M.Indie by Joseph Lieberman

M.Indie’s Social Contract   (August 27, 2005)

Online games are social events. As MMOGs rise and fall like the enigmatic wave-pool at your local water park, their societies do the same. However, some social waves get larger than others and some social games make connections so strong that they last longer than the game they were forged in. What features are conducive to this force? Why are some games a paradise of interesting and unique people while other games are filled with jerks, or are entirely quiet? M.Indie dives off of the proverbial diving-board of society and into the endless waves of online gaming to find out.

In my quest to find features and ties in online games to their social triumphs and troubles a variety of factors were found. The caveat to this is that no single feature can distinguish good and bad communities. There are far too many factors to reliably predict which games will be good or bad, however, we can find some clues that may give you social butterflies a better opportunity to pick the game that is right for you.

Social Contract #1: Use Area-Only Chat to meet people, private chat or local chat to have conversations!
The first factor we discovered is communication system. Communication systems tend to come in three varieties; global chat, area chat, and local-only chat. The most important fact is most of the people in online games are NOT jerks! It sometimes seems everyone in a game is a jerk because the jerks are loud and abrasive. This is why M.Indie recommends avoiding any game with a focus on global chat. The jerks will always congregate on global chat and if your game has it, you should use it sparingly for emergencies only. Area chat, which is talking in large areas specific to the map (as seen in ROSE Online), are far superior for finding people who are friendly and sociable. Local-only chat, which is chatting in rooms or small areas, is not recommended for social reasons simply because it makes communication too much of a hassle.

Social Contract #2: Groups, Buddies, and Clans are a must!
The second factor we discovered was how well planned out the grouping system in the game is. Does the game have squads/clans/guilds? Does it have a buddy system? Does the game reward forming groups? If the answer to all three of these is yes, the game is nearly always more conducive to meeting new people than if the answer were no.

Social Contract #3: Stick to your own language and to games with separate servers for different nationalities!
The third factor we uncovered was the community playing this game. The question isn’t of quantity or quality but of language. M.Indie is not a bigoted column, but the majority’s nationality plays a huge role in social acceptance. If you don’t speak the primary language of the game you are going to have trouble making friends. It has nothing to do with them not liking foreigners (though this is possible in some situations), but more to do with not being able to communicate well. Worst of all are games with even and large distributions of multiple nationalities and languages. This situation can often lead to culture clashes which you will be forced to witness and endure regardless of whether you are directly involved in them. So it is generally best to stick to your own nationality to avoid petty conflict, unless your idea of a good time is defending the actions of your country.

Social Contract #4: Low Conflict means more access to peers!
Our next issue is a matter of preference, but the question is: How much player to player conflict exists, coupled with how severe the penalties are for losing player to player conflict. Online games succeed in part because people become emotionally attached to their characters. The more prevalent and severe conflict is, the more it can lead to aggressive outbursts and social troubles. If a game is designed around conflict with fairly severe penalties for losing (Star Sonata, for instance), you will often see people avoid contact with social peers out of fear the other may be out for blood. If, like star sonata, there is a global chat channel it will often be the battleground for verbiage due to conflicts like these.

Social Contract #5: Moderation in Moderation!
Our final issue is Moderation. How much policing is done by game staff? This can severely affect social issues in a game. Aim for moderate amounts of moderation! Too often mods are volunteers, and a few bad mods can be MUCH worse than a few bad players! Still, games with zero moderation have even worse problems, where there is nobody to penalize players for abusing others (verbally or otherwise). Aim for games that have professional mods and enough of them that there is always someone accessible should an emergency arise.

Taking these 5 factors into consideration when choosing a game, will help you find one that can bring about bonds of friendships that may go far beyond the life of the game itself. You’ll have the opportunity to meet more people than you ever thought possible. Remember: A game with area only chat, a well thought out grouping/buddy system, people who speak your language, low conflict, and moderate mods will be your social heaven. Take away these factors and you have a social disaster waiting to happen.

A side note: The current lifecycle of the game is also a major influence on people. It will be easier to bond with players in a game that is just starting out, as everyone there is in the same boat. A game at it’s height will be the hardest to meet new people in, because most of the players have already established cliques. A game on the decline will be easier to get into as the remaining players are desperate for new blood to keep their game alive, but if you are too late, your bonds may not be strong enough to make a great new friend.

Good luck and happy gaming! Tune in next time to see M.indie really TRASH a game in our article: “Trash, it’s not just garbage anymore,” where we will take an in depth look at the RTS game from Inhuman Games that is nearly entirely multiplayer based. .