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Baby-duck syndrome?

QuirhidQuirhid Member UncommonPosts: 6,230

"Baby duck syndrome

In human–computer interaction, baby duck syndrome denotes the tendency for computer users to "imprint" on the first system they learn, then judge other systems by their similarity to that first system. The result is that users generally prefer systems similar to those they learned on and dislike unfamiliar systems. The issue may present itself relatively early in a computer user's experience, and has been observed to impede education of students in new software systems."

-Wikipedia

Do you think this is relevant to MMORPGs? Do you think it affects the sales of MMORPGs which go "off the beaten path" such as using no trinity?

Oh, and if this peaked your interest: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-cranky50/index.html

I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky

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Comments

  • KarteliKarteli Member CommonPosts: 2,646

    Some advancements are just garbage compared to their predecessors.

     

    In your OS example, I found DOS far superior to Windows 3.1, which was ackward, very slow, and clunky.  OS changed some in 95, and by Windows 98, a pretty good OS was there that was responsive, clean, and organized.  So I actually embraced the transition from DOS to versions of current Windows that some use today.

     

    Removing the trinity just makes for an awkward gameplay, while taking away a persons individual usefullness to a group.  If someone isn't important, then there is no need to participate in group content, which lends more to the casuals or socially challenged, who would rather play their single player MMORPG and have minimal direct communication.

     

    It could improve somehow, I just haven't seen a very good model of no-trinity yet.

    Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
    Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.

  • BrucyBonusBrucyBonus Member Posts: 220
    Originally posted by Quirhid

    "Baby duck syndrome

    In human–computer interaction, baby duck syndrome denotes the tendency for computer users to "imprint" on the first system they learn, then judge other systems by their similarity to that first system. The result is that users generally prefer systems similar to those they learned on and dislike unfamiliar systems. The issue may present itself relatively early in a computer user's experience, and has been observed to impede education of students in new software systems."

    -Wikipedia

    Do you think this is relevant to MMORPGs? Do you think it affects the sales of MMORPGs which go "off the beaten path" such as using no trinity?

    Oh, and if this peaked your interest: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-cranky50/index.html

    People all think in a similar vein and find similar solutions to the same problem.  It is why pyramids were built quite separately on three continents; it is simply the easiest way to build a large structure without modern technology, and does not in any way indicate that aliens have landed.  

    Likewise with OS and MMO's, people find the simplest solution to a problem and that usually works.  Why change things that work well? 

  • Rthuth434Rthuth434 Member Posts: 346
    Originally posted by Karteli

    Some advancements are just garbage compared to their predecessors.

     

    In your OS example, I found DOS far superior to Windows 3.1, which was ackward, very slow, and clunky.  OS changed some in 95, and by Windows 98, a pretty good OS was there that was responsive, clean, and organized.  So I actually embraced the transition from DOS to versions of current Windows that some use today.

     

    Removing the trinity just makes for an awkward gameplay, while taking away a persons individual usefullness to a group.  If someone isn't important, then there is no need to participate in group content, which lends more to the casuals or socially challenged, who would rather play their single player MMORPG and have minimal direct communication.

     

    so answer yes, and your momma duck was WoW, because the trinity was not in most MMORPG's until then. even EQ had more than 3 necessary roles in combat. most others had character variation and no set roles at all.

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347

    My first game console was an Atari 7800.  I remember it, but not that fondly.  The NES that I got later was a lot better.  The best console game I played was Tecmo Super Bowl, which wouldn't come until several years later.

    My first online game was Chain of Command.  It had a lot of potential, but never came close to reaching it.  The game was a buggy mess, including many bugs that could be exploited to cheat.  Some could even be triggered accidentally by people who had no intention of cheating.  In a purely PVP game, that's very bad.

    My first MMORPG was Runescape, which is still the worst MMORPG I've played.  I'm sure that a lot of worse games have been created, but I learned how to pick them out from reading the web page and then not play them.  The best MMORPG that I played was Guild Wars (1, not 2), which wouldn't come until a few years later.

    I think that a lot of people do have baby-duck syndrome and remember their first game as being the best or something like that.  I think that's even a substantial part of why WoW is so popular:  it managed to be the first MMORPG for an awful lot of people.  But it doesn't seem to have that effect on me.

    To me, for a game to go off the beaten path is a good thing, not a bad thing.  Non-trinity combat is a good start, but that's not very far off the beaten path.  A Tale in the Desert or Uncharted Waters Online go much further off the beaten path by making games not primarily about combat at all.

