Adventures in MMO Community Management

Let’s say you have an MMO which includes a robust PvP element. The concept stated by the developers is that meaningful PvP will exist at all levels of the game. This of course makes the PvP gamers very happy. Already the boards for this game are full of gamers requesting that the developers make a fully skill based combat system where invested time means nothing against an opponent who knows when to hit a particular button. They are asking for equipment to have zero effect on combat outcomes. Essentially they are saying that character development and investment should not be deciding factors in a PvP encounter, only the player skill not the character attributes should determine the winner. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) published a white paper on their Station Exchange service. As can be expected this kicked off a fresh round of debate over real money trading in MMOs and also an interesting discussion on Raph Koster’s blog on the related topic of powerlevelling companies. I inserted my tuppence there but it’s not my home so I didn’t want to climb on the table and declaim too much. Here though, the furniture is less safe. Read the rest of this entry »