really observe what just happened.  This populous that’s straining with increased costs of healthcare, reduced wages, and increased tax/city costs, just shelled out full price for a game out of excitement and confidence that it will be worth it.  We knew it would be a good game.  We knew the studio behind it.  We knew it would be worth the monetary and time investment.  We knew we would get our bang for our buck.

What’s the deal with upcoming massive multiplayer online(MMO) games?  I’ve always wanted to be excited about new MMO releases, sometimes to the point of leading my friends astray with game recommendations, but I’ve learned a lot over the past couple of years I’ve been a consumer.  I’ve learned what makes a strong MMO.  You need a strong sense of community and positivity and excitement.  You need gameplay that is new in some way, and the same in others.  You need a gradual difficulty increase that won’t scare away the more casual crowd, and let’s not forget that bit of ultra-difficult content for the players that will invest their life into the game.  I’ve played most of the bigger MMO releases over the past couple years, maxing out a character and getting bored of the repetitive tedious end-game and occasionally surprised by the advancements in gameplay and user interface design.  Let’s touch upon each of the points I’ve made that I think make successful MMO’s.

Community.  This is the pinnacle of maintaining an MMO crowd.  I think the penultimate example of the ideal MMO community is the initial release and early adopter crowd.  The people that were excited for the game before it’s out.  I remember at World of Warcraft’s release the player-base was a pleasure to play with.  Players were helpful and curious.  The game was new to everyone, there really hadn’t been anything exactly like it.  Sure there were the couple of people that made references to similarities in earlier MMO’s like EverQuest or Star Wars Galaxies(I was one of them!), but this was also in Blizzard’s golden years where the gaming population would have killed a man to get their hands on a new Blizzard game.  The level of excitement was palpable and players were engaging each other in learning this new game and exploring its world.  The server populations weren’t enormous and the content wasn’t too difficult yet, but that’s ok because it was new.  It was finally a game that had the capability to bring a lot of gamers that had been uncertain about the MMO world into a new game fostered on their knowledge that Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3 were amazing games.  This is the kind of gamer that you want to play games with.  The kind of people that can make your experience really enjoyable because you might be stuck with some complicated quest, and the other players are actually eager and available to help out.  They won’t demean your skill level and call you a “noob” or tell you to refer to some website for quest guidance.  There weren’t sites for that yet, and if there were, they didn’t have all the information yet because their content creators were also still learning the game.  The days where an epic item gave you motivation to keep playing so maybe you’d one day see such treasures, and a legendary was just awe-inspiring.  Sure placing so much value on these “colored pixels” is trivial, but it also added a sense of wonder.  You needed to know where they got those items and how.  I know sometimes I’d feel overwhelmed by the process required to obtain some of the items, but the process also made it feel like there was a reward for investing time into the game.  I’m steering away from my point of community, and we know any player could rant and rave about how World of Warcraft was amazing and terrible in endless ways, so I’ll circle back.  In my opinion, community in MMO’s lends itself to shared exploration of the game world and content.  You want to experience things for the first time in a game at your own pace, and you can increase that feel ten-fold by experiencing content for the first time with friends.  Maybe not even just friends, but other people.  It’s that first time you see some bit of lore or content and you have your “wow…” moment.  That first time you or a friend gets an epic item and people want to know how to get it.  I remember the original paladin hammer quest.  I don’t think it was an epic hammer, just a blue quality, but it felt powerful.  It had lore behind it.  It had meaning.  It FELT epic.  It was thrilling to be able to tell other paladins about the hammer and which quest that was coming up that would enable them to get it and experience it.  Forming a guild for the first time with some friends from real life, and some new friends that you’ve met online that were enjoyable to play with.  That initial thrill of exploration of a new game is what it’s all about.

Now we have to talk about new gameplay.  Not new in a literal sense of the word, but new in an iterative sense of the word.  We need gameplay that will be similar and derivative of other successful games that people enjoy, but with certain advancements to the gameplay mechanics that enhance the user’s experience.  It’s easy to go back to talking about World of Warcraft but I want to use other examples as well.  I felt World of Warcraft was an improvement on the game genre that Everquest really defined.  Then other games took the ball and ran with it.  Warhammer Online had a PvP system that was more engaging.  Guild Wars 1 and 2 both had different combat systems and PvP features.   Star Wars: The Old Republic had better voice acting and story structure and interactivity.  Tera had a more active combat system that required more attention to detail and the graphics were an improvement as well.  We need to take the successful aspects of other games and utilize them to create an ultimate product.  The problem is that while the new content needs to be new, it also needs to be easy to approach.  I think the days of people really learning any gameplay mechanic that is brand new is almost gone because making a new game successful means you have to make it approachable by the widest audience.  Which brings me to the next point.