  • GravargGravarg Member UncommonPosts: 3,424

    I started playing games on my Atari 2600, so maybe I'm not a stickler for super graphics like younger players are, but overall I tend to look at one thing when it comes to gaming.  Is it fun?  If I'm having fun, then it's a good game for me.  It could be the buggiest thing since A Bug's Life, but like Skyrim, if I'm having fun, who cares? 

     

    Edit: Flying Horsies WEEEEEEE!

  • QuirhidQuirhid Member UncommonPosts: 6,230
    Originally posted by Karteli

    Removing the trinity just makes for an awkward gameplay, while taking away a persons individual usefullness to a group.  If someone isn't important, then there is no need to participate in group content, which lends more to the casuals or socially challenged, who would rather play their single player MMORPG and have minimal direct communication.

    What if I said that none of that was true? -That it is simply just another form of gameplay, with different party roles, -dynamics and encounter design?

     

    I know I played atleast half a dozen MMORPGs before finding something which I even remotely enjoyed. And I have never liked the trinity from the first minute I experienced it.

    I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky

  • QuirhidQuirhid Member UncommonPosts: 6,230
    Originally posted by Quizzical

    To me, for a game to go off the beaten path is a good thing, not a bad thing.  Non-trinity combat is a good start, but that's not very far off the beaten path.  A Tale in the Desert or Uncharted Waters Online go much further off the beaten path by making games not primarily about combat at all.

    Oh I'm definitely with you on that one.

    I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky

  • KarteliKarteli Member CommonPosts: 2,646
    Originally posted by Quirhid
    Originally posted by Karteli

    Removing the trinity just makes for an awkward gameplay, while taking away a persons individual usefullness to a group.  If someone isn't important, then there is no need to participate in group content, which lends more to the casuals or socially challenged, who would rather play their single player MMORPG and have minimal direct communication.

    What if I said that none of that was true? -That it is simply just another form of gameplay, with different party roles, -dynamics and encounter design?

     

    I know I played atleast half a dozen MMORPGs before finding something which I even remotely enjoyed. And I have never liked the trinity from the first minute I experienced it.

    Change isn't necessarily a bad thing, but changing just for the sake of changing won't always yield positive results.

     

    Gameplay does change with no trinity, but the lack of distinct roles also diminishes the value of the term RPG for me.  I wouldn't be against a new acronym for no-trinity style games though, as they can be fun for action / console style gaming.

     

    The evolution of gaming includes many giant leaps of gameplay, along with the value someone might get.  It's more personal taste I think, rather than a resistence to change.  Baby Duck Syndrome does exist, but it's not the end-all term to describe why someone doesn't like a lack of trinity.

    Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
    Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.

  • AxehiltAxehilt Member RarePosts: 10,504

    Think it's pretty well-known around here by now that I tried and disliked many early MMORPGs (though I missed a couple of the main ones.)

    While I found usually interesting things to like with each game (Asheron Call's progression system, Anarchy Online's theme), overall they were bad games compared with the non-MMORPGs at the time.

    Also I don't much attachment to Frogger (first game played), and have only as much attachment to other things as they deserved for being some of the earlier entries into their respective spaces: C64 (first system), Ultima 3 (first RPG), Wolf3D (first (?) FPS), Warcraft 1 (early RTS), and Civilization (early-ish TBS).  I don't overly praise any of those games, but give them credit for forging paths to the much better games that followed in their wake.  Sorta like how I give credit to EQ1/UO for getting MMORPGs going, even though I'm not sure I would've liked them much better than the early MMORPGs I did try.

    "What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver

  • LucjanLucjan Member UncommonPosts: 4
    I don't believe this syndrome really applies to MMORPGs, but I believe there is something that can be easily mistaken for it. 
    I don't think people have a problem with a game being different, following a different set of rules or even putting their entire belief system up-side-down. What I think is the problem that gamers want to have a familiar entry into a game so they don't have to learn the basics from scratch. After that, the game could introduce them to the craziest systems and mechanics, as long as they make sense and are meaningful.
     
     
    You could have a game that has no group enforcement, no holy trinity, do away with character levels etc. and people will like it once they get to know it. However, take that same game and change the game entry by having movement and interactions done is some completely different and unfamiliar manner and most people will hate it. They won't get to know the actual game, the things that are great about it, because they get stuck right at the start and will transfer their dislike onto the entire game.
     

