[Ennewi]

Originally Posted by FatherSioux [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Imagine equating chess and golf to p99.

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/55642407.pdf

Social Interaction Design in MMOs
Nelson Zagalo and Aníbal Gonçalves
Abstract:
This chapter discusses logics of design implemented within MMO’s to support social interaction. First
we try to understand how designers attract players to games that request constant collaboration and
cooperation actions to play and progress, and then how do they maintain the interest throughout
playing. For the first question we discuss in depth the design for social interdependency, as for the
second, we present a study on persuasion techniques used in the design of social game mechanics.
We’ve used World of Warcraft as our main case study.
Key words: game design, social interaction, MMO, persuasion, interdependency

1. Introduction
Games are inherently of social nature. Chess or checkers were designed to be experienced not only
with the game itself, but also with others. On the other hand, videogames are inherently of solitary
nature. Since the beginning, the story of games was attached to the specificity of putting the machine
in the place of the opponent. A.S. Douglas PhD thesis on Human-Machine Interaction (1954) at the
University of Cambridge was to prove that he could build an algorithm that would be able to respond
as a human-to-human play. Or even Pong, the beauty of it was that we could be alone at home and
still play the game against the machine.
The question raised is, what is more rewarding to the user? We've seen from the current trends in
videogames that the social has never been vanished, and more than ever videogames use the social
as condition to sell. Starting with MUDs, then MMOs and more recently Social Games, online games
were able to bring the social into the equation again – even more so than before.
Therefore studying MMOs means studying social aspects of games, aspects as “human attachment”
(Bowlby, 1969:39) or in a broader sense, how communities are built. Mammalian babies would not
survive without strong attachment with parents, which feel in return the need to protect and take care,
a process of basic bonding. As most studies in Positive Psychology demonstrate, millennia of
evolution took us to feel the most rewarded through doing good to others (Sheldon e Lyubomirsky,
2004). This takes us to the main question about what generates groups and communities, and why do
they stay together? The answers are in survival, the group is a condition to survive for mammalians,
and we can say that the energy to propel grouping comes from the actions of interdependence
between members of a group.