Psychochild's Blog

I'm off to Dragon*Con next week. I'll be doing three (!!!) talks on Friday, two about MMOs and one about the California violent video game law in front of the U.S. Supreme Court currently.

Unfortunately PAX is the same weekend, so I won't be seeing a lot of people who might otherwise show up. But, if you're going or in the Atlanta area and want to meet up, drop me a line!
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A lot of people tend to believe that the only important thing in a game is "fun". There are several problems with this, perhaps the most important being there is more to an experience than fun: self-improvement, information, understanding, and various other good things can come from an experience like watching a movie or playing a game. The hyperfocus on fun means that a lot of other important aspects might get overlooked.

Let's look at some of the problems with finding fun in a game.
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Over TheInternetCrashed.com, I wrote a pair of posts about Cyberpunk as an MMO genre.

Cyberpunk is a terrible genre for an MMO
Cyberpunk is a terrific genre for an MMO

Since these are arguably about MMO development, I figured a few of you might find them interesting.

Some more developer-specific thoughts for the audience here after the jump.
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Games hard to really understand purely in terms of media that has come before. Games aren't like a TV show or a movie except that you push a few buttons (at least the good ones aren't). The role of the player is important to the process of enjoying a game since interactivity allows them some control. The exact role the player takes in creating the story is one that creates endless debate, but I think all sides agree that interactivity is a key element to games.

One of the most interesting things about this, however, is that it means players do tend to invest something of themselves into a game. In MMOs, this means that many people get heavily and personally invested into a game. What is really interesting is that this tends to hold a mirror up to the person looking at the game, whether they realize it or not. One's actions and perceptions in the game tend to reflect as much if not more about the person as they do about the game or even the game's creators.

Let's take a closer look at this, shall we?
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Did that title get your attention? :)

Tobold wrote about this topic, looking at why MMOs don't have more sexually-themed content. He points out that in the U.S., the porn industry is bigger than the MMO industry. So, why don't we dip their chocolate in our peanut butter and get two great tastes that taste great together?

Damn, just about any metaphor I might use is going to sound dirty, isn't it? Ah, well, let's take a look at the problems of translating sex to games and MMOs.
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A quote I particularly like is attributed to William R. Inge: There are two kinds of fools: One says, "This is old therefore it is good." The other one says, "This is new therefore it is better."

I can't help but think about this quote often in the game industry as new fashions are introduced. There tend to be two camps: one that clings to the old ways while fearing the new, and one that rushes to the new claiming it will wipe away the old. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between, but the game industry sure does like its extremes.

So, with this in mind, I want to take a look at social games and metrics-based game design, two more recent fashions to hit the game industry.
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They say money makes the world go 'round. It certainly makes it easier to eat and live under a roof.

My thoughts have turned to funding lately. Now that my focus is entirely on my own projects, I've been considering options on how to keep myself fed while completing a project. Most of you enjoy seeing a glimpse behind the curtain, so here are my thoughts about funding a smaller project.
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So far I have not posted about the whole RealID issue. It's one of those things that by the time I had something insightful to say about it, it had already been said in the outpouring of commentary about the issue. I was active in leaving comments on different sites, so it's not like I didn't have an opinion.

But, I think it's interesting to take another look at the issue from another point of view. RealID is all about this whole social networking thing. How does this intersect with gaming culture, a subset of geek culture? And how does this relate to introverts which traditionally make up a significant part of those cultures?
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Well, do you? If so, do I have a new site for you: http://theinternetcrashed.com/

Go read it, bookmark it and/or put it in your RSS reader. Then come back and read a bit more about why that site matters to MMO fans.
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There's been some discussion about death penalties lately, and I figured it was a good opportunity to discuss some issues with death penalties in MMOs, and penalties in games in general from a game design point of view. So, let's take a look at this topic and see how many flamewars we can fan!
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