    I believe it has just more to do with gamers that simply got tired of learning the basics over and over again a couple of years ago.

     

    Shameless plug alert!

    No point & click, no holy trinity, no classes, no character levels in a MMORPG: Grimlands. 

     

  • Cephus404Cephus404 Member CommonPosts: 3,675

    I think you're onto something, although maybe not what you think.  There  are a lot of people who are so utterly imprinted on the concept of MMOs that they are unable to play anything else and they are unable to stop playing MMOs even though they claim to hate every single MMO out there.  They're simply not capable of walking away and finding something else to do, their entire gaming lives revolve around this one genre of games and then, around a subset of games that really don't even exist today.

    That's not a healthy behavior.

    Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
    Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
    Now Playing: None
    Hope: None

  • EverwestEverwest Member Posts: 75

    Look no further than peripherals as an example of this phenomenon.  When the Wiimote was introduced, people dismissed it as a gimmick rather than an advance in technology.  Yet at the same time, PC gamers are happy to play on their keyboard and mouse, even though the keyboard is based on the technology that brought us the typewriter.  It's a horrid peripheral for gaming, but people who grew up with it are often averse to learning anything else, just like QWERTY is a horrid keyboard layout, but people still use it because of the ubiquity and familiarity.  I've even talked to some PC gamers who argue that the point and click aiming mechanics of the mouse are just like aiming with console peripherals, which is like arguing that the aiming you do with your hand to pick up a gun is the same as aiming a gun at a target. 

    Really, this is a pretty well known occurrence in user experience design--websites, for example, tend to use the same format because they know that if you have to think for even 1 second about where to find something, you might just leave instead.

  • AxehiltAxehilt Member RarePosts: 10,504
    Originally posted by Everwest

    Look no further than peripherals as an example of this phenomenon.  When the Wiimote was introduced, people dismissed it as a gimmick rather than an advance in technology.  Yet at the same time, PC gamers are happy to play on their keyboard and mouse, even though the keyboard is based on the technology that brought us the typewriter.  It's a horrid peripheral for gaming, but people who grew up with it are often averse to learning anything else, just like QWERTY is a horrid keyboard layout, but people still use it because of the ubiquity and familiarity.  I've even talked to some PC gamers who argue that the point and click aiming mechanics of the mouse are just like aiming with console peripherals, which is like arguing that the aiming you do with your hand to pick up a gun is the same as aiming a gun at a target. 

    Really, this is a pretty well known occurrence in user experience design--websites, for example, tend to use the same format because they know that if you have to think for even 1 second about where to find something, you might just leave instead.

    Critcizing a keyboard as sort of a clunky peripheral I could maybe understand, and QWERTY is known to be clunky by design.

    But are you really criticizing Mouse (and Trackball) compared with a Controller for FPS (or other camera-heavy) gaming?  Seriously?  The very nature of games with a 1:1 mapping of motion-to-angle is superior to controllers, which are forced to use a motion-to-rotation-speed mapping.  Point A on my mousing surface is always Angle A.  Point A on my controller is just "turn right fast", and who knows where that'll take me.

    "What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver

  • GruntyGrunty Member EpicPosts: 8,657

    M R Duks 
           
    M R Not 
           
    M R Too 
           
    C M Wangs 
           
    L I B...M R Duks

     

    My first games were text parsers. 

    > I don't understand. Please restate this.

     >.<

    >I don't understand. Please restate this.

    Look 

    >Look at what?

    AGGgGGGGggghhhhhhhh

    >Your torch has burned out. You have been eaten by a Grue.

    "I used to think the worst thing in life was to be all alone.  It's not.  The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone."  Robin Williams
  • BahamutKaiserBahamutKaiser Member UncommonPosts: 314
    I'm sure it applies in some way, what I'd like to know is what systems I've learned that form my own thought, and how to improve them.

    Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes.
    That way, if they get angry, they'll be a mile away... and barefoot.

  • MadimorgaMadimorga Member UncommonPosts: 1,920

    Abso-freakin-lutely.

     

    My first MMO was Anarchy Online.  Ever since I've wandered around every game world with a part of me whining:

     

    What do you mean I can't twink out my character and kill mobs a hundred levels higher than me? 

    What do you mean there are only 80 levels?  Pah!  Ridiculous!

