Jerks, brats, and griefers can be curbed with good design
by Chris Chester 
Apr 3rd 2008 at 2:30PM
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Business models, Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion, Academic
According to Bill Fulton, some of the most over-looked aspects of online game development today are design mechanisms to discourage players from acting like jerks. Rather than merely acquiescing to the reality that in any large game communities, there are just going to be a given number of dickwads, Fulton suggests that this accepted reality is nothing more than the result of faulty design. Developers can figure out ways to discourage or circumvent this kind of behavior, Fulton says, if they just put some thought into it.Why does this even matter? According to Fulton, when immaturity and asshattery is allowed to rein supreme, it discourages large swaths of a potential player base from continuing to play, or even from signing up in the first place. Certain demographics, like women or older gamers who get enough childish antics from their kids, are especially resistant to this kind of behavior. If you look at a game like World of Warcraft, which is so eminently successful in these demographics, they've implemented a number of elements (like profanity filters, graveyard rez's, and reactive city guards) to keep the idiots at bay. When you're trying to emulate WoW's success, it's an feature set you'd be remiss not to include.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Lemmo said on 5:54PM 4-03-2008
World of Warcraft is successful at keeping the idiots at bay?
I have never heard of WoW proclaimed as a leader in squelching internet asshats. Sure it has a ton of players, but the number one argument against WoW (and MMOs in general) I hear from my non-MMO gamer friends is that the servers are full of lowest-common-denominator of the gaming demographic (well, MMOs and XBox Live).
WoW allows for a high level character to walk into a newbie zone and slaughter new characters, and this hazing is considered part of the culture of the game. I think games that don't allow 'ganking' at all have a leg up over this particular immaturity.
I don't mean to imply that killing other players is necessarily asshattery, I'm a big fan of PvP in games like Planetside. I think the point he's getting at is that poor game design leaves avenues open for griefing. And griefers are gamers who specifically look for methods to bend the rules in their favor, even if it's at the loss of someone else's fun. So giving them fewer opportunities usually leaves them to declare a game 'dumb' and move on.
Sadly, griefers and jerks are a marketable demographic. If WoW nerfed the PvP, you'd get rid of the jerks alright... and lose a lot of money doing it.
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makeafool said on 9:53PM 4-08-2008
PVP or normal server. You get to make a choice.
Lemmo said on 6:03PM 4-03-2008
To put my point more bluntly, if one thinks that WoW has solved the internet jerk problem by putting on bandaid fixes like graveyard rezing or a more active NPC guards, you can't see the forest for the trees and realize that there are games out there that don't have player ganking or griefing issues in the first place.
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Thrush said on 9:34AM 4-04-2008
@#1
"WoW allows for a high level character to walk into a newbie zone and slaughter new characters"
Even on a PVP server you are not flagged for PVP until you reach a contested zone. You can level to about 20 before you are forced to face players of the opposite faction. And if that doesnt suit you play on a PVE server and you never have to face ganking as long as you dont flag yourself.
No matter what rules are put into place people will always find ways to be jerks. Its human nature. Even in the real world for example, there are laws against hitting people, harassing them etc, but it doesnt stop the jerks in the world from cutting you in line or taking up two parking spaces.
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