Social interaction design in MMOs

Abstract

This chapter discusses logics of design implemented within MMO’s to support social interaction. First we try to understand how designers attract players to games that request constant collaboration and cooperation actions to play and progress, and then how do they maintain the interest throughout playing. For the first question we discuss in depth the design for social interdependency, as for the second, we present a study on persuasion techniques used in the design of social game mechanics. We’ve used World of Warcraft as our main case study.