    Fantasy?  So tired of fantasy.

    Where is my apartment and why aren't the mobs dropping decoratives for it?

    What is with this constant questing BS and why does that guy have punctuation over his head?

    Where are my awesome pet classes?  And why can't this stupid pet hold aggro?

    Why can't I turn into a giant two headed dog-thing and go bounding around in first person camera?

    What is with this tiny skill tree bullcrap and why does this game automatically increase my stats without asking?  Why can't I just choose where to put every single individual point in various attributes and skills?

    Why can't I fly around in a personal jet plane or float over it with mystical MP-type powers?  Are the other devs so lazy they can only make things from a ground point of view?   

    Oh, and kiting.  If you ever played an NT you will understand the sheer inferiority of all other types of kiting in all other MMOs.

     

    I miss Anarchy Online.  

     

     

     

    image

    I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.

    ~Albert Einstein

  • NaughtyPNaughtyP Member UncommonPosts: 793

    For the most part I'm not against new things as long as they are easy to pick up and learn, but most importantly they make sense.

    But since someone at Microsoft has found it necessary to turn my desktop computer into some hybrid-computer-tablet-thing with Windows 8 I'm a bit frustrated right now lol.

    Enter a whole new realm of challenge and adventure.

  • EverwestEverwest Member Posts: 75
    Originally posted by Axehilt
    Originally posted by Everwest

    Look no further than peripherals as an example of this phenomenon.  When the Wiimote was introduced, people dismissed it as a gimmick rather than an advance in technology.  Yet at the same time, PC gamers are happy to play on their keyboard and mouse, even though the keyboard is based on the technology that brought us the typewriter.  It's a horrid peripheral for gaming, but people who grew up with it are often averse to learning anything else, just like QWERTY is a horrid keyboard layout, but people still use it because of the ubiquity and familiarity.  I've even talked to some PC gamers who argue that the point and click aiming mechanics of the mouse are just like aiming with console peripherals, which is like arguing that the aiming you do with your hand to pick up a gun is the same as aiming a gun at a target. 

    Really, this is a pretty well known occurrence in user experience design--websites, for example, tend to use the same format because they know that if you have to think for even 1 second about where to find something, you might just leave instead.

    Critcizing a keyboard as sort of a clunky peripheral I could maybe understand, and QWERTY is known to be clunky by design.

    But are you really criticizing Mouse (and Trackball) compared with a Controller for FPS (or other camera-heavy) gaming?  Seriously?  The very nature of games with a 1:1 mapping of motion-to-angle is superior to controllers, which are forced to use a motion-to-rotation-speed mapping.  Point A on my mousing surface is always Angle A.  Point A on my controller is just "turn right fast", and who knows where that'll take me.

    I'm not criticizing the mouse as a peripheral--I think it's actually a good peripheral (though I think touchpads can generally be better, and we'll eventually have the technology of 1:1 motion mapping in 3D).  However, when used as the targeting peripheral in an FPS/3PS, it does not constitute "aiming" the way a controller or WASD alignment of the scope's reticule does.

    Aiming by definition requires some interaction which is not 1:1.  It's the difference between bowling with a ball and going up to the pins and kicking them over.  For me, mouse targeting ruins the effect of action/shooter mechanics.

  • maplestonemaplestone Member UncommonPosts: 3,099

    I disagree with calling it a syndrome.  It's not something one "suffers" from.  It's simply a part of human nature to have your tastes heavily influenced by your early experiences, whether it's art, music, love or games.

     

  • HelleriHelleri Member UncommonPosts: 930

    I don't know about with gaming as I was all over the place with it to begin with...consoles, arcades, old apple computer games, portables...all significantly different. But, i voted yes because I am very much like that with my content creation. I learned to do some pixel art back in paints and was using some older modelers and terrain generators...and animators some time ago. they all had that single console access to tools and right click options relevant to the object in question that used those same consoled tools. usually with more detailed settings and things I could do at top of page.

     

    To this day I use programs like Wings3D and AC3D over Blender, and Gimp over photoshop...And yes I end up using a lot more programs then I should have to but i can't stand being boxed in by viewing windows and information shotgunned by consoles on all sides of me , where i change one thing and every thing around the edge of the screen changes...just could never get used to that kind of interface.

    image

  • JemcrystalJemcrystal Member UncommonPosts: 1,983
    I can't deal with the Vindictus style games that have been released over the last year.  They give me motion sickness.  Might not have been that way if that was what I started out on.  But I want old EQ / FFXI style to become popular again.  No dizzy swinging camera angles in the name of live action.  I want to float nice and steady way up in the sky over the back on my char's head.  If I zoom in it's for a butt shot of MY CHAR.  If I zoom in further I can see your char's face.  Then back out to see our raid from an eagle's view.  Nice and steady, no wild swinging around.


