Lifestyles attracting Gamers

July 15, 2006 on 2:19 pm | In MMO (Live), Playstyles

Just had a quick thought in discussing Favoring the Prepared over at this discussion thread:

How virtual lifestyle experiences were previously advertised and why that may not have been the best way to do it.

To me, one thing that keeps virtual lifestyle games somewhat below the radar of the action seekers is that so many have tried to sell the "be anything you want" message.

<>Lots of gamers want a bit more direction than that, the sort of information they got from previous games they've played. Most other genres feature games which provide more information or are so established, one's place within is fairly easily divined.

<>Meanwhile, virtual lifestyles had been dumping players into worlds, given them a few rudimentary Tutorial lessons and then kicking them out with the command to go "find themselves". That's a fairly large leap to make, particularly nowadays when so many who come to MMORPGs are coming from other games themselves (and not, say, from outside of gaming altogether). 

<>I think the companies are learning though. Some are trying to find that balance between maintaining their openness, but ensuring players can discover a path into that openness in a more game-directed way. I'm thinking specifically of how old UO would start players in Haven, wherein they found NPCs, quests and tasks to help them learn what kind of stuff they liked doing. More recently, the big changes to SWG and the newbie experience in Eve provided more game direction to newbies than before (though Eve could use much more in the game, rather than left as a Tutorial on the website. People want to play the game, not read about it). Even ATITD is getting more directed with the third age.

<>I like the changes. I'm a big fan of openness, but I'm also an avid gamer. When I see that I spend more time in games that are better at giving me direction than those that are not, I don't get surprised that the vast majority of accounts across the genre are in titles that lean more towards EQ/WoW than old-SWG/ATiTD.