A real social game?

Unsocial 'Social' Games
I think we all agreed that the term “social” game are overrated, where most of them are just games on social network, with little social elements in game. We played mostly in solitary nature and leveling up (building farm, planting flower, construct building, solving quest alone, etc.); while the idea of Army (Castle Age) and Gang (Mafia) is just asking other players to “join” us, where there is no real collaboration and interaction happening besides our power is slightly increased (we don’t even talk or know who they are). We might work together to kill a monster (Castle Age), but with total stranger we found on forum or Facebook link which we does not continue any further relationship building with them after the quest. We don’t really get to play or work together with our real world friend (who are playing the same game) most of the time. I do get minimum social elements such as chatting (helping to answer game related question) and gifting, and some social gesture like wave, dance, high-five, etc. We get social elements in the sense of communication; but not meaningful social gameplay (co-op, competitive, etc.).

Do we want to go Social?
One of the fundamental contradictions of the human condition is that we are simultaneously individuals and social beings. We are each lost in our own heads, with only the limited bandwidth afforded by expression and language to allow us to understand each other. We typically strive to achieve our own needs and desires, often at the expense of others; we are atomistic individuals, striving for our own benefit in a Randian sense.


And yet we cannot grow without the nurture provided by our parents, are driven by our needs to find sexual and emotional partners, have built civilizations that depend utterly on cooperation and exchange, and are most often happy in the companionship of friends.

-- Extracted from Unsocial 'Social' Games by Greg Costikyan

Obstacles of playing together

• Different Server
• Different Schedule
• Different Level (due to different intensity)

Would it be possible to solve the technical issue of the requiring multiple server? We need multiple servers at different geographical locations for speed/latency needs, and we need different "world" due to the congestion (1 million people consume too much network traffic on both clients and server, and visual congestion as well). We understand that real-time RPG consume of network traffic, what if the nature of the game is not that up to the second real-time with limited information exchange, such as Mafia Wars or a slower paced Civilization. What if you can utilize a cloud server which are virtually run as a single server (utilizing multiple physical servers)? Perhaps the Google App Engine is near that vision.

Nothing much can be done about different schedule, except that your friend could lend a "passive" help when he is not log on, such as an AI controlled you friend's character as your sidekicks. Or perhaps an auto-assist when you are under attack.

Problem of playing together at different level is tricky due to firepower and tanking issue. In fact, lower level character shouldn't be allowed to reap the benefit of group killing very high level monster due to leeching/parasiting issue (it is unfair and not "fun"). I guess they can work together in mini-games, which firepower or level doesn't play an important role. Allow co-op in mini games, where we can still harvest useful  rewards. Or we can pool resources to build a castle, or invest in a certain property, or perform research in an ancient technology.

How to encourage social gameplay:

• Teams: like in a basketball team
• Diplomacy: Form alliance to take down equally strength enemy
• Negotiated Trade: Exchange for resources which you do not have
• Resource Competition: fighting to high resources focal point
• Hierarchy: pledge allegiance to more powerful player, commander need to turn control of some province to sub commander (which could defect if not satisfied with the commander's play)

Gift and Badge
In game gift doesn’t play a significant role in progressing or leveling, but it’s a very important social behavior of human. We like to give gift as sign of affection or appreciation, with general items like flower or cards, or specific gift like star wars figurine or totoro doll if we know their preferences.

What if we can up-vote another player for doing good deeds? If a veteran player helps answering newbie question, the newbie could say thanks by giving him a Teacher badge (not system given, but voted by players). After a group mission, we could vote for MVP (Most Valuable Player) or the player who sacrifice himself to make the mission possible, or leadership badge for player who coordinated the attack well. We show our appreciation by granting them badges (like the President granting Medals), on top of a word of thanks.