Comments on: Monday Mailbag: a neat graph, producers, UO, UO…

By: Ges

Ges — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:50:55 +0000

Any network can have good friends and bad friends. Networking online is more tricky then in other places for various reasons.
On one hand, you get the people who will abuse that no one knows them on the internet to the point of scamming others out of virtual possessions, being rude, being selfish.
And then you have people who open up, knowing that what they might share with someone else does not matter much. After all, what are the chances of meeting person XYZ? These are the kind of people you could find becoming your modern form of a pen pal: An online buddy. The ties that happen by chance meetings can become strong and supportive.

And in a guild, the network can have very strong ties indeed.
To me, guilds are the actual core of any MMO I have played, to the point that in most guilds I end up in a leadership position.
My guild of the last 7 years had a real-live meeting this year where members from all over Europe came together. MMO players are not the socially-shy cellar-kids that we sometimes get displayed at.

The internet, compared to writing letters, book clubs, knitting circles and the common mammoth hunt is an infant still. It will take years before we know if this was a fad of humanity or if this indeed is something that can be taken more serious.

By: Elvin Li: Virtual World Terms

Elvin Li: Virtual World Terms — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:04:38 +0000

[...] Monday Mailbag: a neat graph, producers, UO, UO… - Sep 17, 2007 - Raph [...]

By: Azaroth

Azaroth — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 13:13:24 +0000

Kartones, absolutely they can. You can play football and lose all of your chess club friends while gaining football friends in the same way you may lose some and win some playing MMOs.

You can overdo both, just like you can grind out gold for your castle on earth elementals in Shame, you can become obsessed with improving yourself for football and spend incredible amounts of time in the gym, or watching tape, or going to other football games to scout opponents.

In both instances, you’ll probably lose a lot of friends who aren’t involved in the same hobby as you, and gain ones that are. Because it’s a game or online has little to do with what happens when you become engrossed in a new hobby.

By: Ted Rheingold

Ted Rheingold — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 07:14:32 +0000

At Dogster and Catster our user base is primarily ages 20-40, mostly women. We see a marked drop off from the beginning on Labor Day weekend well into September. I can stop assuming it’s a seasonal thing now and know it is. Thx.

By: Ilsoap

Ilsoap — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:01:06 +0000

Yeah, we’ve noticed some definite seasonal trends with Club Penguin. It’s not perfectly defined because of so many different school schedules, but being online for almost two years, the pattern’s already becoming fairly evident. (summer holidays, first few weeks of school, holiday seasons, etc.)

By: Kartones

Kartones — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:37:15 +0000

Well, having played for 5 years in the same emulated UO shard (both as a PC and as a GM), I can fin one important difference:
Being a “semi-fanatic” of football differs from “living” at UO in that the second one is like a virtual life, and that in the second one there are other human beings too with whom you talk, relationate…

I’ve seen people addicted to UO in a way that they evaded their real world, loose RL friends because of the game, and things like that. Those things I don’t think can happen in football.