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Edited on Sun Nov-21-10 04:56 AM by RandomThoughts
Much learning in those concepts, where a historical writer has to write within rules of a system the story is set in, a SciFi writer can experiment with different rules for society or systems, and from that it creates much out of the box thinking on societal interactions and systems.
It was the foundation novel concept that led me to look at MMOs for concepts of societal interaction.
Although I also have seen it the other way, where makers of MMOs use the MMO to change how society thinks and what they do, so it is a give and take situation, where games people play also changes how they see society, as you can see society based on the structure of games.
There are some people that modify a game to maintain a cultural desire. Eve for instance pushes Capitalism hard. The last Star Trek MMO tried to change the concepts of StarTrek from better thoughts on society to war and conflict, mars was all over that game.
There was also a great exploration of cake and having to actually earn something in the Star Trek Game. People like to level fast, so the game made it easy to level, from that they gave everyone the cake they wanted without having to earn it, and people leveraged the perceived fun from other games they had played, the fun of having achieved something, into a game where it was not difficult to achieve. The game itself did not have a difficult to achieve objective of max leveled, but had the loaded macro, from other games, of that concept to make people think they were achieving it. Very interesting and how one group can take some concept built by something else and earn from it by burning it up, since once they got the battery charge from that concept, but without having any earning in it, they drained that macro in the players, the players realized they had not earned it in that game, and they thought on that concept. Really deep stuff.
After a week or so a few players had leveled, they then announced the trained concept they learned from years of work in other games that max level was an achievement, and that reward of effort in other games as having achieved something they felt for a little while. And since 'max level' meant things in other games, they used that macro for peer reward, even though it was not earned in that game. When it was seen not earned, the macro had to be thought on, and the players wondered why it was not fun for them. Those that achieved what they were told by something else was a goal, that was about some other situation, realized they really didn't achieve anything, since they did not have the experience and the memories of the action needed to reach that goal. Really interesting stuff.
The entire 'reward' system in society and what people think of as better or purpose can be distilled by many of the goals MMOs set for people, or are set by peer ideas of accomplishment. Also why medals of respect matter in most systems, and why many people honor some groups, to further the concepts those groups followed.
The entire concept of social control mechanism can also be seen in MMOs if you replace the 'rule setters' of a game with those that set cultural norms, and replace game announcements with media or propaganda. Then outside of that you can see the formation of community, the real draw to games and same with society, a sense of belonging and being part of something. Also ideas of justice and fairness can be seen to be better for society, as so many fight for those concept, and negative effects on those that do not, if exposed for it, which shows why so many have secrecy.
In Eve 'community' was replaced by Gang thought, the money first pushed goal by the game created that effect, and that fits its motif, where clans and groups formed till they were powerful, got arrogant, and then many left or went after them. Same thing in many teachings, and some of the flaws America has had in the past.
BioShock games have a heavy influence of thought and consequence in them from preliminary observation of development. Look forward to seeing their latest game.
And you can also learn alot about unbalanced societies and there end by what happens when a game is around for awhile and some factions get uber status, and it makes it to difficult for entry players, and how many game manufactures handle that. The difference is when there is no other force but the players, hence why unbalanced societies also want to suppress the supernatural, since it tries to balance society, from most teachings.
Side note, no cake, is not a comment on not having social safety net, many people work really hard on purposes besides money, like compassion with family, or other activities, and holding back money from them when they are in a tougher situation by money measures, to help them 'earn' something, is seeing the world through money first eyes.
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