Playing Alone, Together
MMOs are obviously multiplayer games. It even says so in the acronym! Despite this, good MMOs generally support solo play or small team play. Occasionally something comes along that forces large team grouping on people (like raiding), and people who prefer solo/small team play bristle against this. Invariably, pro-forced team fanboys (like the hard core raiding crowd) retort “If you want to play by yourself or with just a few people, play a single player/LAN game. Get off MMOs.”
I have always felt this was a wrong headed and distasteful argument. There is a lot more to an MMO than being actively grouped up with 19, 39, or however many additional people grinding through hours of trash to fight a handful of bosses. There is a shared experience that takes place in the WORLD of an MMO that has a lot of value to players.
One of the common ways this is explained is “playing alone, together.” I have always felt that phrase was accurate and made a lot of sense. Even when people like doing things alone, or with a small group of people, doing so with the knowledge that there are a lot of people around can very easily add to the fun. It makes the world around you feel more vibrant and alive. It opens up opportunities for random socialization and happenstance interactions. It also provides economic gameplay (auction houses, for example) that simply do not exist in single player or LAN games.
I was reading emails from a game dev mailing list today (MUD-DEV), and I came across a great message from Dana V. Baldwin. He provided some excellent real world examples of this phenomenon:
I always liken it to walking down the street in New York City. There are lots of people there and very little interaction but it is still more exciting than walking down the street in Dallas.
A better example might be to co-opt Damion’s casino. The casino is filled with AI slot machines and I spend most of my time interacting with them solo when I could be sitting in a group interacting with the dealer AI content instead. Yet, I have much more fun in a casino that is filled with people that I do in a casino that is barren.
Real people make for a compelling shared experience even when I don’t interact or share with them.
It is so true. It is more fun to be around people even if you don’t interact with them.
I completely agree. I sometimes have trouble seeing the point of offline games where I cannot show of my accomplishments to friends. Call me a show off, but I almost always pick 360 games over PS3 games because I want my friends to see my achievement collection. Same goes for WoW. What’s the point of picking up a new piece of armor or a sweet pet if nobody can see it?
What’s the first thing most people do when they get a sweet drop? On my server, anyway, they link it in guild chat for everyone to admire and congratulate them. We’re humans, we’re programmed to seek that type of approval from others.
I solo most of the time, but I enjoy being able to chat with my guild and my friends while I do so.
Not to get too pithy about it, but I’ve never understood why some ladies go to the restroom in a herd. Even they don’t usually do so in groups of 25 or 40, though.
Tobold nailed it when he wrote of “indirect” and “direct” interaction, and how each is important. Indirect interaction most definitely fits the “alone, together” mold, and it’s pretty much the only thing that MMOs have to offer me, since I don’t like grouping for little combat dances.
Beside that, I’ve read of psychological studies where people really don’t have a “cast of thousands” in their personal life plays. They have a small circle of intimates (family and close friends), an extended circle of family and friends, another extended circle of acquiantences, and the occasional random interaction. There are other people *out there*, and they certainly make things work (say, the power company, or the grocer), but the number of people that anyone *really* interacts with tends to be small. Under a dozen, actually, if memory serves.
We may be “social animals” with “herd instincts”, but when it comes down to pure functionality, we have to be self-sufficient as much as possible or we’re of no use to anyone else. We *need* “alone time” to be able to function properly.
Good point about the balance between the need for socialization and solitude. I remember discovering MUDs, and thinking ‘Wow, there are people from all over the world here! Awesome!’ Now if I play an MMO, it’s more ‘Ugh, why is everyone in the world here.’ A lot of that has to do with online multiplayer games becoming more popular and less regulated, whether by administrators or community pressure. But sometimes (more often as time goes by), it’s just because I want to be able to experience a good story without having to deal with distractions or group dynamics. I’ll take single-player games whenever possible, but more games are going the multiplayer route. I only hope they continue to keep the solo aspect in mind.
The private/pirate server concept that people have alluded to in other threads is interesting to me. It sounds conceptually similar to setting up your own Neverwinter Nights server, which in my limited experience gives you the benefits of multiplayer without the annoyances (depending on how public you make it). If you could rope off areas of MMOs to yourself and your buddies, it’d make multiplayer a lot more attractive. It’s the virtual equivalent of renting out a reception hall. I’m not sure how prevalent stuff like that is.
But isn’t indirect interaction exactly what we can all get from the internet these days? It was certainly exciting to know that there were real players wandering around in the past, but I think we’re more blase about that now (as Talsek says).
I’m not sure I’d buy an MMO on the premise that there are real people possibly but you won’t interact with them directly. Because I have a lot of other ways to do that online, it’s not really a unique selling point any more.
I think the point is you can interact with them directly at any moment of your choosing, but in the meantime you can simply enjoy and benefit from their presence in other ways.
For example, other players are putting things up on the AH you might want for gearing your character or completing a quest.
Or other players may have cleared out a lot of the patrolling mobs in an area making it easier for you to move in and finish a quest or kill a boss mob.
Or if you are in trouble, you might be able to run towards other players and ask for help.
You’re going to love my talk at AGDC this year (assuming they approve the final version). It’s called ‘the loner’.
Incidentally, the casino mention refers to another AGDC talk I did a few years ago – it turns out that those studying casino design have found exactly that -that casinos are more interesting full than alone. It’s also true of bars – it’s more fun to drink in a crowded bar than an empty one, even if you have 3-4 friends. That’s because other people are content, even if they aren’t directly in your group.
Great examples. It is definitely true. There is something inherently fun about there being other people around you, even if you are not actively interacting with them.
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