Muckbeast

I had so much fun trashing raiding as it exists in current graphical MUDs over here, I might as well take another hack at it. I will explain how raiding as it is generally implemented in graphical MMOs provides a false, deceptive, and personally damaging sense of accomplishment.

False Sense of Accomplishment from Raiding

One of the very serious, negative effects of the current design of “raid content” is the false sense of accomplishment it gives people. I was checking a couple of WoW blogs recently, and many of them have gigantic, gushing stories about the enormous sense of glory and accomplishment they felt when they finally downed some boss that had been wiping them for weeks or months on end. The way posters glowingly patted themselves on the back you’d think they had just earned a huge promotion at work or won the Nobel Prize.

Accomplishment is Good to a Certain Extent

Now, it is wonderful when games give people a sense of accomplishment. In fact, this is important for a well designed game. But raiding really exaggerates this feeling in the way it sucks people in. All the guild drama, arguments, roster debates, loot arguments, planning sessions, strategy sessions, video viewings, strategy readings, experimental tests, and wipe after wipe make it seem like something far more important is happening than a pile of pixels being killed.

The Effects Can Be Very Real, and Very Negative

Why does this matter? Because this is one of the ways MMOs can actually cause real harm to the lives of its customers. According to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, self actualization is the ultimate need that people have. They need to feel successful in life. Most healthy people fulfill this need through accomplishments with their family, marriage, child rearing, career, education, etc. These are very productive ways to fulfill this need. People that get massively sucked into raiding fulfill this need through raid success. As a result, they often have less of a drive to work on their family, friends, children, spouse, job, or school. So the actually important things in their real life suffer because this crucial need is being satisfied through MMO raiding.

My Own Personal Vortex

I experienced this phenomenon myself in Dark Age of Camelot. The Realm vs. Realm combat was so incredibly engaging, and felt so meaningful, that successful RvR nights actually made me feel “good about myself.” My work suffered, and the time I spent with my family suffered. It did not just suffer because of the time commitment, it suffered because I felt self actualized through the game. That’s bad.

What Can Developers Do to Limit This Effect?

There is not much game designers can do about this. Their job is to make the most engaging game possible. But the one thing they CAN do is not foster an environment where raiding is looked upon as some Holy Grail type activity. In many MMOs, if customers peep up on the forums saying they’d like to do something besides raid, they get shouted down. Raiding is held up as the most awesome, challenging, uber thing you can do. If you don’t want to raid, you suck, and if you are good at raiding, you are a god. Developers should squash that type of mentality whenever they see it start to grow.