That’s brilliant that they decided to keep that mechanic in online gameplay.

Wow. That’s an AWESOME example. Thanks Outsider!

That being said though, communities and friendships do develop in FPS games. There’s still a couple of Soldier of Fortune 2 servers that I can connect to and be immediately recognized, asked where I’ve been, etc, despite the fact I haven’t played that game seriously in about 4 years. FPS games wouldn’t exist without a community. Nobody wants to play vs the computer. Games such as Counterstrike and the Battlefield series have managed to maintain large playerbases for years. Those playerbases are communities, with many subcommunities. They develop around clans, servers, specific mods, specific rulesets, forums devoted to the game, etc. People that play these games casually may not notice them, but the longer you play the more likely you’ll see them and the more likely you’ll become a part of them.

Note that this is more true of fps games with downtime. I think part of the reason Counterstrike did so well is because of the relationships formed between the players during downtime. Basically, once you die in Counterstrike, you stay dead until the end of the round, and a round could easily be 5 minutes long. About all you could do during that time is watch the live players, and chat with the other dead players. In a instant respawn game like Unreal Tournament, FAR less socializing occurs because you are always running and gunning. The “dead until the end of the round” style FPS games have utterly dominated instant respawn games over the last few years, and I think the socialization has something to do with it.

But compare that to say, Left 4 Dead. Most of the time people do not even talk to each other, and when they do it is super basic. When a game ends, everyone goes their own way. Since there is no real effect on any kind of game world, there is no reason for people to hang around.

So the downtime lesson is once again shown through PvP. If you give people time to actually communicate, they will. And the bonds forged will be significant and meaningful.

PvP by itself doesn’t create the kind of social bonds that will keep you playing a game. In fact, PvP can easily make someone quit, because getting owned by other players is one of the most frustrating things possible – especially if they are truly better and you have no hope of ever getting revenge. FPS games are an example of this. They are basically non-meaningful PvP with no virtual world context to keep people together beyond the actual PvP matches. As a result, there’s little or no socialization unless you join a “clan.”

There is actual socialization that happens around PvP, as players plan and powwow with each other for how they intend to engage in PvP. But even this is really only true in games that have “meaningful” or objective-based PvP.

But PvE triggers that type of socialization, as does raiding. And I wouldn’t call PvE or raiding socialization.

The fact that socialization can happen before or after a type of activity does not make that activity socialization.

PvP related socialization can happen is if there is downtime. Like the time you stand in a keep with people waiting for a possible attack. Or the time you spend planning an attack. Or the time you spend waiting for a control point to change so you can attack it.

I agree that PvP can be a feature that lends itself to socialization – but only if there is mental downtime and a world context to make the PvP matter.

You can have all the monster bashing and loot gathering you want in a virtual world. But you also have social activities, non-combat activities, and things that make you feel like a resident of a world.

In a world, you also don’t feel the same rush to “level cap” and “end game.” Level cap is what, 120 years old, and end game is being buried. Not so amazing. But when the MMO is just a game, why not rush for the finish line?