Ryan Shwayder talks about how it *is* possible for modern MMOs to bring social interaction back without losing accessibility – in fact, he hints that Copernicus will be doing just that.
Of course it’s possible to bring social back. Let’s look at how people use the web today – everything is social. From connecting with real life friends to conversing in real time during news events on CNN, to meeting friends in virtual spaces. Human beings are drawn to two-way communication with others and the web is shifting more and more into less soapbox (blogging, personal Geocities sites) and more conversations (Twitter, Facebook). Studies are even showing that the Facebook crowd is growing older, because the web is all about being social. Everyone on the internet wants a piece of the social action – and why should multiplayer games be any different?
Let’s look at how virtual worlds (such as Second Life) enable social connection without hindering accessibility:
- Rich user profiles
- Multiplayer newbie areas without instancing
- Ability to ‘own land’ and share it with others
- Ability to link others to your location (with web URLS in Metaplace, or SLurls in SL)
- Freely transferable currency with legitimate sales to each other
- Voice chat integration
- Ability to email snapshots/screenshots from the world out to the web (auto upload to Flickr, etc)
- Helper/mentor systems
- Group functionality with group chat
- Offline messaging
- the list goes on….
What’s the secret sauce that 38 Studios is adding to their meaty stew? Let’s hope they’re looking at the web, at asynchronicity and real-time communications and pulling out the strengths of both. Let’s hope there are mechanisms for connecting with people you know in real life, as that is what drives the 30+ age bracket with adopting and sticking to social products. Let’s hope that unlike EQ2 where I cannot summon my friends to a dungeon or teleport to a friend – that user interaction enhancing the experience will drive mechanics. Allow, encourage, and enable people to connect but don’t force them. It’s not rocket science. Connect with existing APIs and successful services that ALREADY enable people to communicate with each other.
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