Raph Koster rather brilliantly sums up Richard Bartle’s point of view in this post. No idea if Richard agrees with him or not, but it’s such a good metaphor I’ve got to quote it here:
The fact that people can cite things like “big boss battles in a public zone” or “really rich badge profiles and player stat tracking” as truly differentiating features [in modern MMOGs] mostly speaks to how narrow the scope of the field has gotten in the public’s mind. This is like arguing over whether scalloped bracing in acoustic guitars is a defining characteristic for all of music, when in fact it has zero relevance to MIDI controllers. By analogy, Bartle, like many of us, is arguing from the perspective of all music — all virtual worlds. And his detractors are people who only listen to indie rock from the Athens, GA, area circa 1989. All Richard is asking for is for someone to please play some jazz.
Go read the whole thing. Very much worth it.
Raph’s in a particularly good place to support Richard’s arguments, of course, as he’s working on Metaplace - which may, if it turns out right, allow all of us to play whatever ‘music’ we want as we create our own virtual worlds.
