So I am always surprised that f2p publishers and their ceo's, designers or producers present surprising new discoveries about their players although it has been written decades before.
Let me give you some sources everyone should read completely before even claiming the "news" is yours:
The Daedalus Project
http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/001588.php?page=1
By Dr. Nick Yee the one and only long term research about player behaviour in online games - and plenty of other topics. Must read for everyone working in online games.His research is so important that he now works at Ubisoft doing exactly this: researching player behaviour in online worlds.
Edit: Link to his player behaviour paper: http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/pdf/3-2.pdf
Dr. Nick Yee is one of my mentors of everything I know about online games.
Designing Virtual Worlds by Dr. Richard Bartle
He invented the thing you know? Reading the book has to be done with a grain of salt though as he is hooked in the old world. Still his research he has done at the University of Essex is so fundamental that it should be fundamental knowledge for everyone in online games.
Raph Koster
My 2nd mentor is Raph Koster, designer of Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies and many more. He talked about online game design at conferences 2 decades ago but not many people remember that. Most of his talks are still available on his website. Worth a read. Or two.
True treasure and could be seen as laws of online game design:
http://www.raphkoster.com/gaming2/laws-of-online-world-design/the-laws-of-online-world-design/
Any of this new to you? Then you should bow to the wisdom of the above three people and humbly thank them for their openness!
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| MMO's where invented here |
