The Game: It’s About the Community, Isn’t It?
Friday, December 19th, 2008The popular gaming community site, GamerDNA, decided to try something unique recently. On Dec. 15, they launched their Game Discovery Engine, detailed in this blog. The idea is pretty simple: allow community members to categorize their favorite titles based upon a select group of traits so others can see what people liked about those titles. The traits system focuses on five distinct categorizations. These are the setting, the general tone, who you play as, who you’re playing against, and how the game is played. The compiled data can then be used by GamerDNA members to help them decide if a particular title suits their play style and expectations before they shell out their cash.
The idea is wonderful, and can be used by a prospective game consumer to decide if a title is worth their money. The thing I found most interesting about the idea, though, is what the information tells us about the communities in those games, especially in community-oriented games like MMOs. Sanya Weathers wrote a blog on GamerDNA about that very subject, so I know I’m not the only one who found this interesting. In the blog, she analyzed some preliminary trait data of four popular and yet very different MMO titles: WOW, WAR, LOTRO and EVE. What she found told her much about the specific communities populating these popular MMOs.
Having played three of these four titles, the thing I found most striking about the results of her analysis was the difference in how each community viewed the game they played. For EVE-Online, my favorite by far, EVE community members were almost unanimous in how they categorized the game. For setting, over 90% just said “space.” For who the game was played against, they unanimously stated “other players.” For the general tone, it was almost an even split between “competitive” and “immersive.” For how it’s played, “MMO” didn’t even make the cut. The largest section of people said simply “complexity.”
Contrasting this with World of Warcraft, we see a stark difference in the way the community views their game. WOW players just can’t seem to agree on what they’re playing, it would seem. When categorizing the game, WOW players chose eight different categories as opposed to the EVE community’s two. When citing who the main opponent was, WOW players pointed in 12 different directions. Notable opponents in WOW included the opposing faction, NPCs, the “all powerful force,” and even “anyone.” Going further, WOW players gave 14 different general tone answers, of course including the very descriptive “addicting” tone category.
What can we gather from these differences? It would seem the reason World of Warcraft has such a large following is because the game is actually very different things to different people, giving it more of a broad appeal than many of its competitors. EVE-Online, on the other hand, is designed with a very specific audience in mind, namely the hardcore competitive cerebral gamer.
I have to give kudos to GamerDNA for this wonderful idea. A lot can be learned about gaming communities from just a few simple questions, and it seems they’ve struck upon a few of the more important ones. I think I finally understand why I play WAR and EVE-Online and shy away from games like WOW and LOTRO.
That being said, I expect to see more of you competitive griefing types in EVE-Online. They’ve got a 14-day free trial, so you’ve got no excuse not to try it. Come on in. I need more people to blow up. Pew! Pew!
