Social Interactivity in MMO Games.
The key difference between non-massively multiplayer games and their MMO counterparts is (obviously?) that MMOGs unify entire communities of players in a single and concurrent gameplay experience. The reader might have noticed the question mark following the word “obviously” in the preceding sentence. It is there because while perhaps it seems obvious that the difference between massively-multiplayer games and other games is the massively-multiplayer prefix, I am not convinced that current MMOG designs reflect this insight.
It has been found, for example, that many MMOG players play these games by themselves, with minimal interpersonal activity (Ducheneaut, Yee, Nickel and Moore, 2006). Indeed, several MMOGs feature designs that encourage this type of solo gameplay, in that often it is the quickest or most rewarding way to progress through large portions of the game. The quality and breadth of social interactions possible in MMOGs has evolved at a much slower pace than many of their other aspects, demonstrating that designers often place this aspect of their games low on their agendas, or ignore it altogether. One player clicking on another player and pressing “Heal,” or giving him an attribute bonus as he runs by, hardly looking at his avatar as he passes, does not constitute the level of social interactivity MMOGs should strive for. Clicking “Buy” in a NPC’s dialogue box to purchase an item placed for sale by another player does not constitute the level of social interactivity MMOGs should strive for. Within the vast majority (if not all) of MMOGs today, the solely effective communication and self-expression tool for social interaction is the chat window—an antiquated effort at best and integrated into most games with as little cohesion as if television manufacturers bolted telephones to their product and labeled it MMOTV.
Evidence, both of the lack of social interaction outlets in current MMOGs and of players’ demand for such tools, can be found by observing the numerous third party products and add-ons designed to facilitate such practice. Take, for instance, voice chat software like Ventrillo and Team Speak, the user created Dragon Kill Point (DKP) system for administering guilds, and the plethora of community websites that have emerged. Considering other virtual social interaction entities, the absurdity of this clearly surfaces. Imagine the ridiculousness of a community website for Facebook, MySpace, or Wikipedia! It seems MMOG designers have largely missed the Web 2.0 memo. This neglect of the social aspects of MMOGs in favor of obsession over tweaking statistics has lead to a stagnation in MMOG design, with static worlds frozen under the archetype of the original Multi-User Dungeon created nearly thirty years ago.