Chris Crawford on Game Design

Massively Multiplayer Monsters

One of the most interesting ideas to emerge from bringing the computer to games was the massively multiplayer game, in which hundreds or thousands of people play together via the Internet. The field is still young, but most of the basic parameters have now been set.

These games are handicapped by what is to me a killer problem: No player can truly play. The games are necessarily egalitarian—we can't have a single player dominating the game or making all the important decisions. Beginners have just as much right to have fun as the old pros—their money is just as green. Accordingly, the old pros must make some concessions to the beginners; they simply can't mow down the beginners and grab their goods, even though ...