GDC 2011: Damion Schubert On Designing For Loners

The fine folks over at Massively have provided a very extensive writeup of Damion Schubert‘s most recent GDC 2011 talk, entitled “The Loner: Why Some People Play MMOs Alone:”

One of the seeming paradoxes of MMO design is that there is a large contingent of players who would prefer to play these games alone. Gamers who want to play this way are often derided by other players and sometimes even designers for their playstyle, but it isn’t as odd or exotic as it seems. This talk discusses the rationale for this playstyle, the necessity to cater to this playstyle from a business point of view, and the design intricacies of providing solo play without invalidating the ‘massive’ parts of your game design.

Massively Author and Contributing Editor Jef Reahard was able to give a great rundown of Schubert’s talking points, and extracts some great quotes from the talk as well:

Schubert states that MMOs feature “hardcore stuff. This is hardcore gameplay, and we have to figure out how to get the solo player in a position where they want to take part in this, where they feel comfortable with the social circles, where they feel like they can be contributors.”

This is a great indication that BioWare has their finger on the pulse of the challenges and opportunities that come with developing an MMO. It’s certainly a balancing act, mixing hardcore with casual with multiplayer with solo with PvE with PvP with crafting with… well, you get the idea. But BioWare seems up to the task.

This is similar content to a talk previously given by Schubert, and the presentation slides can be found here, on his web site.

Head on over to Massively for the full must-read!