Building From Avatar Up: Understanding Virtual Communities
At the recent Social Gaming Summit, a panel led by Daniel James and Cary Rozenzweig from Puzzle Pirates and IMVU, respectively, discussed the importance of simpler interfaces for users to generate content (such as personal avatars and environments). “The more tools that you provide can lead to richer behavior, but often it’s the simpler things that people enjoy most,” said James, CEO of Three Rings. By providing the users the ability to easily manipulate their virtual world, massively multiplayer online games could draw in a larger demographic of people to participate. Whether players want to expand their creative ideas by playing for hours or simply to relax for a couple of minutes after work, developers should give all players the equal opportunity to build their ‘virtual space’ just the way they like it.