What's Mine Isn't Yours

MMORPG.com Player Perspectives columnist Jaime Skelton returns this week to talk about the concept of sharing in MMOs. Is it a lost art?

Sesame Street taught me a lot of valuable lessons when I was a kid - like how to share licorice with friends, how to group up and pwn a carebear, and how to figure out who stole my bike. Although the cops thought I was crazy when I told them Cookie Monster absconded with my two-wheeler, the show still taught me valuable lessons I would use later when dealing with people in MMOs. And yes, kids, the theme today is SHARING.

Without falling too much into the "back in the day" trap, it's safe to say that there was at one time an inclination for collaboration in open worlds. Players adventuring in the Guk dungeons in EverQuest, for instance, kept detailed lists of groups for each boss and arranged rotation schedules. More experienced groups even helped less equipped groups get to more difficult areas. That isn't to say that open-world dungeons worked with Marxist idealism; there were plenty of conflicts, lots of name-calling, and guerrilla tactics used between rival factions that didn't get along. The greater attitude, however, was one of cooperation, of an attitude that everyone had a right to get what they wanted and that the community would work as a whole to that end.

Read What's Mine Isn't Yours.