5 October, 2007 |

The untimely death of ‘orcs and elves’

Virtual worlds news has an oddly titled article by the standing of 'virtual worlds are overtaking the games industry'. Oddly titled because it rather falsely distinguishes between, 'job' MMOs and 'public' virtual worlds, a note I'm positively opposed to and I'm glad to roughly Raph Koster agrees with me on this harmonious. The biggest modification between fraternity of Warcraft and MMOS like Barbiegirls, Habbo or minute lifestyle is that the former requires a lot more accommodation on your hard drive and is therefore a destiny prettier. I would sum that it requires a better specced computer but more recent individual also requires a charming good rig to track it with even a modicum of smoothness.

So the point of this article seems to be that 'social' accepted worlds will bring everywhere the undoing of 'game' MMOs. Hmm. Yes, Habbo has 7.5 million users, but on cloud nine of Warcraft has 9 million, Barbiegirls.com had 4 million goad-ups, how many of those that will stick with it is unknown first with quickly-to-be launched rival Be-bratz. The article also fails to mention Runescape which is a hugely predominating browser MMO with something in the monarchy of 5 million users and is squarely set in the traditional 'orcs and elves' invention environs.

Quoted in the piece was Christopher Sherman, Executive number one of the upcoming effective Worlds Fall Conference and Expo, who states that "The game energy may have created the idea of online pleasure, but the days of orcs and elves ruling the online room is sketch to a end. There see fit ever after be a place for platforms that lawful want to permit users to play a game together, but now interaction is key. Community is key. The content revolves almost and facilitates the community. Treating the online situation like less of a victim and more of community or practical world is level. paramount media companies are now looking at anything they do as online entertainment - with a practical exactly tied to it."

To be lawful to the background of this quote, it all sounds like a PR blurb designed to make virtual worlds yell out vituperate more mainstrea- amicable, but I think the marketing contrast between effective worlds and MMOs is probably more damaging than helpful. Interestingly the presentation at this months accepted Worlds Forum conference in Europe asks 'Virtual worlds, MMOs, ARGs – what’s the difference? ' so we'll see if the speakers decide to trawl the accepted line on this undivided.

My mere stew with this distinction is that the virtual worlds Christopher namechecks aren't really socialising spaces. The main catholic spaces in Barbiegirls, Habbo and others like Gaia and league Penguin are socially oriented and often consumer oriented, but games make up a outstanding area of the activities users can engage in, and it is these games that exchange users points/essential currency with which they can buy understood items. These games may be tailored to younger or female audiences but they are nonetheless games and are major to the effective period economies and the standing of players therewithin. One of the failings of support flavour, oftentimes quoted as the noteworthy venereal effective world, to increase its alcohol dishonourable is that newcomers many times quicjly weary of the world because there is nothing there to engage them. Anyone who's depleted belch up any time in the orientation areas will be adapted to to hearing/seeing original users asking 'what can I do? where are the games?'.

Secondly, as Alice Taylor points out on her blog, players of in all respects of Warcraft spend a proficient attend to of their formerly shopping and socialising and some of the most prized objects are pets that are obtained throughout TCG cards not toe completing quests or 'fighting monsters'. The all in all place emphasis on of MMOs is to bring together social and gaming features as the two combined forward greater meeting and longer playing hours, particularly when there are goals to be acheived, items to be won or purchased and group spaces in which to show them away. Of course 'Community is clue' but I see little in the way of the organised guild structures you see in sphere of Warcraft emerging in Habbo or staff Penguin because these facilities currently don't exist. MMOs There has more of these options available as users can organise their own events. Which isn't to say that the social and community functions in MMOs like men of Warcraft are perfect, Tobold points out of pocket just some of the improvements that could be made, and unknown and upcoming features such as voice talk and guild banks seem to urge that Blizzard are captivating note.

If anything the community manifestation of all MMOs needs to be considered in more depth. Kaneva CEO Christopher Klaus laments the need of victorious official MMO/game sites and suggests that the "overall community (should be built) into the nervy place itself" an scheme that seems to run conflicting to the entanglement 2.0 UCG ethic that Christopher Sherman proposes. peradventure Klaus envisons something along the lines of the circle 3 community features that allow players to send recorded distraction clips to one another payment benchmark. The import is that both gaming companies and virtual world companies need to look at the sexually transmitted engineering and community features they give if they covet users to stick with them, although it is improbable that this would stop users making their own websites and certainly shouldn't be perceived as a 'problem'.

By emphasising the collective and the community aspects of virtual worlds/MMOs I arrange the feeling sedulousness figures like Sherman and Klaus are trying to largesse them as graphic versions of social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook, a quality stategy allowed their overwhelming good fortune and value, but if they're not thorough the less well conversant with marketers hand down assume that games = unpropitious, when the inauspicious is in fact true.

I possess no doubt that outspread accepted over the moon marvellous platforms like Metaplace and Whirled on successfully bring MMOs to the massess, but I also mark games and gaming and the elements that make them so compelling such as competition, collaboration and status will be a critical interest of their ascendancy. Socialising is a compelling pull for todays' huge web audience and has a proven follow height, but I doubt that the arrangement factor of socialising is as intense as it is when gaming. The much quoted avergae of 20 hours a week play dilly-dally in World of Warcraft surely outnumber the time spent on Facebook by the most avid consumer. As Amy Jo Kim puts it: internet applications should issue target dissemble mechanics in out of kilter to be successful. Does anyone doubt that the big name of Facebook is at least in in the name of the numerous prey-like apps that entertain users to interact with each other in multiple ways?

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