The Power of Shame


Shame is so powerful an emotion that entire societies have been held together by it. Many still are today, Japan being a splendid example. Echoes of shame's once prime importance in our society exist in a variety of figures of speech: "Shameless. Have you no shame? You should be ashamed of yourself." Japanese warriors, when shamed, would beg not just for death, but for the right to kill themselves in rather horrible ways. Although people no longer plead for the "privilege" of killing themselves and thereby mitigating their shame, every person reading this has wished, at one time or another, that the ground would mercifully swallow him or her up after an embarrassing situation. No matter the words we choose to describe it, no matter what we actually do in response to it, shame has the power to make us wish we were dead. There is no more powerful emotion.

Furthermore, shame is an emotion that most game developers today have no idea they've tapped. Lots of folks in the industry wonder why the market for multiplayer games has grown so slowly. Others bemoan the so-called lack of an economic model for them. People dwell on learning curves, barriers to entry, interface design, and compelling content. What they fail to understand is that the principle reason more people aren't playing hosted persistent online games tonight is due to shame ”the experience of it, or the fear of it. Name me a single MMP online game that does not absolutely require that every new player undergo a period of embarrassment or humiliation. Yes, learning any new game requires that you do badly before you can do better, but multiplayer has an audience ”an audience, as noted previously, unique in all of entertainment ” generally forcing you not just to do badly at first, but to do badly in front of people. Embarrassment, even on a very slight level, is completely unheard of in all other entertainment media, all of which are hell-bent to make you feel good about yourself, now .



Developing Online Games. An Insiders Guide
Developing Online Games: An Insiders Guide (Nrg-Programming)
ISBN: 1592730000
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 230

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