For the past 2 weeks, I’ve been exploring the alpha MMO Love, and the different ways we play games. After a brief introduction, I spent my first week playing the role of the Explorer, a player who simply wants to experience new things and discover new gameplay. This last week, I’ve tried on the shoes of the Team Player, someone who does everything to further the group. This playstyle is perhaps the intended way to play Love, which centers around building up player settlements and defending it from enemy AI incursions.

Several excellent settlements have sprung up through the efforts of players cooperating with each other in-game and over Ventrillo, such as The Waygate Tree and the curiously named Treedong Settlement. Sadly, no single settlement can last for long under the combined threat of the AI and regular server resets, and the truly great settlements require the attention of care of at least a dozen players to thrive. Poor communication tools and a spread-out server population have made these difficult to achieve, but all the more rewarding when you can pull it off.

One point I’d like to address in this writing is the motivation of a community-centric player. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m more of an explorer myself, though I have been an active member of the occasional guild in the past. MMOs are, theoretically at least, communal games by their very nature. I’ve seen it often enough: someone laments MMO content that requires them to group with other players, or something they can’t solo, and someone else tells them to screw off and play a single player game. For most MMOs, though, finding a group of reliable partners or being active in a guild can be a major time commitment, and some don’t have the time or desire to turn their leisure time into a chore. So, what motivates the Team Player to do exactly that?

To my thinking, there are two primary drivers at work here. First, and perhaps most obvious, are those who want to receive renown or praise. By rising up the ranks of a guild, you have a build-in audience to watch you in all of your glory. Guild leaders are often the most revered players, particularly in politic and war-heavy games like EVE Online and Darkfall, and if you play your cards right you may even find yourself interviewed by the likes of online gaming magazines. The second reason, more abstract than the first, is the desire to be part of something greater than yourself. For the player driven by this desire, stacking one’s own, small contribution upon the contributions of others until they’ve created something grand is enough.

Love caters to exactly one of these drivers, and I’ll leave it to you to guess which one. Here are some hints: when you log into your server for the first time, you are assigned a random name, your avatar is indistinguishable from anyone else’s avatar, and there’s no way of tracking who made what structures, who gathered what resources, or who destroyed what AI base.

In a time when customization is king, this can be a hard pill to swallow for some. Games have been feeding our egos and sense of self for so long, to come across this game that asks us to give anonymously, play nice with each other, and build something pretty will take some adjustment. In trying this playstyle in Love, the lack of glory has illuminated one of the major reasons we play this way.

Now that I’ve played nice, it’s time for me to strike out on my own. For the next week, I will be playing the part of the Loner, hunting AI and gathering resources for my own selfish purposes. In this game meant for co-op, let’s see how it likes getting a handful of solo crammed down its throat.

Next week is here, and so is Part 4 of Love and Gaming: The Loner!

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