Difficulty can be described in many ways.  I have all sorts of friends that I play games with from all “walks of life” when it comes to gaming.  I have the casual friends that just want to log on occasionally to have fun, and I have the hardcore friends that stick with one game and play that for every available hour of free time.  I also have friends from anywhere and everywhere in between.  I want to play with all of them.  I cherish the community I’ve built around playing games and I enjoy talking about them as much, if not more, than I enjoy playing them.  Okay, I’ll just come clean.  I crave talking about games.  I crave having something new to be excited about.  I yearn for advancements to be made in technology in order to make a game better.  I love talking about it.  So why is difficulty an issue?  Well, in order to play all these games with as many of my friends as possible, then the game has to be pretty flexible.  “Okay Elan, well you just like to play with other people, but how is that relevant to the industry?”  Companies want to make games that make money.  They make more money by getting more people to buy it.  To get a bigger audience to buy it, they better WANT me to play with all my friends, of all different gamer types. 

World of Warcraft was the latest game that really encompassed almost all gamer styles and brought them to one place.  You could be casual and log on occasionally and do some daily quests, or queue up for a quick raid using their Looking For Raid system.  You could be one of the hardcore and log on for at least four hours a night to beat your head against your keyboard to experience killing the latest in raid bosses with twenty four other compadres.  You could even be anywhere in between, there were so many people playing that there was a place for everyone. 

New games must be easy enough to get involved in.  You want them to beckon you in with easy-to-understand mechanics and maybe even a nice introductory tutorial.  Sure it might not be for everyone, maybe even add an option to skip the tutorial.  Some players will breeze through the beginning of a new game with ease while even watching Netflix and barely paying attention, but you also want to cater to the players who it is a new experience for.  You want to drag them in.  Show them the world you spent a long time creating.  Show them a new world for them to spend time in with their friends.  Show them a new online hangout.

Take the game mechanics that have worked well in the past, and polish them.  I didn’t say simplify, I mean polish!  You can keep a game complicated, as long as you’re easing the newer players into it.  Don’t throw the girth of the game at a new player off the bat (I’m looking at you EVE Online), that can be both overwhelming and frustrating.  I poke fun at EVE, but they have made strides to make it easier to get into as a new player, so I have to afford them some credit where it’s due.  The game has to be immersive and addicting.

Keep the end-game hard.  While I strongly believe that the start of playing a new MMO should be all-inclusive and easy to understand, I feel the complete opposite about the end-game.  The end-game dungeons or raids or player vs player content should be difficult.  There should be some content that the majority of players will be unable to complete.  Now should you make the gameplay leading up to the end-game too easy and then just drop them in a bottomless pit of difficulty, they’ll leave the game.  I just had this experience with Tera.  Leveling was fine and dandy, and people enjoyed the process.  It was a little grindy here and there, but most people did it, then we hit the end-game.  I didn’t have any problem with the end-game or the combat system, but I’m not really the majority by any means.  The dungeon’s bosses were hard and unforgiving to people still learning the combat mechanics.  It caused people to get overly frustrated at the skill level that it took to complete, and people ended up leaving in droves.  So you have to gradually scale up to the end-game in order to lock players into still logging in.  At the same time though, you have to have some super-hard content.  The hardcore crowd that become super invested in your intellectual property are the ones that will foster the community.  The hardcore people will be the one’s posting boss kill videos, strategies, and updating the bigger fansites and database webpages that people use.  They will showcase that hard content in a way that will drive some of the players into committing more time to the game in order to see that content for themselves.  You’ll most certainly have some people that will complain that it should be easily available to anyone with a spare 15 minutes to go in and waltz through, but that trivializes the content.  If it’s too easily approachable, then there’s no sense of accomplishment when seeing it and completing it.  My fondest memory from World of Warcraft was finally downing the original Four Horsemen for the first time.  It was a boss fight that required immense coordination between forty people.  It was one of the most difficult parts of any game I’ve ever played, but that feeling when we beat it was immeasurable.  That feeling is exactly what you want players to crave.  It’s why the play the game.  Keep delivering feelings like that, and you will have struck gold.

