We're being discouraged from interacting with each other in multiplayer

Chris said recently that he thought they would allow /zone in the form of a spell that required a reagent. I can't tell you how horrible an idea this is.

 

Bowen, I'd like to start developing systems that encourage organic social interaction. How else are we going to test that if we don't test it during testing? If we have those systems in place now, they're failing. If we don't have them in now, I don't believe simply turning on the launch button is going to fix the lack of design for this type of interaction.

The entire game (currently) is driving people into the hills to grind and only show up during planned events. What's the point of going to Owl's Head verses Kingsport? It's certainly not because of anything the players are doing.

 

I hope if they do have /zone then it is regional and not to bypass the control points. If they do pass the control points then the person/avatar should be only to carry the items he has equipped and nothing in his bags. And it should cost a considerable amount.

 

Social interactions are not something you can force.. or test. No system is going to get me to hang out at a tavern if I don't want to. If I do want to, I don't need mechanics to get me there. I'll show up on my own when I'm good and ready.

Of course it is.. because those systems need to be tested.. and more importantly CAN be tested. Even if this were not the case.. the game's testing population is not high enough to draw people to congregate in any one location at the time for.. what? What incentive does anyone have to go into town to hang out if not for a pre-planned event?

If the game were to have this problem 3 months after launch I would agree there's cause for concern but for other reasons but right now there is no central hub or incentive to go to one place over another apart from individual need or whim. The introduction of new cities and new areas is only going to compound that issue until more systems are in like a functional economy that can drive traffic and a larger, more active player base.

 

You're making my point for me.

Yes, we're testing a number of quantitative mechanics as we continue to add new things that also reduce concentrated population. But waiting 3 months after launch to figure out how we're going to design social interaction is a really bad idea. We should already know that right now, and I don't think we do. I don't think we're thinking about it - hence the OP.

 

I'm not trying to say you don't have a reasonable concern.. but it's mainly an issue related to population density. If you really want to ensure people run into each other you have to have a high enough population to support the world you're playing in. It's not an issue you can simply solve with game mechanics. Nor is it something that Portalarium can really predict or control. It's really more of an issue for the community itself than anything. If the community wants more activity.. the community needs to be proactive about creating it..

Just about all Portalarium can do is give us the tools to do what we can ourselves and they've been doing that to some extent already.

 

I'm trying to point out that at this stage in development there are tools that we should be attempting to create if we're serious about these goals. I don't always get the indication from the development team that they understand this concern. I feel like there's an expectation that we will be perpetually grinding and that it's fun to grind inbetween events. And that's not the kind of roleplaying I'm interested in.

 

Btw.

I'm hoping for things that drive traffic into taverns in the future. The nutrition system, to deal with hunger. Music, which might provide a buff. Hirelings, which may be available for hire at taverns (like you see in some other games). Gossip from the tavern-keep. As a place to look for other players to form parties with.

There will be role-playing in taverns, of course, but its not enough, because there'll be role-playing everywhere. People went taverns in RL for real things, and they should go into taverns for real things in the game.

 

I think you need to be careful about how you try to drive traffic. There have been a lot of suggestions in the past and most of them are either very abusable or simple ineffective.

If I might regale you all with an example from my NWN days. We used to have an XP cap and the idea was that when people hit that cap they would come back to town for RP.. did it work? Only marginally.. when people actually wanted to RP. It was more likely that people would either log off or sit in a corner AFK while they waited for the cap to drain off. So we made that 'drain' more effective in taverns.. which just meant a lot of times people who went AFK did it in a tavern. Sure it may have got more people into a tavern but it didn't get them to RP more. (None of this was my idea btw.. I was just running events at the time).

Another issue was.. for reasons I don't need to get into.. we built a new world from scratch. Where the old one had a central hub you could usually find someone hanging out in.. the new one was split into several factions.. each with their own tavern. The problem was even at the height of activity there was never a high enough population density at any given time to support regular activity in more than 1 tavern. Sure people would occasionally hang out in one or another.. but the one place that had regular activity wasn't faction specific.. it was the one tavern owned and operated by one of the players and that's why it was by far the most active.

The world design was simply too large.. but it was allowing a player to own and operate their own tavern that brought players together. All mechanics did was highlight unwanted behavior.

 

@Bowen Bloodgood,

Yea, of course you have to be careful how you do it. But the point shouldn't even to force people to RP, just to have places where you can expect other players to be, so you can meet them if you want. They could RP if they wanted to. But they could also go there to find people for parties, find people to do tasks for them for pay, find people to ask questions, etc. Its simply about the tavern being a gathering place.

To some degree, the some function that player campsites would have also, although taverns would be better for different purposes.

The town message board could also be outside a tavern, where people could also post tasks, advertisements, etc.

 

Well this is a simple easy fix, immerse yourself, and get an imagination, give people unique gaming experiences, dont be someone who does what everyone else does, and Above all, USE YOUR IMAGINATION.

~Michael Usaj

And dont be annoying.

 

I was just thinking myself.. this one would be one of the better ways to drive traffic to a tavern. The one major problem is that there is no incentive to stay. You go.. you look and you leave.

 

Um and your suggestion to fiz this is what?

I have been on for a long time today and have conversations with at least 8 people about taming and such.

I have ran around to a few Scenes and have come across at least one person in each scene, ALL over the map.

The game has a focus at this time for players to work on certain things and work to find problems and suggest solutions to problems we see.

There really is no need for interaction, and as pointe out by MANY this game is NOT an MMO, I disagree but . . . .

What is going on and events being created by the community are working just fine.

 

Yes, but you also know that people will be going there to post and read messages. So you can catch them in the act, instead of going to the messages.

But I expect nutrition will play a natural role -- if it matters to gameplay enough for players to care about eating -- ie if there's both a carrot and a stick. You could of course go to a food vendor, but the cooked meals will be better.

Its also natural to make hirelings sitting in taverns waiting for hire, and of course, some player could go up to someone and say "party with me instead, i don't cost money."

Ultimately, I think it would be the combination of all of the different incentives which make people go into taverns, and the more incentives (that are well thought out and not artificial), the better the effect will be. Since they could get everything in one place, rather than several places.

 

@Bowen Bloodgood,

Btw, I recall RG saying that food would have spoilage, which would make a place where you could expect regular cooked food all the more important.

 

The other day a player played some songs in Owl's Head and some players stood there and listened. There aren't many online when I play (GMT+9), so this was already extraordinary. With more players will come more interaction. Maybe give it more time, many things aren't even in game yet.

 

Have to agree. I play in SPO a LOT. It's an advantage for character building once you understand even a little of the mechanics. I'd imagine a lot of people do that / will do that.

The only and obvious answer is to separate the two economies entirely. i.e. you can't bring any asset acquired in SPO to MPO. The rest of your points sound valid as well, but this is the biggest problem (my perspective) in the game design.

 

Sounds like a poor business model to me.

 

That was my original reaction to the SPO vs. MP when this conversation first started years ago. I still lean towards that, but I also recognize that segmenting the community in any way ends up being really bad to the social framework of the game. So that's why I always try to find ways around doing that.

 

Once the game is more mature and even more features are added into POTs... They are going to kill any collective social aspect of the game in NPC or single player town type scenes. Unless Captain Jack has that all wrong and just can't see it, but it would seem as if there would never be a reason to leave POTs unless you had to do SP story. And then there is only ~40 hours of that so then what?