Game Decisions

Game Decisions

In this week’s reading explores the problems with making an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online game) including looking at social psychology, friendship, design insights and the social motivation of players.

Looking into aspects of social psychology aids in the development of social design in games.

Friendship between players in a game built up in a variety of in game activities and spaces allows users to build bonds with one another. Important factors in order to determine if individuals are likely to become friends include being close together, being similar to one another, interact back and forth and also be able to confide in the other person. Designing features in the game that allows players to interact, engage and observe is beneficial. Dunbar’s layers explores in depth how people socialise with one another- almost like a network of connections a person may have. It states that people tend to have about 150 friendships in total, branching off into good friendships, casual friendships, best friendships and intimate friendships. Here you can read more about Dunbar’s layers.

This blog goes into extreme detail regarding the social psychology of people, including Dunbar’s Layers.

Dunbar's Number image

Source: Wikipedia

Design Insights

Exploring game design that keeps in mind the social nature and psychology of players will help build a game in which players can bond with others and maintain these bonds.

Designing public and private spaces for players to bond, promoting shared goals, promoting positivity in growth and support aid in players sharing goals and building bonds. It also helps socially motivate players.

Having several communication channels, such as personal/private, tiered, and broadcast channels is an important factor to look into when designing an MMO.

One piece of advice the readings give is to not build a big world first, but to rather define social activities, map out group size and to build social support systems.

Keeping in mind how players interact using social psychology and knowledge of game design allows for a game where player’s social needs are satisfied to be made and is important to learn from.