Now I have to talk about the upcoming MMO’s that I’m excited about and why.  I know I have some friends that will forever hold a grudge against me for recommending Age of Conan, but I feel like that was during a time where I was a little bit more naïve about game marketing and what factors actually keep people playing games.  I am both excited and hesitant about this new game called Wildstar.  Wildstar is a game being developed by original World of Warcraft developers, City of Heroes developers, and a smattering of other veteran devs from the MMO world.  I’m excited about it because I really feel like it enhances the MMO experience.  It’s both more of the same, and brand new at the same time.  They take a semi-cartoony art style in a sci-fi setting, with a good dose of humor, and a new combat system that is easy to learn and hard to master.  The user interface is pretty similar to the standard setup that players are used to from an MMO, and it’s customizable as it should be.  The combat system is much more engaged than the WoW standard “tab and smash keys.”  You certainly still mash keys, but at least there’s abilities where you have to hold it to charge it, and you can move while casting almost every ability in the game.  It’s a much more mobile and exciting combat.  So the base combat is similar, but improved.  They also added a housing system to the game.  You get a plot of land floating in the sky, and you can build a house in the early game that stays with you as you level and experience the end-game.  Playing unlocks features and decorations for your house that makes it feel much more personalized.  I remember placing things in my house in Star Wars Galaxies years ago, and I was always wondering why most modern MMO’s don’t have housing in the game.  It was always such a cool place to show your friends and store and display your loot.  Lord of the Rings Online had decent housing, but it just needed more options for customization and decoration.  Wildstar will let you pick the material for your floors, your walls, place decorations wherever you want inside, and even customize the exterior.  It takes it one step further and lets you develop and customize the land around your house as well.  From random things like a BBQ pit, a playable floor piano, to even a dungeon entrance.  Now while Wildstar is leaps and bounds going in the right direction with MMO development, I worry it’s not enough for the over-saturated market right now.  I feel like players are getting bored of the standard leveling system to get to max level then see what the game really has to offer.  I worry that Wildstar will fall into that trap and some people will be turned off by the aspect of having to level to max level before they really begin to have fun.  The game’s not released so I can’t say that it will be one way or another, but I’m just concerned because I want a new game that will engage my needs for an immersive mature experience and my friend’s needs to just have fun while playing.

Then we could go the other route with MMO’s.  Why just take the standard leveling/end-game pattern and only stick with that?  That brings me to Star Citizen.  Star Citizen is hardly going to be a traditional MMO.  It’s a space simulation action game.  Combat will be 1^st/3^rd person in real time, blasting away at your enemies with lazers, phasers, and rockets.  There will be some public servers that will host a large number of games, but you can also play on private servers with your friends.  So it’s not traditionally an MMO with servers and always online logins, but it will have that option.  You could even have a 250 person server which is technically a massive multiplayer online game, but it’s not thousands like most MMO’s on the market.  Star Citizen is going to take what people loved about old PC space simulation games and bring it up to speed.  You have the freedom to do whatever you desire within the game.  Feel like just beginning the game as a space pirate and looting precious cargo from trade freighters when you start the game?  Do it.  Want to get a hang of the combat?  Do the full single-player military campaign and experience the story while learning the game.  Having trouble with a mission?  Invite your buddies to come help for some cooperative action.  Don’t want to wait to finish the campaign to play in the free-roam galaxy?  You don’t have to.  You really are open to any options of gameplay.  “But Elan, all you’ve talked about is combat…”  Then be a trader!  Be a crafter.  Make all your money from producing goods and exclusively doing missions to further that goal.  The options for gameplay are there.  The game is also going to have an unprecedented amount of immersion.  It will have voice acting, orchestral soundtracks, fully fledged space stations and hangars, functional interiors for your spacecraft, the works.  Not satisfied by my hype ranting?  How about some numbers for you.  Star Citizen requested five hundred grand for development on their Kickstarter campaign.  They have now made over twenty million dollars from private donations from fans excited about the game.  I think it will be one of the next steps in game development.  It’s pushing the boundaries of graphics and content in ways that every game should be.

There’s a lot of issues with current and upcoming MMO releases, but there’s many things they do right.  It takes a lot of effort to engage millions of players on a consistent basis, and even more effort to keeping them playing and paying for months/years to come.  If companies invest the right amount of time, money, and people in the development process, they can make enormous profits.  This doesn't even apply to just MMO's.  It applies to all games.  Keep the players happy, and reap the benefits. 

Next time:  How good games are like private clubs.