Why don’t we add more social software features to MMOs?
A comment that Betsy made on the v-Space thread got me thinking about MMOs as social software. As this seemed divergent form the point of the thread I thought I would start a new one.
This is what Betsy said:
I am only interested in maps insofar as they can tell me where other people are and where the big events of the day are happening.
I wonder if MMOs can learn from social worlds (or more usefully social software) in this regard. MMOs -are- a form of social software but maybe there are things that they could do within the information space to help.
In fact even social worlds might learn from social software. Second Life has its clubs and groups but the kind of social network information space provided by the likes of Orkut or Linked-in would be handy.
But would the addition of this soft of information be a welcome or useful addition to a traditional MMO? For example one could optionally include social meta-data to one’s character profile and optionally have this information displayed.
Would the ability to see near by explorers, or people in the IT industry, or sociologists or US singles interested in Star Trek and puppies be a positive feature in an MMO? Or would it be a really annoying distraction for 99% of players or worse fodder for griefers?
Is this one of the keys to the holy grail of mainstreaming? Make the game element of a MMO just that, an element of the online experience?
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