Playing Eve
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Posted - 2010.10.08 21:27:00 -
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 Originally by: Miriam Letisse
A lot of people seem to be missing the point with MMO's these days, they see them as a game to play and accrue virtual wealth and prestige. What they actually are is quite different, they're social games where people can join together not only for companionship in entertainment but also for social intercourse and friendship.
This.
Additionally, humans are visual creatures. Our reactions to faces/bodies are vastly different and ingrained over the centuries than our reactions to text. Seeing an avatar face to face in a station invokes a whole set of subconscious activity which just doesn't happen with text interaction. So if people think that meeting people as avatars in a station will "add nothing" or be no different than opening a chat window, they are sadly, woefully mistaken.
Let's say you're in a station bar and Chribba, for instance, is sitting at a table. If you had no idea who Chribba was, the 75 avatars waiting in line to talk business with him might give you a clue. Not knowing who he was, you would still have many unconscious assumptions taking place in your mind -- maybe thinking he's important or wealthy or Jabba the Hut; maybe thinking he'd be a good person to get to know or avoid; maybe just making you wonder who and what he is. Compare this to a name you don't know showing up in Local. If it's not red, you may not even notice what the name was and if you were in a moderately safe location, it would be gone from your mind in seconds. These are subtle but extremely powerful differences. If you think having avatars is not going to change the game, regardless of whether the "only" think you can do is chat with other avatars, I think you are ridiculously wrong. It will change with whom you speak. It will change how you talk to them. It will change what you do. It will change how much time you spend talking to them. It will change how much time you spend talking to "strangers." It will be a new source of corporate intel and espionage. It will, and already is, bring in new players, who -- even if they become stay-in-the-station carebears -- will occasionally venture out and become prey of pirates and pvpers.
Social aspects of games should never be underestimated, and I think a lot of people are underestimating the value of seeing a "person" when you are talking to them.
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