  • MMOExposedMMOExposed Member RarePosts: 7,387
    Originally posted by Quirhid

    "Baby duck syndrome

    In human–computer interaction, baby duck syndrome denotes the tendency for computer users to "imprint" on the first system they learn, then judge other systems by their similarity to that first system. The result is that users generally prefer systems similar to those they learned on and dislike unfamiliar systems. The issue may present itself relatively early in a computer user's experience, and has been observed to impede education of students in new software systems."

    -Wikipedia

    Do you think this is relevant to MMORPGs? Do you think it affects the sales of MMORPGs which go "off the beaten path" such as using no trinity?

    Oh, and if this peaked your interest: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-cranky50/index.html

    I have seen this argument before. But one game disproves this theory. And that's World of Warcraft.

    wasnt my first. Wasn't a lot of people's first MMO. But why did it dent older MMOs so badly if this theory hold true?

    reality of it is, (I feel I keep saying this but is ignored), MMO gamer's mindset changes over time. I am not sure what causes these changes, but it just happens. 

    Good developers understand this and learn to make games around these new mindsets, not the old.

    this is why WoW was so successful. It tried to take older MMO design and apply new logical mindset to the design. And it blew up in success from there.

     

    you see this in other genres as well. Halo and the FPS genre. Before Halo the genre used health pack system. That kind of design limited the "run and gun" gameplay design. Halo came along with AAA quality, but with Health Regen. Now players of FPS genre can run and gun without fear of automatically being set back to lose by the mechanical design of the gameplay.

    it exploded. Other popular FPSs started to copy this design including some of the most popular, being Call of Duty.

    but when FPSs try to return to the old mindset of older FPS, it fails. Clear example is Resistance 3. It wanted to return to small scale multiplayer and no health regen. People didnt like it. Mindset changes. Making games based on older mindset is fail unless you own a large power hold on the media and news outlets (which in ther terms we call this Hype)

    Philosophy of MMO Game Design

  • reb007reb007 Member UncommonPosts: 613

    I only experience baby-duck syndrome with MMOs.  All other software systems I am more than happy to adapt and adjust.

     

    My baby-duck syndrome is from FFXI.  For the uninitiated, in FFXI, you typically grind out the first 10 levels alone.  Once you get to level 10, you go to an area called "Valkurm Dunes" where most players in the level 10-20 range go to level up together.

    There was so much depth to group-based combat in FFXI, I have never experienced anything like it.  I don't know how to describe it.

     

    Anyway, the first time my little brother got me to play WoW, I asked him "When and where do players meet to camp and party?" (like Valkurm Dunes).  Much to my dissappointment, WoW doesn't have anything like that.

     

    Teamwork was a key element to FFXI.  It's a shame that most games can't implement it quite as seamlessly as FFXI.

  • DeivosDeivos Member EpicPosts: 3,692
    Originally posted by MMOExposed

    I have seen this argument before. But one game disproves this theory. And that's World of Warcraft.

    wasnt my first. Wasn't a lot of people's first MMO. But why did it dent older MMOs so badly if this theory hold true?

    reality of it is, (I feel I keep saying this but is ignored), MMO gamer's mindset changes over time. I am not sure what causes these changes, but it just happens. 

    Good developers understand this and learn to make games around these new mindsets, not the old.

    this is why WoW was so successful. It tried to take older MMO design and apply new logical mindset to the design. And it blew up in success from there.

     

    you see this in other genres as well. Halo and the FPS genre. Before Halo the genre used health pack system. That kind of design limited the "run and gun" gameplay design. Halo came along with AAA quality, but with Health Regen. Now players of FPS genre can run and gun without fear of automatically being set back to lose by the mechanical design of the gameplay.

    it exploded. Other popular FPSs started to copy this design including some of the most popular, being Call of Duty.

    but when FPSs try to return to the old mindset of older FPS, it fails. Clear example is Resistance 3. It wanted to return to small scale multiplayer and no health regen. People didnt like it. Mindset changes. Making games based on older mindset is fail unless you own a large power hold on the media and news outlets (which in ther terms we call this Hype)

    Just wanted to note this is false.

