Sic transit gloria virtual
Aug. 22nd, 2006 12:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cmdr_zoomRecently on the Puzzle Pirates forum, the question came up of how much impact a single player might hope to have on the game, and how much of a legacy they can leave behind. While PP offers more opportunity than most other MMOs in this regard, it's still limited. Rummykins had some thoughts on why this is so, and I thought they deserved to be passed on.
What you are speaking of is a folklore. While common in real-world communities, folklores tend to be a rarity in the world of online games for a number of reasons.
In order for a folklore to thrive, there must be an existing shared sense of community which makes its members interested in their shared history. There must also be a slow enough rate of influx that the elders of the community can pass the folklore to the newcomers and allow them to sufficiently integrate it before the next wave of newcomers arrive.
In traditional human societies, both of these factors exist. A group of tribesman all live in a small geographic area, face the same dangers, know the same people, and, generally, live in a very similar way. Additionally, with the vast majority of population growth coming only from internal reproduction, there is a slow rate of increase, and plenty of time for the community's elders to pass the lore of the tribe on to the children. These children have at least 12 years to absorb this heritage before it is even possible for them to reproduce and pass the lore on to their own children.
An online game, especially a popular one, has difficulty providing either of the neccesary criteria for the growth of a healthy folklore. Back in the early days of Puzzle Pirates, perhaps, those criteria were met: we all played on one ocean -- or, at least, a series of single oceans. Our points of reference were the same, our cultural identity was the same. At the same time, the influx of new players was slow enough that there was ample time and ability for newcomers to absorb the culture around them.
Now, however, things are different. We are no longer one ocean: we are six. While there is some overlap between these, on the whole, one ocean's players exist seperate from the others'. Similarly, the rate of population growth has increased dramatically. There are now, and have been for some time, large groups of players who discovered the game on their own, and made their own way in it without any connection to the previous heritage of their ocean, let alone those of Azure or early Midnight.
In an environment like this, it is difficult to maintain a healthy folklore. This is not to say it can't be done: it can, but it requires the interest and dedication of many who are willing to catalog their heritage and actively seek to pass it on to newcomers, and newcomers who have an interest in learning.
This latter is also an interesting point. With the demographic shift that has been going on in the game, I could make a very strong case that the vast bulk of the playerbase has absolutely no interest in the history of the game whatsoever, and any attempts to even try to educate them will be futile at best, and immensely frustrating at worst.
In my now over a decade of playing online games, I have yet to see a single successful game in which there was a widely-recognized culture and history. The best that one can hope for is that there remains a small group of people who, for their own reasons, have an interest in what has come before, and are content to learn and remember and pass on while the bulk of the populace around them remain ignorant of the names, places, and events that shaped the world in which they play.
That this sounds much like our own modern world is not lost on me when I think about this.
Due to the lack of knowledge, or care, on the part of newcomers to most games, the lifetime of "legends" in any randomly selected online game, in my experience, tends to be about one generation. Given that, as I recall, the average amount of time in which any player plays an MMO is 6 months, we can make this rather bleak prediction: In half a year, to a year at the absolute most, everything you are doing now, all the fame you have, and every single exploit of yours -- no matter how famous at the moment -- will be almost completely forgotten. If you do not make an effort to continue your own name, if you quit playing today, you have no more than 12 months, and more likely 6, before hardly anyone remembers you, or has even heard of you.
This is not to discourage those who wish to learn and pass on our heritage. It's an admirable goal. The culture of digital societies has always fascinated me, and one of the first things I did when I started playing was to learn about what came before, and immerse myself in the already-forming legends of the past.
However, bear in mind that you will be only a small group. No one else will care, and nothing you do will be remembered. The only legacy any of us have, truly, is the fun we have playing, and the friendships we form while we do it.
All else is dust and fading glory.
What you are speaking of is a folklore. While common in real-world communities, folklores tend to be a rarity in the world of online games for a number of reasons.
