Kilsin said:What is the most important part of a community, like Pantheon's or any MMORPG, in your mind? #PRF #MMORPG #MMO #communitymatters
The thread subject and the first post are subtley, but importantly, different.
I'm not sure anyone would think the answer to the thread title isn't simply VERY or EXTREMELY, but what is the most important part?...
I have to say Visionary Realms is the most important part.
Of course the players are essential, but even two players with very similar and long RPG histories will have different opinions on what the community should be and do.
Visionary Realms must give good leadership and guidance and a shining vision to help the community come together and stay together.
I get Brad's laudible and hopeful ideas around emergent behaviours and self-policing and whatnot, but, really, there is no match for some clear and simple direction to get people all heading in the right direction together.
disposalist said:I get Brad's laudible and hopeful ideas around emergent behaviours and self-policing and whatnot, but, really, there is no match for some clear and simple direction to get people all heading in the right direction together.
I have to agree with this.
If you just release an MMO out there and leave it all for emergent player driven stuff to happen without much, if any, influence from the developer to guide it then you end up with EVE Online.
Now, as much as I love various aspects of EVE Online and how EVE also encourages you to work together in groups I have to say I have witnessed some of the more extreme dark sides of communities within that game (e.g. even as extreme as illegally hacking another players computer to attempt to gain resources or ruin competing alliances or corporations).
Zero guidance and influence leads to a dog eat dog community.
It's hard to come up with answers without knowing what kind of customer service will be in place, and what/how they will intercede with grievences.
You can put rules in place to stop behavior, but those rules also affect the lawful. So sometimes it is better to see what happens in the community, before you enacted rules that may impede on gameplay.
Rules/laws are easier to put in place than to remove after the fact.
Fulton said:It's hard to come up with answers without knowing what kind of customer service will be in place, and what/how they will intercede with grievences.
You can put rules in place to stop behavior, but those rules also affect the lawful. So sometimes it is better to see what happens in the community, before you enacted rules that may impede on gameplay.
Rules/laws are easier to put in place than to remove after the fact.
The other side of that is, of course, that once a community has disintegrated it's too late to puts in rules to fix it.
I would definitely say the relationship formed during the journey of mmorpg especially those strange encounters that made all of us go ...ah crap this is gonna hurt. Mostly taking time to get to know those you grouped up with with it is PUG or guildee. Its all abou the journey and the laughter.
To me: The important part of a community is raising everyone up as a whole. If someone is a detriment to the community we should always try to bring them back up or ostracize them if they refuse to participate in a positive manner. A community should be constructive and enlightening. You can be an unsocial/inactive member of a community and you will be tolerated/overlooked, but once you become a negative - steps must be taken. This goes for any type of community - not just ingame.
