Achieving that “thing” makes you part of the community of achievers. Playing the same game, experiencing the same events, are what make a community, in RL or in an MMO.

A virtual community is no less real to the people in it than the community of people who happen to share the same area in the space-time continuum, except that you *know* you have stuff in common with the other people in the virtual community (I haven’t got a clue what my neighbours do, nor do I care TBH).

But, to the original question, and to be obvious, the things that make an MMO an MMO are that are is multiplayer and that it’s online. Without that, you can’t have a community – an MMO without chat/TS/whatever is a no better than a single-player game with smarter-than-average opponents/allies.

On the other hand, if your question is “what makes a *good* MMO”, well, if I knew that … :-)

Of course, in MMOs, usually there are a lot of people who have accomplished a lot more than me as well. And some hard things become trivial when you have your extra powerful friends help.

So maybe it’s not “specialness” just … “less pathetic” because you feel like you’re with other people not alone in your house.

I never thought I’d play an online game in the past, now I can’t imagine playing a single player game. The only time I really play one is when my internet is down (and having Comcast that is quite often) and I play a sim-type game.

These are some of the problems facing game developers right now, and moreso in the future. Obviously, everyone has a need to feel unique and while we are social creatures, we do have a need to be alone sometimes.

Uniqueness is something that MMOs have always struggled with. At what point does a developer limit the amount it’s going to pay the artists to create new character options? Most will agree, I think, that City of Heroes has the best character creation system of any current MMO. You rarely see two characters that look alike. However, CoH loses the thrill of finally finishing your Tier 2 set of armor after countless raids with your guild. The developer that solves this problem will win major kudos for figuring it out.

As for being able to be alone at times, I mentioned Test Drive: Unlimited. The game has an option in its menu to disable interactions with other players while not in a multiplayer event. This way of handling it gives players a rich experience whether they are playing solo or with others

Gone are the town squares, the bowling leagues, etc., and in their place for the next generation is MYSpace, Habbo Hotel, Azeroth…

I look forward to exploring these ideas, and reading what you have to say on them. Welcome to the team!