In order for a folklore to thrive, there must be an existing shared sense of community which makes its members interested in their shared history. There must also be a slow enough rate of influx that the elders of the community can pass the folklore to the newcomers and allow them to sufficiently integrate it before the next wave of newcomers arrive.
In traditional human societies, both of these factors exist. A group of tribesman all live in a small geographic area, face the same dangers, know the same people, and, generally, live in a very similar way. Additionally, with the vast majority of population growth coming only from internal reproduction, there is a slow rate of increase, and plenty of time for the community's elders to pass the lore of the tribe on to the children. These children have at least 12 years to absorb this heritage before it is even possible for them to reproduce and pass the lore on to their own children.
An online game, especially a popular one, has difficulty providing either of the neccesary criteria for the growth of a healthy folklore. Back in the early days of Puzzle Pirates, perhaps, those criteria were met: we all played on one ocean -- or, at least, a series of single oceans. Our points of reference were the same, our cultural identity was the same. At the same time, the influx of new players was slow enough that there was ample time and ability for newcomers to absorb the culture around them.
Now, however, things are different. We are no longer one ocean: we are six. While there is some overlap between these, on the whole, one ocean's players exist seperate from the others'. Similarly, the rate of population growth has increased dramatically. There are now, and have been for some time, large groups of players who discovered the game on their own, and made their own way in it without any connection to the previous heritage of their ocean, let alone those of Azure or early Midnight.
In an environment like this, it is difficult to maintain a healthy folklore. This is not to say it can't be done: it can, but it requires the interest and dedication of many who are willing to catalog their heritage and actively seek to pass it on to newcomers, and newcomers who have an interest in learning.
This latter is also an interesting point. With the demographic shift that has been going on in the game, I could make a very strong case that the vast bulk of the playerbase has absolutely no interest in the history of the game whatsoever, and any attempts to even try to educate them will be futile at best, and immensely frustrating at worst.
In my now over a decade of playing online games, I have yet to see a single successful game in which there was a widely-recognized culture and history. The best that one can hope for is that there remains a small group of people who, for their own reasons, have an interest in what has come before, and are content to learn and remember and pass on while the bulk of the populace around them remain ignorant of the names, places, and events that shaped the world in which they play.
That this sounds much like our own modern world is not lost on me when I think about this.
Due to the lack of knowledge, or care, on the part of newcomers to most games, the lifetime of "legends" in any randomly selected online game, in my experience, tends to be about one generation. Given that, as I recall, the average amount of time in which any player plays an MMO is 6 months, we can make this rather bleak prediction: In half a year, to a year at the absolute most, everything you are doing now, all the fame you have, and every single exploit of yours -- no matter how famous at the moment -- will be almost completely forgotten. If you do not make an effort to continue your own name, if you quit playing today, you have no more than 12 months, and more likely 6, before hardly anyone remembers you, or has even heard of you.
This is not to discourage those who wish to learn and pass on our heritage. It's an admirable goal. The culture of digital societies has always fascinated me, and one of the first things I did when I started playing was to learn about what came before, and immerse myself in the already-forming legends of the past.
However, bear in mind that you will be only a small group. No one else will care, and nothing you do will be remembered. The only legacy any of us have, truly, is the fun we have playing, and the friendships we form while we do it.
All else is dust and fading glory.
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... shall never be forgot...
Date: 2006-08-22 08:25 pm (UTC)Re: ... shall never be forgot...
Date: 2006-08-22 09:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-18 05:29 am (UTC)As a result, the Pern-themed MUSHing community also has this greater sense of continuity, although not as much so as the prime version, I think.
But I agree that the general principle is true. The more fragmented the community, the less of an impact that an individual player can really make, and the more quickly their legend fades. At MMO scale, individual fame is virtually impossible, and soon forgotten if for some reason it is achieved. The real broader community of an MMO is its forums, and not the game itself.