Rough Notes for T.L. Taylor – Play
MMOGs have roots in RPGs and MUDs.
Software and service.
Ultima, EverQuest, Wow…
Social contexts
MMOGs isn’t anti-social. Social isn’t icing on the cake. Social is the substance of the game. It’s key.
On- and offline connections mix.
Emergent social activity. E.g.: “guilds”; trust, responsibility, reputation.
Game devs aren’t giving players the tools to be social. Focus is on artefact first.
Rough map of guild – connections between players are offline
Transcript of in game chat. Lots of offline connections.
“Friends are the Ultimate Exploit”
EULA: sharing accounts is not allowed (in EQ).
Collaboration and teams:
Complex coordinated actions.
Co-creative culture
Players also produce and design. Emergent culture and technologies that change the game…
Players change the product in deep ways.
Game in box is just part of larger game space.
WoW opens up UI for players to change. Big differences between players.
Cheating – modification of game is debated.
IP – who should be the designer, what’s play?
Selling avatars on eBay. Game companies own the avatar so it’s not allowed. Embodiment – you don’t own your body!
In EQ there was a lot to do about fanfic.
WoW in game protests. “Protesting in game is not a valid way to give us feedback.”
Are game worlds public space? Or not because they’re corp. owned?
Commodification of culture. Designers want control over players / users. Let go!
Things that are happening in game are examples of bigger issues such as: UX, IP, mash-ups, P2P, etc.
Book: Play Between Worlds, T.L. Taylor.
Questions:
What about scale? Do these thoughts apply to smaller games? We need smaller games to experiment with governance and such.
Is there an end to the game? “End” is player-defined… Games should be better at helping people leave.
Can these games become the new platforms for productivity? There’s a lot of mumbling, but no-one knows. You pick up valuable skills while playing.
Does this apply to alternate reality games? E.g. ILoveBees… She did a piece on Majestic. Beta during 9/11. It was mixed with reality.
How can we use traditional ethnographic thinking? The work isn’t comparative enough to make any strong statements.
Related posts:
- Rough Notes for Stowe Boyd – The Revolution Will Be Socialized
- Rough Notes for Jyri EngeströM – Blind Men’s Baseball
- Rough Notes for Tom Armitage – What Social Software Can Learn From Homer, Dickens, and Marvel Comics
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