Hey people, it's been a while. What have I been up to? Well, here's a little essay for you.
For those of you who don't know, I'm a computer game design student, and some of my recent thoughts have swung to online worlds. I've been reading a lot of Design Dragon's (Raph Koster - http://www.legendmud.org/raph/) work, among other things. Hence, my essay: "Why are we going to hell, and why am I in this handbasket" Firstly, a link for those who say "it's only a game" - <a href="http://www.legendmud.org/raph/gaming/essay1.html";>A Story About A Tree</a>. Online actions can touch lives beyond the purely virtual. And of course, in some ways even a mailing list such as my first posting of this essay, Brin-L, is also an online community. A community is what the participants make of it. So, in every online world, we can generally see the four types of player. Richard Bartle categorizes four types of player - *Those who seek to interact with other people, or Hey people, it's been a while. What have I been up to? Well, here's a little essay for you. For those of you who don't know, I'm a computer game design student, and some of my recent thoughts have swung to online worlds. I've been reading a lot of Design Dragon's (Raph Koster - http://www.legendmud.org/raph/) work, among other things. Hence, my essay: "Why are we going to hell, and why am I in this handbasket" Firstly, a link for those who say "it's only a game" - <a href="http://www.legendmud.org/raph/gaming/essay1.html";>A Story About A Tree</a>. Online actions can touch lives beyond the purely virtual. And of course, in some ways even a mailing list such as my first posting of this essay, Brin-L, is also an online community. A community is what the participants make of it. So, in every online world, we can generally see the four types of player. Richard Bartle categorises four types of player - *Those who seek to interact with other people, or Socializers *Those who seek to dominate other people, or Killers *Those who seek to learn and master the mechanics of the world, or Explorers *Those who seek to advance within the context of the world, or Achievers Most online communities and games seek balance between the types, at least to some extent. Even those MMO and MUD communities which disallow direct player-versus-player conflict have these archetypes, even the Killers. Even the beta of Disney's Toontown, which disallows even normal chat between players who do not know each other outside the game has it's own forms of grief play, which can be exploited by the Killers. People are Broken, especially in online worlds where barriers on peoples behaviour demonstrably break down. Ultima Online began as a world where the archetypes mixed. Admittedly, it was not a free association, and there were limits put on where and how the Killers would strike, but strike they did if you were unwary or unlucky. But, outside the cities, danger lurked � even if it was in many places slight. In time, this changed, and the worlds of the Killers and of the other archetypes was split - not without some protests. Many at the time believed that the community of socializers, explorers and achievers would be enough, for the killers were mostly excluded from the lands where player versus player. The community has changed, as a result. There are fewer killers in the old lands, and the community where killing is forbidden, has changed. In the worlds of one long time player, who is an achiever, "The worst torture a hero can endure is life in a world without evil, and devoid of those that need to be protected from it." The old urgency, the old risk is gone. The community has, at least to some extent, stagnated. In a great irony, there are now changed going into Ultima Online to entice non-PK's back to the world where they might be slain, because it's the place where they can gain advantages unavailable anywhere else, and in return accept the risk of being killed. An acknowledgement from the developers that separating the communities did not work. And yet...that is the situation we face today. Not worlds within a game, this time, but the Games Themselves are separating the Killers from the rest. At one end, Shadowbane is designed for the hardcore killers, not single buy in groups - Guilds - where the usual restrictions felt by people even in virtual worlds are eroded even further. On the other end of the scale, games such as Starwars: Galaxies will only allow combat at specified locations and between different sides. No hunting, no-one caught up in unwanted combat. The growth of the online community in itself will cause problems. Will Shadowbane attract large numbers of "grief" PKers, who will guild together and quickly dominate the game? Certainly in some quarters that is the opinion of people playing current MMO games. Certainly, the lure of a game where one teams up to kill other players will attract people who are disruptive and unpopular within other communities. Expecting Killers to regulate their own numbers, especially in groups, is perhaps asking too much. Player Justice is a noble concept, but asking a community of mostly Killers to do so? Of course, will the l33t rush into Starwars: Galaxies, and try forcing the Killer archetype in the form of various forms of grief play, in a game which wants to maintain the clean image of the Starwars Universe? Effectively, most Killers - are the risk they represent - are being excluded not only by the game system but by the nature of the game itself. We see two worlds. Ultima Online's new proposals hope to some extent to reunite the two worlds, but is still does not bring back the same mixing of the types - those who travel back to the lands frequented by PK's have still chosen to do so. And now entire games are being built, seemingly, in one of those two lands - built around groups of PK's and built essentially without PK's. True, they are different games, but weeding out the killers removed the vital something in Ultima Online for many people. Will that spark, that community, be sustained in the upcoming games, indeed if it ever visits them? Only time will tell, and while new worlds they have fallen into an old trap. Remind me again - Why are we going to hell, and why am I in this handbasket? Spiral Light also known as Dawn Falcon, Crick of Corpnews and Andrew Crystall Dawn Falcon
