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Behavioral Economics in MMOs, Part 1

Lately, I’ve been reading Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, a book on the relatively new science of behavioral economics. Classical economics states that, given all necessary information, people and therefore markets will behave rationally and in their own best interests. However, behavioral economics states that people will very often behave irrationally, and that we must modify economic theory based on that irrationality. The most interesting point, to me, and the one that the book takes its name from, is that, while people may behave irrationally in regards to economic choices, they do so in a predictable fashion. Okay, it’s interesting, but what does it have to do with MMOs? A lot, as it turns out.
Continue reading Behavioral Economics in MMOs, Part 1

On Towards IMGDC

I am here in sunny Minneapolis. My hotel is literally across the street from the Mall of America, which would be great if I liked to shop, but maybe I will poke my head in. I am here well in advance of IMGDC for another conference; if you are in town early, I am told that the exhibits hall for the Public Library Association will be stellar, and you can make back the cost of an exhibits-only pass by finding a few free books that interest you (a few months before they are published). (Not exactly what the exhibitors are hoping for, but I do post reviews of the books.)

Having driven most of yesterday, I felt as though I had fallen off the world. All day without my continuous news and internet feed! Insane! But I am obviously not so far out that I cannot blog. I need this internet thing since I wrote someone’s number down and left it by my computer at home. Bother. Isn’t my cell phone supposed to know these things? Anyway, e-mail remains the best way to reach me, granted with a delay because it is no longer continuously on.

My thanks again to Craig from Voyages in Eternity and Ethic from Kill Ten Rats for getting me into IMGDC. I expect that I will see folks there. I had been planning to suggest some sort of blogger get-together, but I noticed a 5-hour official after party on the schedule. That seems like a natural Schelling point. I am leaning towards the development track for my time at IMGDC, so sorry Nic if I miss your chat.

Comments are open if anyone has recommendations, requests, commands, etc. Cell phones are lovely things for on-site coordination of efforts. I will be sure to post comments from/about sessions afterwards, but I might not have much to say until then, having fallen off the world and all. Which is not a shot at Minnesota.

: Zubon

The depth behind ARGs and MMO’s

I poked my nose into The Lost Ring on Thursday night, and man, did I get sucked in. The Lost Ring is a very large-scale ARG designed by Jane McGonigal, one of the designers behind I Love Bees. It’s tied in with the 2008 Olympics and they’re really making it a global event — the game characters all speak/blog/write different languages, the clues are all in Esperanto, and objects are scattered all over the world.

Anyway, as I finally pulled myself out of the rabbit hole this evening, it’s occurred to me that there’s an important similarity between ARGs and MMO’s that tends to make them powerful experiences for those involved, and that is that both types of games are a lot closer to real life than other types of games. I’m not talking about sensory things, like graphics and sound (ARGs are especially good at those!). I’m talking about higher-level gameplay mechanics like relationship building and teamwork. In the case of MMO’s, you also have things like economics and sometimes ecologies.

Compared to mechanics like maneuvering tactics or aiming in an FPS, these are a lot more interesting than. They involve more parts of ourselves — more of our brain, and more of our heart. And they’re usually more relevant to the rest of our lives, as well.

One of Raph Koster’s claims in A Theory of Fun (wow, $150 for a copy now? Time for a reprint, Raph) is that fact that much of the emotional feeling of “fun” is actually our brain’s reaction to learning something. I think it’s true, and I also think there’s potential for a deeper, more meaningful sort of fun when the things we are learning reach deeper into us and have greater relevance to our overall lives.

Prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse

We have blasted through malls and ghost towns full of zombies, but are you ready for the zombie apocalypse? No, seriously. After all the humorous books and online quizzes about survival, someone has been taking a real world approach for the past five years:

Zombie Squad realizes that it is quite possible for someone to live their entire lives without encountering the undead nuisance. However, we hold fast to the belief that if you are prepared for a scenario where the walking corpses of your family and neighbors are trying to eat you alive, you will be prepared for almost anything.

Have you even backed up your computer? The Red Cross has some guidance on how to prepare in case of fire, flood, or terrorist attack. You have already learned the critical lesson of looking up for aliens on the ceiling. Check your smoke alarms while you are at it.

