The Aberration Bandwagon
“My passion for online games comes from history,” says producer Starr Long… “The first games ever were dice games. They were social experiences. They were mechanics that gave us structure for social interaction. It was an aberration when they became about solo play. Cooperative play goes back to what makes games strong.“That’s a feature Garriott extols. In a climate where video games are blamed for everything from youth violence to obesity, he sees MMOs as a net gain for society.
“Solo-player games throughout the rest of history tend to provoke an anti-social behavior that drives people to hide in their rooms in the dark,” Garriott says. “That can be seen as a negative social impact; MMOs are bringing people with like interests together. So all good MMOs are having a good social impact.”
Hmm, I do think that Richard’s remark is a bit over the top. I would cite games that have made people stop and think and even think socially. Like say, the current BioShock, or Civilization, or maybe something like, oh, Ultima IV.
Edit: I should clarify that this is, of course, a reference to my prior comments that used the same wording.
15 Responses to “The Aberration Bandwagon”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
I tended to play games like Civ and Ultima socially. Sure, there were days where the single-player content was tackled alone… but how much more time was spent discussing strategy or lore with friends who were also playing the game?
Back in jr high, a friend and I sat down with a pair of computers – one running Ultima 6 and one running a text editor – and recorded every conversation path, every bit of plot text in the game. We were fascinated with exploring every nook and cranny of the game. It didn’t matter which of us was “playing”. We took turns, we both played the game.
As recently as a few months ago, my wife and I beat FFX2 together, just like we did with FFX.
I have had numerous similar experiences with the other Final Fantasy games, Zelda, Metroid, Suikoden, Mario Brothers, etc… all apparently anti-socially aberrant single player franchises 😉
It’s extremely disappointing to hear Richard Garriott say something like that. First off, he’s apparently admitting that he created a generation of maladjusted, social misfits with his previous games.
But even single-player games are social, even more so today thanks to the Intarweb; they just take the socializing out of the game. Every gaming message board is full of people sharing their stories and strategies from Bioshock, for example.
Single-player games are as antisocial as television. Or books, for that matter. If you’re not having a social experience around the media you interact with, the problem is probably not with the medium.
I’m not sure that monthly visits count as pioneering the genre… I realize that Garriott created the Ultima IP and cofounded Origin, but shouldn’t that statement read, “Garriott helped his team at Origin pioneer the genre…” I think the distinction is significant and would recognize that pioneers are the people who were immersed in the work. I mean, you don’t award Noble prizes to the financiers…
There’s a lot of talk about the sad state of journalism in games, but I think that quality is simply inherited.
Funny, I seem to find scores of anti-social miscreants in online games whereas in single-player games I usually only find one.
Er – wait a minute …
You should’ve been at PAX, at which Wil Wheaton was ranting on stage about how “Gee whiz, 30,000 gamers in one place? Do we LOOK antisocial?” It was awesome.
Speaking of former actors, I found Brock Pierce, the IGE guy who I remember most from First Kid, on LinkedIn. Wil Wheaton’s not on LinkedIn though, which is strange because it seems that most people involved with video games are on there. That said, Shane McDermott, the guy from Airborne has been selling real estate in Texas since 2005. The problem with me is that I’m like my dad—I have an amazing memory capacity for useless trivia…
I dunno, the glowing CRT contrasted against a dark background with your shadow outlined against the opposing wall, fans whirring and fingers flying… It’s almost poetic, the single player madness. I prefer an identical atmosphere for mmos of course, too much light glares on the monitor and burns my skin.
I wonder if he cited Raph at all when he used the word “Aberration”. He took it way too far though, games can’t make you anti-social. Only (listening to bad music, playing pool, and skateboarding) can do that. (sarcasm, in case I am misconstrued)
Markimedes said, He took it way too far though, games can’t make you anti-social.
Agree. A normal gamer will go do their solo-playing, and then they’ll call up all their friends and talk for hours about how awesome it was. An antisocial gamer will do their solo-play, and then go read a book, alone, and then they’ll go see a movie, alone, and then they’ll probably go and eat dinner, silently.
Being antisocial has nothing to do with what your activities. It’s one part personality trait and two parts upbringing.
We actually developing Civ4 first as a multi-player game, for technical reasons (it’s very difficult to re-engineer a single-player game into a multi-player one) and design questions (what’s the trick to making Civ MP fun? The answer turned out to be team-play…)
I’ve always found it interesting that most of the people playing Civ single-player don’t actually want the AI to act like a real human – most MPs games are either bloodbaths or comp stomps – so that he or she can play a larger role in “crafting” all of world history, even though they are in charge of just one Civ. (It’s good to let the player pull some strings to control AI decisions.)
I think it’s silly to talk in such absolutes. Solo doesn’t mean anti-social. I think it’s more like “social on demand.” Giving people choices on when they want to group or solo (providing viable incentives for each) can strike a viable balance.
I can’t speak for everyone else who spends a lot of single-player games, but I rather *like* being anti-social. People are obnoxious and annoying and I generally don’t like being around them. To say that lack of social contact is bad is a value judgement. Perhaps I place different values on some of these things. Evolution has made humans into social animals, but that doesn’t mean that those of us who aren’t much interested in our fellow humans, are somehow bad. =)
I think it’s silly to talk in such absolutes.
True, but how else do you sound wise and prophetic? 😛 Can’t be wishy-washy. You have to say stuff like, “Mission Accomplished” while staging a photo-op.
Steve said: “But even single-player games are social, even more so today thanks to the Intarweb; they just take the socializing out of the game. Every gaming message board is full of people sharing their stories and strategies from Bioshock, for example.”
Yep, exactly what is meant by my favourite Web 2.0 definition: “the moment when we stopped using computers and started using the Internet”
[…] The Aberration Bandwagon […]