Gaming for Introverts
December 17th, 2007Social gaming, they say, is the New Hawt Thang™ these days. Everyone’s into those newfangled MMOs, after all, so that seems to be the way you need to go as a developer in order to strike gold, isn’t it? Yet, there’s a huge problem here. Even though games with social aspects to them are supposed to be ridiculously popular, I just can’t get into them.
Now, there are many reasons why this might be the case; namely, they usually have too much violence and acquisition-based gameplay, they’re huge time sinks I can’t afford to waste my energy on, etcetera etcetera. But one that really stands out is the fact that they don’t appear to suit my personality. I’m a rather strong introvert, you see, which generally means that dealing with people is exhausting for me, and I often need time alone to “recharge my batteries”, so to speak. Hence, having to spend a big chunk of my leisure time trying to socialise with other people is horribly unappealing, particularly since I have to do a lot of it in the real world as it stands. The situation is even further exacerbated when one has to deal with immature teenagers and the like who type in horribly undecipherable netspeak and act extremely racist and/or sexist under the guise of anonymity, who appear to show up even more in online games than they do in real life. Ugh.
Also, as an introvert, when I do socialise, I prefer for it to be with as few people at a time as possible. This is probably why I like to play narrative-heavy games with an auteur-type feeling to them; it feels like I’m having a one-on-one conversation with the author. Though you do often get a sizeable cast of characters to interact with, there’s a certain unity to them, as they all serve a purpose to a greater story and theme. When all you have is the emergent “storytelling” that comes out of a gaggle of people acting out their own whims and desires, you lose that unity. You wind up with a huge set of personalities, none of which you get to know very deeply, rather than the much more intimate vision of a single individual.
Unfortunately for people such as myself, introverts appear to be a minority, [1] and there is far more money to be made in catering to the extravert majority instead. That’s quite all right, however, because most people of minority groups are used to looking outside the mainstream to find niches that appeal to them. Good thing the indie gaming scene is supposedly flourishing, right? Right? *ominous echoing ensues*
- In Western society, at the very least. ↩
December 17th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Hmmm. This was a good post from an interesting (and underrepresented!) perspective. But then again, if introversion were popular, introverts probably wouldn’t like it!
I didn’t write this poem relating to this subject, but for some reason it made me remember it, so I thought I’d debut it here, as it seemed to fit.
Restart?
On a sunny Sunday afternoon
computer games had eaten
away most of the day
and after a particularly gruesome
Demise
the third or forth one
at the hands of the same grisly enemy
our hero turned away from the keyboard
rested his chin in a propped up palm
and stared out the window
Feeling as if he was dying another death
Altogether.
December 17th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Lollerblades! You’re absolutely right. We’re a stubborn bunch, aren’t we?
And I feel flattered that my blog gets to debut a poem. I think that just about makes my evening.
December 18th, 2007 at 1:57 am
I tend more towards introversion than extroversion, but I’ve had some really cool social gaming experiences and I think there is a lot of potential in that area, even for introverts. I think it’s pretty obvious that most “social games” are really just dyed-of-the-wool Diku clones, and you really should try a MMO/NQMMO game that you actually find interesting.
Way back in the day I had some interesting experiences on a few MUCKs/MUSHes where players would roleplay in small groups and try as hard as possible to stay in character. Just a weird sort of improv game in text in form, I guess. When I had a crazy, active crew on Puzzle Pirates there were some fun times. I’ve had some decent moments in plain vanilla IRC channels and I even played grindtastic City of Heroes for as long as did primarily for the social aspects, as it certainly wasn’t for the actual game play.
Arguably the best “social game for introverts” right now is Uru (Myst Online) on GameTap, and its the only MMO I’m paying for right now (admittedly indirectly through GameTap). Have you spent much time with Uru? Uru takes the lonely introverted puzzle solving of the Myst series and places it within a vast shared world. There’s a lot of great opportunities for interesting socialization in small groups. It’s also interesting how well the Adventure-style puzzles play when you are interacting with them in small groups. I’ve played adventure games “pair-style” with someone else many times, but it’s interesting, and sometimes even more fun, when you both have avatars in the same room manipulating some of the same objects trying to come up with an idea of how things work. There’s no grind, its all about exploration and puzzle solving with the social interaction as glue and the door to “user generated content” and deep discussions on the every facets of a fake civilization.
Does that sound like too much of a sales pitch? I’m sure you see its mostly just my love of Adventure Games showing through. Hey, if you haven’t yet played Uru I’d be happy to give you a personal introduction and show you around (which can be very helpful if you are new), just give me an email and I’d be happy to set up a time/place to “meet” in the Cavern. Or, if you already have played, maybe we should swap KI numbers.
December 18th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
I’m very introverted as well, and didn’t know this about you. I like blogging and commenting on blogs because I’m interacting with one person-or post-at a time, and I can take all the time I want in between to think about what I want to say. I do have real life friends, but, as you say, prefer small groups. I went to a holiday party yesterday, and while all the people were lovely, it took me most of the day to recover from all the noise, loud talk, and exchanging “pleasantries” with total strangers. I sound a bit humbuggie, here, but I find all that energy exhausting. I love adventure games, but I like to play them by myself, alone in my room, and solve all the puzzles, and follow the story for myself. Although, as you say, there can often be a large cast of characters in a game, I don’t generally find myself dealing with more than one or two at a time.
I’ll be interested to know if you take up Max’s invitation to visit Uru. With all due respect to him…well, I just don’t know. I played the Myst series, but, again, “All By Myself….” {sings, leaves the room, thankfully ends the comment}
December 18th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Max: Thanks, I was hoping for a counterexample. I have more than one other introverted friend who’s enjoyed an MMO or two as well. Still, if I were to ever really get into an MMO, it would probably be in spite of its social aspects, rather than because of them. Either that, or because I’d find some way to get quality socialising time with one close friend or two. (Also, thanks for the Uru invitation. I think I still have my Gametap account lying around somewhere, so I’ll let you know if I feel inspired to play.)
MusEditions: I totally know what you mean by huge parties. I spent last weekend singing in a gospel choir with about a hundred people, and though they, too, were wonderful, I was completely and utterly exhausted by the end… and my voice was perfectly fine.