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Which one is vital for MMO: Programmers or behavioral psychologists?


rothbardian

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Do you know why companies like Blizzard Entertainment or Xbox Game Studios spend more money to community managers, psychologists and behavioral psychology research projects than coders?

(Hint: Since its release in 2011, ugly Minecraft has recorded worldwide sales of over 200 million units)

(Hint2: Microsoft purchased Minecraft and developer Mojang from Notch for $2.5 billion in 2014. They spent almost two times more on behavioral psychology research projects than coding for Minecraft)

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That isn't the problem for DU. The problem was bad management, bloated growth for no reason, and well... again.. .super bad management, including the ones who were closest to JC.

 

Duh, programmers are programmers and they will make the game per the design given to them. The problem is that whatever happens higher up screws up development. You need a game designer to design a game, not psychologists. Good game designers implement plenty of psychology knowledge into games, but fundamentally, a skilled game designer does not try to change the gamer so that they play the game the "proper" way (JC already proved that this doesn't work), rather a good game designer understands human nature and designs the game so that it has optimal risk / task / reward systems and utilizes the strengths of human nature in the design. These two approaches are fundamentally different. We have been experiencing the former approach through alpha and beta where the gamers were forced into certain play styles to accommodate JC's "vision". Nothing wrong with the vision, everything wrong with what the vision actually means and the way to get there. 

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The need for meaning in Dual Universe metaverse, which attains its existential significance in newbie and the stages of avatar/profile development that follow it, is strongly related to developing self-identity, searching for one’s place in the metaverse, and taking up specific social roles. Achieving meaning in DU is doubtless related to performing goal-oriented activities. That was the main problem of DU and still is, not only bad management (btw I think JC managed very well, and he created a first real metaverse).

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7 hours ago, rothbardian said:

Do you know why companies like Blizzard Entertainment or Xbox Game Studios spend more money to community managers, psychologists and behavioral psychology research projects than coders?

(Hint: Since its release in 2011, ugly Minecraft has recorded worldwide sales of over 200 million units)

(Hint2: Microsoft purchased Minecraft and developer Mojang from Notch for $2.5 billion in 2014. They spent almost two times more on behavioral psychology research projects than coding for Minecraft)

 

Yes. Because they want to make more money.

 

It's certainly not because they want to create the best games filled with "meaning". Behavior psychology and statistical modeling helps Activision and Microsoft farm their players to squeeze out as much profit as possible. They help extract as much monetization as possible through addiction and gambling.

 

Of course they'll spend a ton on these projects -- theres's ample research that discusses the predatory nature of game monetization and how it exploits addiction and especially targets young people. 

 

It's still the subject of ongoing legal and ethical debates. 

 

Can behavior psychology be used to create rich game experiences? Sure, maybe...but that's not what these big companies care about and that's not how they utilize these assets -- their interest is purely in creating addictive loops and exploiting those loops to maximize profit. 

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Yes these big companies used addiction and gambling weakness of players to maximize profits. My main thesis is about using behavior psychology to manage online communities and prevent early and quick exit of new players either by steep learning curve or lost in meaning to join a metaverse.

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They already use behavioral psychology, in this case it's just called Game Theory. well or fail to.

 

But it doesn't really matter the case of DU as the foundation is broken.

 

Minecraft, at the time MS bough them was a rock solid foundation of epic proportions, but even that can be broken really fast by a bunch of psychologies and marketing employees trying to squeeze the lemon just a weee bit more

 

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