: Zubon

Fidelity

Champions Online will be almost as similar to Champions as Dungeons and Dragons Online is to Dungeons and Dragons. Which is to say, they are keeping the names and using an entirely different set of mechanics.

To compare this system to others, there is no such thing as a “Dark Blast” or an “Ice Blast” in the HERO System. Mechanically, everything is just an Energy Blast, but with different advantages and even limitations applied. … We are using systems that are essentially the same, but fit the MMORPG genre somewhat better. In Champions Online, we will have Dark Blast, Ice Blast, etc.

: Zubon

Player governance in EVE

After all the comments on that last EVE Online post, I gave it a try for the first time today. I basically just worked my way through the tutorials, but had a good time. I can see how the environment might feel tedious after a while, but I’m sure I’ll be playing some more.

I have no idea whether the choices I made during character creation were reversible, but it didn’t seem like it. Man, the whole irreversible character development mechanic is so backwards in long-term games like these. It will be nice when it’s finally died out.

I also saw that CCP just started accepting candidacies for the Council of Stellar Management, or as their news post was amusingly titled, the Council of Stellar Awesomeness. They announced their intent to do this months ago, so I’m not sure how much of this is old news, but the details are pretty fascinating to me. This is a player-elected council of nine members who represent the playerbase to CCP, and CCP in turn promises to “attempt to accomodate all reasonable [emphasis mine] requests by player Representatives” and to “do everything in its power to resolve the topics presented.” They’re taking it pretty seriously, too — each term of the council requires a face-to-face meeting at the CCP offices, with travel (to Iceland!), lodging, and food paid for by CCP.

Continue reading Player governance in EVE

Goonswarm wants YOU

I’ve always been curious about EVE Online, but today I stumbled across something that has made me want to play more than anything else I’ve seen so far:

What a cool guild (er, excuse me, corporation) recruitment. I really think the whole single-server approach EVE has is key here; it creates more of an (authentic) feeling that what you do matters. It doesn’t just affect the 1% of EVE players who happen to be using your server, it affects everyone who plays EVE.

If you are the one guy who tackles the scout who gets killed who doesn’t provide good reconaissance etc etc… you will see the whole EVE blogosphere light up with news about the battle you were in, because it significantly changed the politics and economics of the game for everyone. And that’s really cool.

The main drawbacks I hear about are the crazily complex UI, extensive grinding & downtime, and an emotional emptiness (becuase, you know, you’re spending hours as a gray box flying around in outer space.) And those do sound like pretty big drawbacks.

I’m really tempted to give it a shot, but I feel torn. Could I handle two MMO’s? If something grabs me, I usually really want to get into it, and I don’t think I’m ready to leave WoW behind. We’ll see.

You Are Rated Against Your Hype

Simple guideline: a modest success is better than a grand failure. If you make unreasonable claims, I assume that everything else you say is a lie, and your game will be a parade of delays, disappointments, and broken promises.

Nicodemus hates this guy. Why? Because “CEO” means “you should know better than some idiot on a forum saying, ‘u cant beat wow for with like a billon dollars.'” Spore? Good luck with those expectations. LotRO? Best expansion evar or die. Vanguard? We saw that one. I expected more from Half-Life 2 because the box went on about its being the highest-rated game ever, but it came with the far-more-entertaining Portal.

A successful niche game is a great thing. It knows what it can do, and it does it well. If you want that thing, it is there for you. If not, you are not just getting a bad knockoff of something from Blizzard or Sony. Whatever jokes I may make about Alganon, I respect the David Allen interview that translated to “we’re making a pretty decent DikuMUD/EQ/WoW knockoff that does some stuff differently.” City of Heroes developers humbly remark that they did not know the costume creator would be popular.

Our industry sucks because we accept buggy releases. The PR for our media sucks because we accept unreasonable promotional crap. “Everyone promotes their game that way” is the same thing as “every game ships with bugs.” Some people do a better job, and not everyone spews exaggerations and blatant lies. And some people can live up to the hype.

: Zubon