It s the Socialization, Stupid

It's the Socialization , Stupid!

In the end, an online game is really just a mechanism to allow players to socialize in a context. In the industry, we are fond of saying, "They come for the game and stay for the socialization." There is more than a little truth to that statement. Past a certain point in a player's "career" in a game, being with friends and associates online is more important than the game itself, or at least equally important. If both elements aren't present, the player really has no reason to stick around.

This has manifested itself in the form of guilds and teams that stay together for years and sometimes move from game to game as whole entities if they find a game offering better tools for socialization and togetherness that enhance the bonds players form. Many designers go wrong by assuming that the gameplay will always be the primary reason for being there and pay more attention to adding content than to refining tools for establishing and maintaining social bonds .

All Players Socialize

So why aren't developers building better socialization tools? For games that depend on good communications and affiliations between the players, the industry seems to have real trouble coming up with decent chat and teaming tools. They are so bad, in fact, that most people use a third-party tool, such as AOL's Instant Messenger (AIM) or ICQ, for in-game communications whenever possible.

This has been an issue for something as basic as chatting, as some games, such as Sony Online's popular EQ , used to take over the main loop of the computer and prevent the game from being windowed or the use of <ALT+TAB> to toggle out to a separate application such as AIM or ICQ. This was done for security reasons (it is easier to hack a client that can be run in the background and allow the use of other applications), but with in-game chat tools being, on the whole, so bad compared to the third-party utilities, it makes it more difficult for players to coordinate among themselves . ^[7]

^[7] Sony Online is making a run at fixing this problem for their games. They launched their own version of Instant Messaging software for EQ in late 2002, and one can assume that Star Wars Galaxies , scheduled for an early 2003 launch, will either have IM software at launch or shortly thereafter. EQ also now supports windowed mode.

Interface designers need to take fully into account the need of the players to socialize and communicate on a variety of levels ”from two people whispering to private team communications ”and build such tools into a game from the outset.

Robust Chat Tools

Many games still hearken back to their text MUD roots and require players to use "slash" commands to talk (they need to type the slash character (/) to communicate or issue special commands). In these days of graphic point-and-click interfaces, this seems absurd and is yet another indication that designers and developers tend to build games for themselves, not for the players.

If you want to know what an in-game chat utility should look like, look at some good models that already exist: the interfaces and feature sets of AOL's Instant Messenger and ICQ. Most of the features of these chat utilities are not very difficult to implement, and they center on the twin concepts of ease-of-use and being intuitive/easy-to-learn.

Some games with fairly good chat tools include Asheron's Call ( AC ) and Anarchy Online ( AO ); they allow not only the use of standard MUD "slash" commands, but they also use a point-and-click interface as an alternative method.

Figure 8.1 is an example of AC 's chat bar. Clicking on the Chat button at the lower left allows the player to assign another player as the default recipient.

Figure 8.1. The AC chat bar, located at the bottom left of the screen.

Figure 8.2 shows a different chat method used by Electronic Arts' The Sims Online , known as "barking." The chat text is typed in by the player and then displayed near or above the player who is "speaking."

Figure 8.2. The chat method of The Sims Online. Note that what the player types appears over the head in a balloon. This is known in the industry as "barking chat."

At minimum, your chat tools should allow players to do the following:

• Chat locally with other players in the same general game locale, be this line of sight or a set region. (This is generally the default in a game.)

• Chat globally with one specific player in the game (generally known as a "whisper").

• Chat globally with team or guild members only.

• Create a private channel for two or more players to chat globally.

Other features may be added at your discretion, but each should allow the player more freedom to create customized chat groups and, in general, make communication easier, not more difficult to use or understand.

Full-Featured Guild/Team Organization Commands at Launch

The capabilities to form and control permanent guilds and create temporary teams on-the-fly (usually for a limited game session to hunt, share loot, and experience awards) are going to appeal to the core , critical mass of your game players. Of all the games launched since 1997, only two have had good and fairly easy-to-use guild/teaming tools: UO and AC . Other games have managed to get them in place some time after launch, but this is the band -aid approach; the many players looking for team support at the outset may have already left to find another community for themselves and their friends.

