The Impact of Online Gaming Communities By Phillip Alex Haddox June 10, 2001 Today's gaming scene is a far cry from its roots. From the single-player, side-scrolling console games of the 1980s, to the massive multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs) of the 2000s, huge leaps in technology, design schemes and understanding of player desires have given rise to new genres of recreation. Now more than ever, the player has a direct and tangible influence upon how games are designed and implemented. Their voice, given strength by assemblage, can be heard loud and clear. They want to share their experiences online and offline or the game is doomed to mediocrity. This is the first in a series of articles about online gaming communities. Here, we give an overview of what "online gaming community" means and a brief history. We also cover their importance relative to the success of any future game and some of the challenges game developers face in supporting them. Future articles will cover the uniqueness of some of the larger communities built around the most popular MMORPGs. Online communities predate the Internet. Originally used by academics and researchers in the 1970s for the open exchange of ideas, the early Usenet discussion groups were only available to those with access to the Milnet and Arpanet. Unless a person could navigate text-based Unix systems, they were as good as inaccessible. Only the few elite "tech-heads" even knew they existed. That all changed in the late '80s. The U.S. government maintained global computer network morphed into a more accessible Internet. The data lines connecting all of the various institutions were privatized and opened to anyone who subscribed to a connection provider. A new standard for publishing formatted documents was adopted. This new Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) made it easier to read documents and allowed for greater flexibility in exchanging papers. The Internet as we know it today was in its infancy. This Internet forever changed the face of computer gaming. No longer were people restricted to single-player modes. Anyone could challenge friends, colleagues, or even complete strangers to games of Chess or Go, regardless of the continent upon which they lived. People also could work cooperatively in text-based multi-user dimensions (MUDs), where hundreds of people could interact in real-time adventure stories. As people are want to do, they gathered in social groups of common interest, forming teams, clans and guilds around their favorite games. The online gaming community was born. By the mid-90s, any developer who released a game that did not contain Internet components was considered backward. Users expected to be able to interact with each other online and in real-time. Without it, only limited success could be achieved. In 1997, Dynamix released a pioneering game, Tribes, a 3D shooter that played exclusively online. Other than a basic, single-player tutorial, it required an Internet connection to actually play. Billed as the first squad-based 3D shooter, Tribes was a resounding success and raised the bar for future game development. Tribes was the first game to really underscore the importance of having a strong online community. In a post on their own web site, Dynamix expressed both pleasure and amazement at the extent to which the fans supported their game. Their forecast originally projected the life expectancy of the game to be six months, but after one year it was still going strong. It finally petered out after 18-months, 3-times the expected duration. The community that sprung up around the game was responsible for tripling the life of the product. Dynamix had struck gold. When other publishers saw the opportunity to extend the life of their products, they embraced these budding communities. Cavedog Entertainment (Total Annihilation) and Blizzard Entertainment (Warcraft and Starcraft) hosted or sponsored user-run tournaments. Starcraft, with help from a surprising success in Korea, continues to top selling charts three years after its initial launch. The next great leap in online gaming and community came from Origin Systems. They took their hugely popular series, Ultima, and brought it online. For the first time, a top-down view graphic world filled with years of history and detail could be played by thousands of people from all over the world at the same time, in the same virtual place. It was a persistent world where after one gamer logged off, the world continued to change and evolve through the influences of other players. To help in the user management of such a massive undertaking, Origin called upon fans to assist in some of the handling of basic player questions and problems. Experienced users, with minimal training, could volunteer their time to act as "guides" assisting new players in adjusting to the gaming environment, bouncing serious issues up to the full-time support staff and developers. In return, the volunteers would have their monthly $10 subscription fee waived. Outside the game, hundreds of guilds and clans formed. Members could get together outside the game to make plans for adventure and dungeon delving. The role-playing experience was carried beyond the game environment itself so that members could continue to "play" the game even when they were unable to actually connect. For the first time, fans could enjoy the game and have a direct impact upon the development, maintenance and culture of the world that they loved. In March 1999, Verant Interactive took the MMORPG one step further by introducing a fully 3D environment to the persistent world. Their resounding hit, EverQuest, took the industry and world by storm. Its highly immersive environment was addictive, earning it tongue-in-cheek titles such as "EverCrack" with sub-communities cropping up for "EQ Widows" (spouses and girlfriend of addicted EverQuest players). Many other games missed their ship date targets because the developers were playing EverQuest rather than working on their own projects. Never one to miss an opportunity, Microsoft entered the MMORPG arena a year or so later with Asheron's Call. Also a 3D persistent world, it has a strong following supported by volunteer guides to assist other members. Had a virtual Utopia been discovered? Persistent fantasy worlds, players helping other players, groups of like-minded individuals gathering both in the game environment and out, low monthly service fees, and global access; what more could a gamer ask for? It seemed like the well of fun and adventure was boundless