Comments on: Hang out spots

By: nugget

nugget — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:22:55 +0000

Warcabbit:
I’m afraid I really don’t recall exactly where I watched that presentation / lecture. :(

It might have been at ?last year’s? State of Play, it might not. >.> If I’m right, and any of the academic / industry folk who were there remember it they might be able to point you in the right direction.

However, this PDF does touch on some of the stuff I tried (so crudely) to illustrate with little symbols and whatnot, though not with my exact examples.

*hangs head* I can remember what their slides looked like, but I can’t for the life of me remember the presenter or their name(s).

http://web.media.mit.edu/~dietmar/papers/FunctionFollowsForm.pdf

By: /AFK - April 19 « Bio Break

/AFK - April 19 « Bio Break — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 12:43:06 +0000

[...] Ten Rats looks at different games’ hang out spots… if only we had a disco parlor in every [...]

By: Suzina

Suzina — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:35:37 +0000

Wow Sok, great find there!

I think some day, the principles of layout discovered in online virtual places may help shape how planned communities are made in the future.

By: Zubon

Zubon — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 01:14:52 +0000

Thanks, Sok. That second link was the one I was trying to remember. Now I don’t need to comment! Except I have by now. Curses!

By: Sok

Sok — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:58:44 +0000

You have failed at HTML tags! You have been eaten by a grue.
You have died.
Would you like to (L)OAD, (R)ESTART, or (Q)UIT? _

By: Sok

Sok — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:56:40 +0000

As an aside, Raph Koster (vaguely relevant to the topic at hand) mentioned similar issues on his blog a ways back. He talks about helping make things social, and the inverse of making the social more gamey. Finally, a look at zone design overall.

By: Bissrok

Bissrok — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:38:22 +0000

There were always people in the cantina and hospitals in SWG. Those WERE the hangout spots, and they were packed even on the smaller servers. And they were busy because entertainers worked there, doctors healed there, harvestors and crafters traded there, and all the combat guys had to heal there. The only people at the starport were usually AFK spammers. Or, at least that was true back when the game had subscribers.

And, in fact, I was on the most popular LotRO server, and the Prancing Pony isn’t nearly as some busy places in Moria, like Dolven View. It’s all just RPers and people playing music. It’s a long ass walk if you can’t port, and there’s nothing there.

By: warcabbit

warcabbit — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:25:38 +0000

Nugget, if you can remember more about that, I’d be interested.

By: Bonedead

Bonedead — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:10:26 +0000

I know that if you go on any SWG server right now and walk into Mos Eisley cantina, you will see a bunch of people.

True story!

But yes, as Sok said, you just died to a mob and now you’ve gotta go wait in line AND pay money to do it.

By: nugget

nugget — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 08:47:14 +0000

Perhaps another aspect that hasn’t been touched on directly here is the nature of space and how humans react to it – even simulated space.

I was at one seminar or the other (I can’t recall what it was for), but there was a very interesting presentation on manipulating the flow of people through spatial design.

Such as, if you have a space shaped like

then people will naturally tend to sit/stand face each other, rather than the walls.

And with a space shaped like

(sorry… hard to make it bigger than that lol) then people will tend to naturally position themselves with their backs to each other.

Also covered were things like – if you have a big empty town square that’s well… empty. People will just walk back and forth over it as if the space simply does not exist. And for them it doesn’t, since it doesn’t ‘register’.

But if you want it to be a lively place… you can do something as simple as putting a big leafy tree, or a fountain in the middle of it – and people will start walking by, sitting down, spending time there, etc etc.

While this doesn’t directly address the question of player-formed ‘hubs’ of activity, I can’t help but think the spatial environment itself has a marked, if subtle effect.