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Profile: Meltdown
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UsernameMeltdown
Rank: 59/100Rank: 59/100Rank: 59/100Rank: 59/100Rank: 59/100
Real NameJ Z
RankAdvanced Member
JoinedAugust 9, 2003
GenderMale
Age23
LocationMilton, NH, United States
Last VisitJuly 23, 2008
Post Count387
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5 Most Recent Threads by Meltdown [more...]

Latest Blog Entry - Feed Your Head
From my blog The Secret MMO-Life of Walter Mitty [Meltdown]

It is my firm belief that if an MMORPG is to become successful it needs to take a closer look at the deep psychological reactions that occur between game environments and the players. We don't need amazing coders or big name producers we need connections on an emotional level which can only come from a psychological background. Here is something I recently read on the subject...

www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/02_04/Yee_Book_Chapter.pdf

I will briefly talk about a few of the points mentioned within this study.

First is collaboration. The article mentions different types of collaboration created by different circumstances. For instance the "crisis situation". This is the typical MMO-encounter. Life-or-Death situations. This only applies to group encounters. A solo encounter may trigger some of the same "fight-or-flight" reactions from the user, but there is no collaboration and therefore no connection on an emotional level.

Entrepreneur collaboration. Some like to call this "interdependence" and hate its guts. But the truth of the matter is it is a large part of the community/economy/emotional building blocks.

Both the negative and positive aspects of gaming were touched on. Saying that some person comes along and overwrites all your buffs and talks down to you (because they are higher level) is part of the emotional experience. When a game creator goes out of their way to create solutions to these problems they restrict the emotional response of it's players.

Instances would be a good example of this. People were overcome with rage/anger that they had to compete over limited resources (named mob spawns, resource spawns, etc) and the game creators invented the instance. There, your problems are solved... as they placed each kid in their own sandbox filled with their own toys instead of telling them to "play nice".

Of course motivations were discussed as well. What motivates you to keep playing? 90% of the gameplay we see today revolves around a system called "risk vs. reward". If you risk your life you are rewarded. This has real life application too, seen more as risk taking or gambling. The problem is the risk is greatly reduced in a virtual world and the reward is greatly increased.

You can read the finer details yourself. But the main point here is that when game designers sit down and want to make a new MMORPG do they say "What emotional experience should we provide our players?" or do they say "What would be cool?"

Read more from my blog [Meltdown]

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Recent Forum Posts [more...]

    • Everywhere I turn...

    • I think the biggest one I noticed was on Zero Punctuation for The Escapist. There is an ad for EVE after every one of his videos. But anyways I thought about it, but I've tried EVE three times already always leaving after a month, I just don't think its for me.

    • Posted: 7/23/08 4:21 PM
      EVE Online
    • Everywhere I turn...

    • ...there is another EVE ad. Seriously did their marketing department get a swift kick in the pants or what? I understand there was an expansion released... but that was a month or so ago, why all the hype now?

       

      maybe its just me lol

    • Posted: 7/23/08 2:22 PM
      EVE Online
    • Best of the Best: Innovations

    • Here on the mmorpg.com forums we tend to bicker about how much game X is terri-bad and why game Y is awesome-sauce. But I wanted us all to take a moment and truly appreciate some of the innovative ideas that have gone into the games, even the ones we hate... for instance:

      Innovative Zone: Kedge Keep in EQ - A completely underwater dungeon. Remember to keep up your water-breathing or you die... no ifs ands or buts about it.

      Innovative Scripted Encounter: Undead House in DDO (don't know quest name) - One of the rooms the floor dropped out on your entire party and literally dropped you right into a huge fight.

      Innovative Gameplay Element: Combo system in AoC - Not perfect, but a step in the right direction for "real" fighting style games. Was certainly fun while it lasted.

      Innovative Gameplay Element: Traps in DDO - Never has an MMO taken the trap to such a level. Having a keen rogue in your party could be the difference between life and death!

      Innovative Raid Encounter: Nefarian from WoW - Every class would get called upon one at a time and had to react in a way that was either the epitome of their class (mages AoEing) or the opposite of their class (Breaking Hunter bows if they were equipped)

      ...you get the idea.

    • Posted: 7/16/08 8:18 PM
      General Discussion
    • When MMORPG was fun....
    • Originally posted by MarleVVLL

      I remember being scared every time I walked into Crushbone becuase of the large orcs in the zone.

       

      I remember feeling scared...

      I remember feeling important...

      I remember feeling joy, excitement, exhileration...

      I remember feeling pride...

      I remember feeling loss and gain...

      I remember... feeling...

      ...Ok, I'll stop being so emo about MMOs I SWEAR!!!

    • Posted: 7/16/08 8:05 PM
      General Discussion
    • The Best of Pet Classes

    • I <3 pet classes. I just want to sit back and watch the bodies fall. Although typically I played direct dmg dealers in MMO's I love anything with sentry guns, like the Engineers in TF2, Techs I think in Tabula Rasa, or heck trap assassins in D2 !!!

      My favorite quote, from EQ when chanters could charm and haste mobs into meat grinders.

      "Nothing cheats quite like an NPC"

      Get yourself one !!!

    • Posted: 7/14/08 8:35 PM
      General Discussion

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