Raph Koster (SOE Creative Dir.) caught with (power)points down.

It seems SOE Creative Director gave a lecture to MMORPG professionals about managing large gaming communities. Unfortunately, I don't think he forsaw his customers getting ahold of the curriculum. The presentation even advises against the content being leaked. There's good reason for that advisory it seems. The content makes it clear what a cynical attutude Koster actually has toward his players and the customer base. From here on what's in quotes is from Koster's powerpoint slides themselves.

http://www.legendmud.org/raph/gaming/gdc_2002_community_files/frame.htm

"...•Don’t share this info with your users ..."

It says.... ooooops. Too late. One thing made abundantly clear here is Koster is never going to be challenged on being burdened by an overabundance of moral righteousness...

"...Forming the community, part I
•Steal it (Yes, we’re serious) ..."

"...Forming the community, part II
•Steal early..."

"Early community team
•A key evangelist: someone passionate about the “heart” of the game
–Best if comes from one of co-opted communities"

"...Community standards: “soft”
•Don’t tolerate “broken windows” •
•Shake your head sadly and tut-tut people who break etiquette
–A little public punishment goes a long way
–Helps co-opt people onto your side, they will enforce for you –
•Call out role models •
•Celebrate how cool your community is

"Community standards: “hard”
•Put them in writing right at the start –Leave outs for unforeseen cases (“must follow the spirit of the rules…”) –
•Take firm action when necessary –Clear TOS –Clear warnings –Clear punishment –
•The existence of locked threads helps reinforce that action WILL be taken

Reinforcing community tone

•You have great power
–Whoever you answer gets reinforced; your attention is status
–Whoever you ignore gets marginalized –

•Try to seem human
–Corporate/marketdroid speak turns people off
–Use personal touches and humor –

•Admit mistakes
–You have to seem human first, of course
–Buys you goodwill when you really screw up –Be HONEST

More tactics
•Changing the subject
–Don’t answer controversies, you feed them
–New info can derail a distasteful topic –
•Act aggrieved –Only works if you have built trust •
•Closing the topic
–Will alienate some, but will become community standard
–You need to have given enough effort to addressing issues

Troublemakers, type I:
verbal
•Can they become ombudsmen?
–Do they have a sub-community that sees them as a leader?
–Do they have their own forums? –
•Can they be ostracized?
–Must be seen to make public effort to communicate
–You’ll need to put on a show of sorrow when you fail
–Make comments to 3rd party about your sorrow too –
•Do you have excuses for banning?
–Language is the most common

Troublemakers, type II:
hackers
•Most are prideful
–Use admiration/attention as a technique to get their tools
–Run incognito if you can get into bug boards/etc •
•Many will offer to help
–Every game that has tried got burned
–They will lie and hold back info •
•Some are improving the game
–Cure yourself of NIH and use their ideas, or even hire them to write those tools

Community scaling
•Rule of 150
–Shows up in psych, military, religion, sociology, anthropology
–Reflect it in your game systems –
•Provide subcommunity identity
–Wannabe game designers
–Chatters
–Fiction mavens
–Later: specific game system mavens
–Clans/guilds/etc: give public bragging space

Leveraging player-generated content
•Major legal issues here
–Law is NOT settled at all
–Make sure you are covered under derivative works –
•Use it as much as you can anyway
–Realize your brand WILL be diluted
–(Or pick a brand where that doesn’t matter) –
•Showcase via website and newsletters

Understanding biases
•Source is self-interested
–Will usually argue for improvements to their role
–Diehard player of the role –
•Source has particular expertise in subject
–Will often argue for overly hardcore mechanics –
•Source gave up on role
–Extremely valuable input
–May just suck at it though

Feedback loops
•Volunteers are tricky legal territory
–Get legal advice, there’s still ways to do it –
•Make volunteer-like activities rewarded
–Weave into nature of game (advancement for helping!)
–Spotlight on website –
•Give special access
–They can brag about it
–You’ll likely get good info
------------------------------------------------

Hmmm... well that was informative. Koster basically is only interested in one thing from the people who play his games. That is what Raph can get from them. Steal the customers from other games, but make fake compliments about their other games as you do it. Ostracize those who disagree and only make a public show of trying to communicate with them, including a fake show of sorrow. Get rid of people you don't like quickly, but come up with fake excuses when you ban them to get even with them, like bad language. Use player-developed content liberally, then steal it from them as you have yourself covered legally when you steal it under derivitive works law. Volunteers are great sources of free work as long as you have the legal aspects covered (I loved the "they can brag about it" line).

Now we know what the E in SOE stands for. ENRON. I haven't heard this cynical of a business model since the Congressional Enron hearings. I suppose Raph will act aggrieved because this presentation has seen the light of day in the player base. I wonder if I will be offered to be an ombusman or ostracised as a result? At least this takes most of the guesswork out of dealing with SOE in the future. Simply remember you are only good to them for as much as they can use you.

I'll be cancelling my accounts with them tomorrow, too. I had been waiting until the end of the billing month to watch the train wreck on the SWG boards, and possibly pull a miracle out of an orifice to save SWG, but now I know they simply don't care enough about the people or licenses they are working with to expend the energy necessary to make the save.