As far as I can tell, There had people in it, enjoying it, but the mix of people paying for stuff -- that wasn't enough to sustain it. There had a devoted following and plenty of Uru folks in it, some of who built things in the world. I enjoyed There. Harvey doesn't exactly say it -- but it seems to me that he is saying that he expected that people would pay more, for stuff in There, also to build parts of it. This is an issue with F2P (free to play) models, though I think there was a small one time charge to get into There. You have to figure out how how everyone can have a great time, and how the payment thing works -- how enough people pay for stuff that the business continues. Payment models change too -- in the west, subscription fees (monthly) were the big thing -- now, some games are moving to a F2P model, where some people pay for stuff. Isn't SL having financial issues?
On why people stay, which is a different question from what people pay for -- from what I've read (or maybe just what I observed) -- what seems to work is the mix of socialization and things to do. People get engaged the most when there is something to do. Often it's combat, sometimes it's crafting or minigames. And this stuff to do unlocks other parts of the game and adds to the story. Sometimes the stuff to do is "making things" -- as in how you can make things in SL. Sometimes, it's buying stuff, or getting stuff free. You can spend a long time in SL making your look just so. How much Story -- that varies in importance. As an example, in WoW, I know some people never follow the story and some people are really into it. In upcoming games Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars the Old Republic, there is a concept of different story arcs, a big world story and a personal story. When I say "personal story", I don't just mean what you do in the game -- a personal story where you are treated differently, where NPCs (non player characters) react differently to you, depending on what you do in the game, how you treat them. Events also seem to have a place in most online worlds -- even the combat focused ones -- parties, festivals. And housing -- even in a combat focused game -- people like having a virtual world home in a virtual world!
On the Uru thing -- my take has always been that Uru just didn't have enough to do -- something that would allow for a progressions of sorts, even if you didn't want to do levels and experience points. If you don't want a game revolving around combat, you've got to work at figuring out what people can do. Maybe some future MMO will get that part figured out -- figure out better ways to keep people engaged with no combat.
LC, I think I'm looking for the same sort of virtual world as you, except I'm not that big on puzzle solving.
On socialization -- I like socializing in a world, and I like "real world" socializing too, friends, family, new people. To me it's more of continuum than a radical difference in kind. I do like a virtual world where I can do things by myself -- I like solo play. I find it's more easy for me to get into the story, and more easy for me to learn and do stuff in a virtual world if I'm not socializing. I tend to do more of the game stuff when I'm by myself and the socializing part in a more "social" setting, talking to people, an in game party or event, that sort of thing.
Finally -- if we can just keep Uru afloat -- I'm good. If we use Uru as a backdrop for all sorts of things -- more Uru story, OHB's robots, more "stuff", hopefully more ages -- that works for me.
_________________ mszv, amarez in Uru, other online games, never use mszv anymore, would like to change it Blog - http://www.amarez.com, Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/amareze
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