Mume & Social Friendship
Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 6:18 pm
Mume's the best game ever made in many ways. And in some ways, it sucks. I'd like to focus on the process of becoming friends with a player on mume.
1) Other games (like wow) have a 'friend list' feature, that notifies you when your friends are online. This would rock!
2) Mume's multiple-players all secretly hidden inside one account is a huge disadvantage here too. My best buddy is online, but I don't know it because they're under a different name. Perhaps account names should be an option to have displayed in your whois (or better yet, in the 'who' list).
3) Many higher level chars are always incognito. Perhaps if you got added (and authorized) into their friends list, they'd be visible to you still.
4) Outside-of-mume extension. I've mentioned it before, but having mume-mail forwarded to real email after a 30 minute delay would enable people to reconnect with lost friends, etc. Keeping in touch with people is a big aspect of the time we spend. Creating stronger friendships that last is something far more productive than gaining another level...
5) Back 10 years ago when I was playing mume from my parents house, they would always say "you're wasting your life", and I'd say "no, I'm being social and playing with my friends in sweden!". But who of those people have I stayed in touch with? None... I have some new friends now among those who play mume today, but a way to help that friendship grow from "light" aspects involving silently killing monsters together, to talking about ex-girlfriends or helping each other out when there is trouble, could make mume a far more powerful, worthwhile, and ultimately rewarding experience.
I also feel that many of these "friendship" aspects could be integrated into some sort of web-based online community (which is something that I do IRL, if any admin wants suggestions)... but the first steps mentioned above would be huge...
1) Other games (like wow) have a 'friend list' feature, that notifies you when your friends are online. This would rock!
2) Mume's multiple-players all secretly hidden inside one account is a huge disadvantage here too. My best buddy is online, but I don't know it because they're under a different name. Perhaps account names should be an option to have displayed in your whois (or better yet, in the 'who' list).
3) Many higher level chars are always incognito. Perhaps if you got added (and authorized) into their friends list, they'd be visible to you still.
4) Outside-of-mume extension. I've mentioned it before, but having mume-mail forwarded to real email after a 30 minute delay would enable people to reconnect with lost friends, etc. Keeping in touch with people is a big aspect of the time we spend. Creating stronger friendships that last is something far more productive than gaining another level...
5) Back 10 years ago when I was playing mume from my parents house, they would always say "you're wasting your life", and I'd say "no, I'm being social and playing with my friends in sweden!". But who of those people have I stayed in touch with? None... I have some new friends now among those who play mume today, but a way to help that friendship grow from "light" aspects involving silently killing monsters together, to talking about ex-girlfriends or helping each other out when there is trouble, could make mume a far more powerful, worthwhile, and ultimately rewarding experience.
I also feel that many of these "friendship" aspects could be integrated into some sort of web-based online community (which is something that I do IRL, if any admin wants suggestions)... but the first steps mentioned above would be huge...