CGDC '97 Roundtable Report

Most people found that the environment for online entertainment and box games definitely adds value to the user's experience. In a box game, it can serve as an added adventure that may help you fulfill your quest or simply enjoy your time even more. Toon Town in DisneyLand is a good example, where easter eggs scattered throughout the park make it fun for people to experiment.

Most of the issues below are topics that were discussed during the 3 roundtable sessions, issues that should be considered when building an environment that will attract and keep people coming back to your content.

Advertising

Advertising presents a few issues when displayed in the environment. It can make the environment appear more realistic (as with billboards) or can make the user feel like he is being inundated with junk mail (as with continual banner messages). Overall, advertising can help subsidize the cost of the environment while making the experience enjoyable, especially if the advertising is amusing and interactive.

Rules and Regulations

Should you provide rules for the users to follow, or should they be able to experiment on their own? Some people like to have a bit of structure to their environment (i.e., tools that let you build walls, doors, and windows instantaneously) and to provide options for you to develop your own creativity (i.e., pre-rendered texture maps). From here, you can let them create buildings, apartments, and general meeting areas that they can feel like they were instrumental in creating. Be careful, however, about making the environment too restrictive. Some like to create their own images (as with standard whiteboard images) and build their own concept of a virtual world. They even want to be able to upload and download their own images for their friends to share. This does present regulation, issues, in that you have to decide whether you are going to screen the art before it becomes available for all to see.

Inviting

Make sure the environment is set up with strong UI so that a user knows how to interact with the environment. Furthermore, make sure the user feels welcome and isn't obliterated the moment he enters into the world (i.e., don't let experienced players kill newbies). Also, don't make the environment threatening (i.e., don't let other users box another user in so that he can't move anywhere). The user should always be free to move about at will without feeling threatened.

Chatting

You should be able to make chatting a fun and friendly tool for people to communicate. It should be as personalized as possible and include chat sounds to add new dimension. Again, make sure people are feeling threatened, by muting messages from people they believe are harassing them.

Environment Games

Give the users tools to make their own games or to enhance existing ones. Map editors are definitely a favorite tool, but so is the ability to create your own world. People are inventive and will come up with ways to create their own activities if you let them. Let them self-regulate their environment where appropriate. Some people were getting upset that there were Diablo hackers who were ruining the experience for others. Thus, the users created their own bounties on these folks whereby you would be rewarded if you came back with a hacker's ear.

Fantasy or Reality?

Let the user continue the suspension of disbelief. In doing so, don't make the environment too restrictive. Again, let the user decide what the environment will be comprised of.

Added Value to Games

Where appropriate, add coveted items in the environment that are earned in a game. Users love a ranking system and having items that set them apart from others. For example, you may award a purple heart to a soldier in a war game that he and only he can wear on his persona in the environment. Additionally, you can use characters from your games to promote online tournaments or to interact with other characters from different games. This adds a whole new dimension to the entertainment.

Environment Features

Most people believe that the environment should be rich to enhance the experience -- include text, graphics, voice, 3D images where appropriate. Make sure you stay no the cutting edge, or people will see the environment as passe.