Most of communities at play have mechanisms that help the players, which are “typically called guilds” (Koivisto, 2003). Travians game encourage its gamers to communicate with other players to get fun clubs and powerful guilds with magnificent houses and progress in the game. To be accepted in a guild, you have a discussion box where you have to chat with the administrators of the guilds and ask for an invitation. A MMORPG should encourage joining teams, but also take to account those who do not want to join teams.
If the game is easy to learn, it is much more likely that the newbies decide to stay with the game. Then it is important that a community at play provides support to the new players. In Travians, for example, the new players can found help by asking questions in real dynamic discussions in chat boxes. These boxes are classified by types of help provided. Moreover, as a new player, you will receive a message titled ‘Welcome’ in your inbox, sent by a team called ‘Support’. In this message, the team explains that quick help for your first steps in the game can be provided by a click on the Information symbol down left.
REFERENCE LIST
Koivisto, E. M. I. (2003). Supporting Communities in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games by Game Design. Finland: Dgital Games Research Association (DIGRA) and Utrecht University.
Travians. (2009). Retrieved May 2, 2009, from http://www.travians.com/game.php?code=&refurl=
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