Guilds should have some inherent advantages, such as the ability to contribute to a common fund of equipment or game "gold," share or designate player-owned housing as a guild hall to store extra equipment for common use, and have private chat channel capability (if the use of private channels is not inherent within the game).

These commands are important because they allow existing micro-communities to support themselves and recruit new members; they are both acquisition and retention tools in that sense.

At an absolute minimum, your guild commands should include the following. Note that the term "guild" used here can also mean any form of permanent team structure, such as a squadron in a flight simulator:

• Create a guild (using some minimum number of members to allow the formation, or you'll end up with 50,000 of them; we recommend a minimum of 10 members to allow creation).

• Name the guild ”You might want to consider a profanity filter for this one.

• Invite a new member.

• Approve a membership request ”If a player requests entry into the guild, this command approves that request.

• Deny request ”Denies membership to a player who has requested it.

• Expel a member from the guild.

• Create and/or name guild rankings and/or titles ”Players love to be able to rank or title themselves inside their micro-community. This capability is usually left to the guild leader or three or four appointed guild members.

• Request membership in a guild ”A player can request to be admitted to a guild.

• Accept membership ”If a guild leader extends an invitation to a player, he/she uses this command to accept the invitation and become a guild member.

• Leave a guild ”A current member leaves his/her current guild affiliation .

• Disband the guild ”The guild leader disbands the guild and all members are automatically expelled.

• Transfer leadership ”The current guild leader transfers that status to a different player.

• Designate a guild hall ”Allows a player to designate his/her housing (if it exists in the game) as a guild hall or house, allowing guild members to enter and leave at will.

You probably can't go overboard in providing customization or utilization commands to guilds or teams. This is the heart of the game for these players; anything that allows the heart to beat more efficiently becomes a retention feature.

Other Tools That Foster Micro-Communities

Since the presence of micro-communities such as guilds and teams is critical to a PW game's success, plan extensive features that speak directly to their needs. Following are some of these needs:

• Team housing ” Teams like to have a secure, private space to gather to plan missions, train new members, be safe from the opposition (be it other teams or game monsters), and store excess inventory items for later use by the "extended family." Few PWs have had this feature at launch, although many games, seeing the effect housing has had in other games, are now in the process of adding it.

  If you really want to go all out, make sure you have several different sized houses available, from cottage- sized rooms for smaller teams to multi-story structures capable of housing goods for dozens of players. Teams grow and shrink over time and have different housing needs; they also like the accomplishment of upgrading housing for "snob appeal" reasons.

• Multiplayer/multilocation inventory storage ” Houses are great retention and acquisition features, but they suffer from being fixed locations in what is probably a large world. At some point, team members generally end up scattered across the world for various periods of time, with only limited access to the team's shared inventory. Creating some form of sharable storage lockers in various locations allows teams to explore the world and set up caches for later use. As socializing and exploring make up over 50% of PW players' gaming style and preferences, this does a lot to facilitate their play and overall satisfaction.

• Team-based events and quests ” The events portion of this feature will be discussed more fully later. However, if your game includes a mechanism to provide dynamic quest/mission generation and/or adventures , don't neglect to build in parameters and rewards that provide clear benefits to those who successfully perform them collectively. Teams don't just gab among themselves; they also want to accomplish things together. Give them that opportunity.

• Special team chat commands ” Like a moderator for a web chat, team leaders occasionally find it useful to be able to gag some team members, turn off speaking ability in a channel for all but the leader(s) for mission coordination purposes, or even boot rowdy or uncooperative members from a team chat channel. Providing these capabilities is one of those extra touches that teams talk about with non-subscribers, and good word of mouth is what this industry is all about ”sometimes.