Comments on: What makes a good in-game hangout?

By: /AFK - April 26 « Bio Break

/AFK - April 26 « Bio Break — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 11:08:29 +0000

[...] looks around for a good hang-out spot in various MMOs. Know [...]

By: Do you play like Alice, Dorothy, or Wendy? « Welcome to Spinksville!

Do you play like Alice, Dorothy, or Wendy? « Welcome to Spinksville! — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:06:18 +0000

[...] been thinking about this anyway, since Averaen commented on my post this week on virtual hangouts that s/he thought it was a mistake to treat WoW and similar MMOs as if they were virtual worlds. I [...]

By: spinks

spinks — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:03:31 +0000

I see where you’re coming from, but I’m not entirely convinced. Sure, a fully featured hangout might not fit but WoW certainly does have hangouts, it has cities, it has a working economy, it is a persistent virtual world. It is a virtual world. It just is the type of virtual world that offers a very game-like experience.

By: Averaen

Averaen — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:41:49 +0000

You talk a lot about how hangouts are neat in virtual worlds. I think it’s important to remember that while there is a lot of overlap between a virtual world (second life) and an mmorpg (WoW) games like WoW are not virtual worlds. The objective of the developers of WoW is to make a game, and push more content out. Something like this might be neat, but it would be a waste of developer time in the context of WoW. Players are out trying to further their character, and are hanging out while doing that (guild chat, ventrilo, general chat)

The entire game is the in-game hangout. I don’t need my toon to stand next to you to hang out with you.

By: spinks

spinks — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:16:15 +0000

Argh, my bad. I was so sure I had KTR on my newsreader. I know I meant to.

Mea Culpa, and that’s an awesome post! Maybe we should all, you know, hang out …

By: Ethic

Ethic — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:19:51 +0000

Suzina wrote about this very same topic a week ago, thought I’d share a link to her post: http://www.killtenrats.com/2009/04/14/hang-out-spots/

By: Longasc

Longasc — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:34:16 +0000

1. Designers need to get away giving players too many incentives for loot lust and farming. Otherwise people will felt “punished” for “socializing” and not “working” the game. This is sad.

2. The whole virtual world needs to be more of a world, less a game. This is why I despise achievements as to-do-lists and daily quests als daily chores.

3. WoW’s inns and pubs in Dalaran are pretty to look at, but too smallish. It does not need a Tauren sitting on a chair there to make me feel claustrophobia and the place look odd. Just think of the super tiny Scryer and Aldor inns in Shattrath. Even the bigger tavern with the teleporter to the Caves of Time is too small. No wonder people prefer to chat between bank and auction house in Ironforge or on the streets between bank and auction house in Orgrimmar.

By: spinks

spinks — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 16:38:18 +0000

I’m with you on the customizable content, I love the idea. Whatever teething problems it might have, it does sound fun.

I hadn’t even thought of Pocket D but you’re right, it’s a really popular hangout in the CoH RP(ish) servers. And it pings a lot of these issues, it’s big, it’s very easy to get to, it has a cool dancefloor where people can show their moves. I should just go resub to CoH because every time I talk about it, I remember things I liked about it

By: West Karana » Web log 4/19

West Karana » Web log 4/19 — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:02:15 +0000

[...] vital to the “worldy” feeling in an MMO. If not very small communities, then at least really great hangouts as Spinks of Spinksville [...]

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:13:10 +0000

As I become increasingly interested in roleplaying with my MMOs and not just playing them, I’m starting to see the benefit to having in-game hangouts like these. At this point I’m not spending TOO much time in them, but might in the future. I rather like Club D in CoX as it has most of the features you described, the number one being that pub/club RP is the easiest to perform.

In WoW, inns were mostly used when players were logging out, and the only other “hangouts” seemed to include banks and mailboxes for item exchange. I’d love to see hangouts with more features or customizable hangouts. But I’m all about wanting my games to include customizable content these days.