     

    First. Statistically due to the disparity in numbers of players just in western gaming from previous games to users in WoW, there had to be a massive amount of new gamers. The eastern number count is as everyone knows exceptionally muddy due to how many subscriptions are not necessarily owned by an individual, but instead a location.

     

    As for Halo. The whole notion is false as the original Halo used a shield system over non-regenerating health. There are other shooters dating back to the SNES using regenerating health mechanics. Shields itself over HP is not a unique notion to gaming as it's been used for a long time for arena shooters like the Unreal Tournament series, regenerating shields being a mechanic of many sci-fi and space combat themed games.

     

    FPS games have gone back and forth constantly over time and it's been mixed results the entire way. The more recent compromise has been to make health regenerate very slowly over time in addition to healing kits or tools such as Firefall.

    The coupling of health mechanics too is not new, as I noted previously the shields system being done over health dating back to SNES and longer. The most recent shooter example I have on hand also being Planetside 2 that coupled shields over a non-regenerating health bar.

     

    So the history of such mechanics in shooters and action games is actually much longer. And the awareness of such mechanics is largely gained by exposure, so if the individual didn't play previous titles, they were never likely to have the proper history or awareness.

    Taking WoW's current userbase going by only the metric of box sales for their latest expansion in the US and Europe (to use the a general number for western gamers) via http://www.vgchartz.com/game/65124/world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria/ we have 527,622 potential users in the US and 564,705 in Europe.

    That's 1,092,327 potential players. Ultima Peaked around 250, 000 players. Everquest is referenced as peaking around 450,000 users.

    Even assuming there is no crossover of gamers that results in a gap of 300,000 players. A number that is likely larger given  there more than likely was overlap.

    Given that is only representative of the present WoW community and not it at it's peak, there is an unavoidable case that WoW was the firs game of it's type for many gamers.

     

    As for my first game (that I can solidly remember playing, not including more general 'fun' activities, sports, etc), it was GURPS.

    I do think I can still see influence that title gave to my perception of personal control and detail that could or should be exerted by a player and game upon one another.

    "The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners." - Thomas B. Macaulay

    "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel J. Boorstin

  • EverwestEverwest Member Posts: 75
    Originally posted by MMOExposed
    Originally posted by Quirhid

    "Baby duck syndrome

    In human–computer interaction, baby duck syndrome denotes the tendency for computer users to "imprint" on the first system they learn, then judge other systems by their similarity to that first system. The result is that users generally prefer systems similar to those they learned on and dislike unfamiliar systems. The issue may present itself relatively early in a computer user's experience, and has been observed to impede education of students in new software systems."

    -Wikipedia

    Do you think this is relevant to MMORPGs? Do you think it affects the sales of MMORPGs which go "off the beaten path" such as using no trinity?

    Oh, and if this peaked your interest: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-cranky50/index.html

    I have seen this argument before. But one game disproves this theory. And that's World of Warcraft.

    wasnt my first. Wasn't a lot of people's first MMO. But why did it dent older MMOs so badly if this theory hold true?

    reality of it is, (I feel I keep saying this but is ignored), MMO gamer's mindset changes over time. I am not sure what causes these changes, but it just happens. 

    Good developers understand this and learn to make games around these new mindsets, not the old.

    this is why WoW was so successful. It tried to take older MMO design and apply new logical mindset to the design. And it blew up in success from there.

     

    you see this in other genres as well. Halo and the FPS genre. Before Halo the genre used health pack system. That kind of design limited the "run and gun" gameplay design. Halo came along with AAA quality, but with Health Regen. Now players of FPS genre can run and gun without fear of automatically being set back to lose by the mechanical design of the gameplay.

    it exploded. Other popular FPSs started to copy this design including some of the most popular, being Call of Duty.

    but when FPSs try to return to the old mindset of older FPS, it fails. Clear example is Resistance 3. It wanted to return to small scale multiplayer and no health regen. People didnt like it. Mindset changes. Making games based on older mindset is fail unless you own a large power hold on the media and news outlets (which in ther terms we call this Hype)

    WoW and Halo's success was due in large part to building an audience of new players, who didn't have those preconceptions.

    Also, a theory explains a general phenomenon.  There will always be exceptions, but they don't disprove the theory. 

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