Massively Multiplayer Monsters

One of the most interesting ideas to emerge from bringing the computer to games was the massively multiplayer game, in which hundreds or thousands of people play together via the Internet. The field is still young, but most of the basic parameters have now been set.

These games are handicapped by what is to me a killer problem: No player can truly play. The games are necessarily egalitarian we can't have a single player dominating the game or making all the important decisions. Beginners have just as much right to have fun as the old pros their money is just as green. Accordingly, the old pros must make some concessions to the beginners; they simply can't mow down the beginners and grab their goods, even though it would be easy to do so. The decision-making process must therefore be broken down and distributed among many players; everybody gets an equally small share of the overall decision-making pie. Being a cog in a machine is necessary in real social environments, but it's not very playful.

So why are they so successful? With one important exception, these games are little more than structured, goal-oriented chat rooms, and their popularity parallels the success of chat rooms. They provide a meeting place for people of like interests to chat and meet new friends. They are, of course, more than simple chat rooms, because friends can participate in adventures together. Much the same experience could be provided by any structured, goal-oriented chat room: chat room quiz shows, chat room debate tournaments, and so forth.

The major exception to which I refer is team behavior. The best examples of this are the air combat massively multiplayer games, such as the old Air Warrior game on the GENIE service. In this game, dozens or hundreds of players take to the air, each player piloting one aircraft (or helping man a bomber), with entire air squadrons battling it out. In these games, there is no overriding presumption of egalitarianism. A rank beginner can happily accept a lowly position as a gunner, while old pros need not compromise their talents to give beginners a fair chance. Besides, any beginner who insists on piloting a hot fighter will likely be shot down in the first few minutes anyway. However, he still provides some benefit to his team, if only by forcing the enemy to waste some ammunition shooting him down.



Chris Crawford on Game Design
Chris Crawford on Game Design
ISBN: 0131460994
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 248

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