as more companies entered the market, each offering new interpretations of the persistent-world environments. Freedom, opportunity and imagination extended beyond the virtual horizon. Today, a game cannot be successful without a strong online community. Games that would not normally be associated with "out of game" communities have an immense presence. The Sims (Electronic Arts), for instance, has a huge culture. Users are able to share their personally designed skins, homes, and families on The Sims official web. They can also build and post stories using screen shots of their antics within the game. The success of The Sims and the strong community around it has convinced Electronic Arts to launch a massive-multiplayer version of the game dubbed, The Sims Online. Unfortunately, the real world always trumps fantasy. You must always wake from the dream to the sound of an alarm. In the United States, that alarm is usually sounded by someone filing a lawsuit. America Online has had volunteer Moderators and SysOps for their message boards for over a decade. Just as volunteers in the MMORPGs, they helped members online with problems and answered basic questions in exchange for having their account fees waived. In late 2000, a group of volunteers filed suit against America Online for back wages. They claim that they were treated more as employees than volunteers and therefore should be compensated as if they were employees. Soon after, a group of volunteer guides for Ultima Online filed a similar suit against Electronic Arts, the parent of Origin Systems. The suits are based upon law established for the protection of employees from underhanded employers. It is less expensive for employers to treat personnel as independent contractors than to consider them actual employees. Independent contractors are not eligible for benefits and protection that costs the employer money. The law also prevents employers from requiring employees to provide a number of "volunteer" work hours in order to keep their jobs. Whether or not someone is considered an employee, independent contractor or volunteer is up to the discretion and interpretation of a judge. The decision is made based upon a weighing of factors including: Degree of control, relative investment of worker and alleged employer, degree to which the employee's profit and loss is determined by the employer, the skill and initiative required by the employee, the permanency of the relationship and other factors. The weightings, the interpretation and the laws themselves can vary greatly depending upon the state in which the suits are filed. Although the cases are still pending, developers are taking protective action against potential suits. In early 2001, Microsoft completely dismantled their volunteer program and was forced to hire full-time employees to replace the volunteers. MMORPGs that are still in development have been forced to re-think their support plans. Funcom, makers of Anarchy Online, is strongly considering keeping their customer service out of the United States entirely. Mythic Entertainment, makers of Dark Age of Camelot, has no plans for a volunteer program as of June 2001. The impact on gamers and the community is far reaching. In an interview with CheatSearch, Mark Jacobs, President and CEO of Mythic Entertainment called the suits, "disgraceful." "It hurts the industry and community," he continued, "they should be ashamed of themselves." In addition to a loss of trust between developer and fan, it will drive the monthly fees of games up. The $9.95 monthly price point could be a thing of the past. Anarchy Online has already announced a monthly service fee of $12.95 and other developers are still deciding how much they need to charge now that volunteers might not be an available resource. Does this mean the end of online gaming communities? No. It does, however, significantly hinder developer-community relationships. The game developers must now keep careful watch on what they do and how they interact with their fans for fear of being set up for a costly lawsuit. It also means that the inexpensive monthly fees are a thing of the past. With free, volunteer effort displaced, the gap must be filled with paid employees, and those costs will be passed on to the consumer. Once again, a few sour individuals spoil the fun for everyone else. The suits are disappointing, but a reality of the litigious society that is the United States. Good game companies will always find ways to support their fans. We will just have to wait to see what opportunities the future delivers. Reader Comments Sunday, August 12, 2001 I've read your article and I think it tells the history of the OGCs in a good way. But you've forgot to tell about the OGC based on free games: OGCs like Furcadia (www.furcadia.com) (I'm using Furcadia just as an example, there are other free OGCs but I can't count name them all!) I'm a member of this OCG, wich is not just a community but a community of communities. I think that OGCs like that one are more positive because they don't live upon their members money, but directly upon their members efforts. Furcadia is ran relying almost solely in volunteers, and very little staff. The creators are very well-known and are not like a king or so: they're players. With the privileges of staff (of course!) like booting and so on, but players. If they enter a sub-community they're normal members. Everyone can make his way up in furcadia, with effort. And most important: furcadia is not based on violence. Yes, there can be violence, but it's not at the basics of the game. I've played other OCGs (example: Nexus the Kingdom) and most of them are based on killing. It can be killing players, or computer-generated drones (Kobolds, orcs, cyborgs, whatever you want). In games like Starcraft, Quake III arena, and the like, that is a must, because they're ACTION games (I admit, killing stuff in a game is FUN. Really fun. ^_^). But when it comes to RPGs, I'd like the "killing" thing were in a second place. I like OGCs going more about relations and feelings. Gathering friends, and overcoming difficulties (difficulties are not always a lich or a level 120 greater Dragon-Demon). As someone said "...the events on the screens are fictious, but the reactions are real. You can feel true fear, have true friends; and, why not? feel true love." -Jinglebell Have comments on this article? Send an email to feedback@cheatsearch.com! Some feedback may be posted right here. Be sure to include the name of the article with your comments (so we know what you are talking about).