With regards to my guild, I believe very strongly in individuals co-operating with each other, helping each other perform various activities, and exchanging items within the game context. You and I probably are not at odds on those points at all.

Where you and I definitely disagree is where you apparently speak with some pride about the large scale ostracision of a certain individual. Aside from anything else, such a practice is entirely unnecessary. Within World of Warcraft at least, a mechanism exists which players can use to screen out another player entirely at an individual level, such that they can in no way be communicated with.

Note, however, that I mentioned that this mechanism works on an *individual* basis. I begin to suspect, however, that you are the type of individual who greatly values being able to manipulate group dynamics in such a way that a group of people will engage in the ostracision of someone else purely because you have dictated that they do so, and not, perhaps, because *all* of them on an individual basis have grievances with the person being ostracised. Your lamenting the fact that humans are not programmable in fact reveals your tendencies towards aspirant despotism in a particularly striking way.

What in fact is being described, then, is not community in any genuinely positive sense, but rather what is customarily referred to as a cult. A cult is a group of individuals who have been “programmed” (to refer to your lamentation that programming humans is not possible…sadly, it is indeed very possible, and is widely practiced in contemporary society) to unquestioningly obey the dictates of a singular leader. It is also customary within a cult for ostracision or banishment to actually be one of the primary forms of punishment to be used with any person who deviates from the dictates of the leader.

Sadly, I know of another “community” in particular which adheres to the cultic dynamics outlined above; the Linux “community.” Within that community, individuals are dictated to on a number of issues by a man named Richard Stallman, who you may have heard of. Stallman also advocates a number of other cultic forms of behaviour, such as extreme polarisation of opinion. (”Either you’re with me, or you’re with ‘the enemy.’”) He also makes the assumption that anybody using Linux is somehow answerable to him by default, whether or not individual Linux users have any desire to be.

As I said, both this example and yours above are not examples of anything which I anyway consider positive or valuable. They are quite simply examples of informal fascism, which are perhaps euphemistically described.

To me the only form of really valuable community is one in which individuals make their own decisions about what it is that they will do…any scenario where a single individual unquestioningly makes decisions for a larger group is entirely irredeemable in my own opinion. You might consider fascism to be a good thing…you’re not alone if you do. I for one however, do not…and I also believe that fascism *is* what you are describing here.

Firstly, the lack of any community tools, such as player dwellings, player cities or suchlike. The adventuring population of Azeroth are largely itinerants without a place to call home or a place to come back to. Major cities are social centres, true, but only because that’s where the auction houses are.

Secondly, the sheer numbers required for high end raids demands that guilds themselves have high numbers of players. This in turn means that guilds will have to recruit anybody just to make up those numbers and “getting to know” new guild members takes a back seat to “how often do they come on raids”.

As for new games? Well, Age of Conan is making player cities a central feature and putting a lot of emphasis on guilds as far as PvP and PvE sieges go so hopefully it will all encourage community. And failing all that, it has drunken tavern brawling so it can’t be all bad.

AO having a strong community is a good example though. There’s really no reason, if I recall correctly, to need the community. i.e. you can survive without it. It adds an additional dimension to the game found in no code, and to me adds a personal tie-in to the game that makes you keep coming back. WoW definately doesn’t have that. Besides the few people I speak with more or less on a daily basis, I don’t have any vested interest in the greater population of my server. Even the most uber of uber guilds on there has little to no impact on the community, besides unlocking/finishing events that have a small trickle down to the rest of us. However, the game doesn’t seem built for community or even for long term play. Considering how easy it is to level, it’s more like a quick burn. I don’t think you can have both of those at the same time.

At any rate, that’s what AO has now for me: Community. Time and time again the AO community has had to come together in order to progress in the game, to have fun, to do lots of things. The community is tightly-knit. Sure, there are those who are ostracized and alienated - every community has those wierdos - but as a whole, you know one another.

Yes, AO is a dying game. Therefore, it’s a lot smaller than it once was. But regardless of it’s existence, or lack thereof, status the community is always there. And it’s not just the players coming together. The Developers themselves are well-known to players. And, yes, we hate them for not listening, for having broken mechanics time and time again, they are listening to somethings and working with us. The community has grown and thrived as a result of interaction.

I’ve been in WoW. I stayed about 6-7 months trying to stay away from AO. Time and time again I’d peruse the forums and see nothing but whining and flames. No friendly cajoling or mindless banter like AO and EQ2 have. It was pure animosity.

Given the proper nuture and care (TLC if you will) the community of an MMO will most likely come together and police the game themselves. We just need the drive to do it. Content will be experienced together, black lists will form, all of that. All the players need is motivation. What motivation is there in WoW? You and six million other people are there. You can be a complete idiot and you’ll still be a face in the crowd regardless.

What AO, the old days of EQ, and EQ2 have is a bond that is forged from a need to work together. When that bond is destroyed, when you know that no matter what happens you’ll still be able to participate, what need is there to try and be congenial with your fellow players?

Make the players actions matter inside the world. Imagine a game that takes place after some destructive event. Imagine a world where you build the roads: trails are simply areas that people walk across often, but to have an acutal road requires resources. Building a road gives you a speed advantage and allows hiring NPC guards to patrol it. None of this is enough to encourage a single player to do it, but a commnity? How about (re)building a city? Imagine the cooperation required to build up a bustling town into a full-fledge hub for commerce and adventure. Now make the whole world player responsive: players can wipe out the high level monsters near their town, finding them replaced with lowel level ones that the city guards can handle.

Let the players run things: they research the new techs and items, they run the cities, they become the tradeskill masters that others have to seek out, they post bounties for that critter that keeps killing them, they hire out themselves to escort the herbalist into the Swamp of Evil Things for that rare herb.

In short, give the players a world where they matter, and I’m sure you’ll find a community there.

Oz at Kill Ten Rats wants his games to have community. His experiences with the early EQ community left him wanting something that he has not experienced since those bygone days. (Back when EQ and Verant were still independent,……