Meeting people and making friends!

[TimeMachine]

One of my favourite things about Harvest Moon and like games is making friends as a game mechanic, and one of the most appealing things about MMOs to me is the social aspect, but to be honest I am really shy and don't always know how to start talking to fellow players in a game.

I think it'd be really neat, especially because dating/relationships are a part of the game anyway, to have a lot of game mechanics that encourage people to meet and actually talk to each other. I'm sure the developers already have stuff like this in mind, but I just thought I'd like to throw stuff out there.

There could be event challenges like pub quizzes, scavenger hunts, or relay races, where players are sorted into teams based on some common interest or personality trait (like if you want to participate you're asked "Would you rather have a pet sphynx or griffon?" or "Choose these colors in order from least favourite to most" and then are grouped into teams based on having the same/similar responses).

There could also be individual quests that encourage you to talk to other people or other people to talk to you.

There could be themed chats in certain areas on certain days, like essentially fan clubs. So there could be an announcement "Do you like Harry Potter? Well there's a wizard themed chat happening at this location on this day with prizes/games!"

White elephant gift exchanges could be fun, or secret santas, or items that reward the people around you but not yourself (so are purely for spreading the party!).

In game pen pals that you can be matched with and play together and write to each other. In game voluntary mentors/mentees, where mentors are matched with new kids to help them out.

Pretty much any "getting to know you" game you can imagine playing at a party would be fun to be able to play in game with people you don't know.

There could be ways for players to announce to those around them that they're looking for people to play with, and maybe even list an interest or trait they are looking for. Maybe an icon showing they're open to play together.

The big thing I want is a way that the game makes it natural and fun, and even maybe rewarding in-game, to talk to each other without some kind of Gaia-esque spam or popularity contesting resulting. And with the game still being playable if you're feeling antisocial. But making friends with NPCs is a big part of the mechanics of Harvest Moon, and it'd be fun to have that with each other as well somehow. Some way to make it fun to be nice to each other, and make it hard to be mean, and easy to start a conversation with a stranger if you're looking for someone to chat with while you play.

[Angerfish]

I totally sympathize on the whole shyness thing. I was extremely shy growing up, and I still sometimes struggle with it. But as far as socializing within the game, you joined the forums so that's probably a good start!

Some of these ideas are pretty great, like the scavenger hunts! That sounds like a lot of fun. I also love the idea of a gift exchange thing, where you submit a wishlist into a secret santa-esk event! I'd feel pretty bad if someone didn't get a gift at the end of the event tho. There'd probably have to be some sort of bar against people who'd try and bypass the giving.I also like the idea of having a sort of activity feed on events and your friends.

Is popularity a big problem in a lot of MMO's? I don't really know since Pumpkin Online will be my first, but I've definitely seen it be an issue on online forums. I don't know, I think it'd be a little different for PO than with Gaia because PO's more about shared experiences together. Although maybe I just have the wrong impression of Gaia!

I imagine that a lot of people will fall into their own grooves playing the game, logging in a particular times and doing particular activities more than other. It's possible you might encounter the same group of people over and over again just by playing the game, so some connections could be formed that way

[cannabisGeneticist]

Pumpkin: The Dating Service. Here at Pumpkin, we devote 87% of our server load to sorting clients into teams based on compatibility determined by insightful and deep issues such as favorite color, or preference for enslaving a sphinx over a griffon. These preferences ensure balanced teams and a positive social experience.

We here at Pumpkin believe in encouraging player interaction by over complicating the most basic game mechanics. Why stop at letting players buy things for each other when we can add layers of coding to make it feel forced by our system, losing it's sentimental and social meaning. After all, the best way to make same someone else feel special is to give them something just because the system rewards you for it.

[TimeMachine]

I totally sympathize on the whole shyness thing. I was extremely shy growing up, and I still sometimes struggle with it. But as far as socializing within the game, you joined the forums so that's probably a good start!

Some of these ideas are pretty great, like the scavenger hunts! That sounds like a lot of fun. I also love the idea of a gift exchange thing, where you submit a wishlist into a secret santa-esk event! I'd feel pretty bad if someone didn't get a gift at the end of the event tho. There'd probably have to be some sort of bar against people who'd try and bypass the giving.I also like the idea of having a sort of activity feed on events and your friends.

Is popularity a big problem in a lot of MMO's? I don't really know since Pumpkin Online will be my first, but I've definitely seen it be an issue on online forums. I don't know, I think it'd be a little different for PO than with Gaia because PO's more about shared experiences together. Although maybe I just have the wrong impression of Gaia!

I imagine that a lot of people will fall into their own grooves playing the game, logging in a particular times and doing particular activities more than other. It's possible you might encounter the same group of people over and over again just by playing the game, so some connections could be formed that way

I've never run into popularity being a problem in any MMOs, no. X3 It was more that when I was trying to figure a way to work the friendshipping mechanic of games like HM into an MMO like Pumpkin Online it struck me as a possible barrier in making that mechanic fun. You don't want a cool idea to end up being game breaking. I only ever played Gaia once for like an hour, so I'm honestly not that familiar with it, but the being able to actually DO together is definitely part of the appeal of PO.

I imagine that is that case as well. It also sounds like chats will be limited to local or friend chats, no world chat, and that alone will make chatting easier. And this game will likely be a lot smaller than any other MMO I've played, which makes talking to people easier because it's more of a community in itself!

In the last livestream they talked about how the game itself probably wouldn't host contests or anything like that, but mentioned something about putting in a mechanic where players could host them themselves whenever they wanted. I think that's exactly the right kind of thing. Making an in-game mechanic that allows players to set up small games or contests they can invite people to participate in.

Pumpkin: The Dating Service. Here at Pumpkin, we devote 87% of our server load to sorting clients into teams based on compatibility determined by insightful and deep issues such as favorite color, or preference for enslaving a sphinx over a griffon. These preferences ensure balanced teams and a positive social experience.

We here at Pumpkin believe in encouraging player interaction by over complicating the most basic game mechanics. Why stop at letting players buy things for each other when we can add layers of coding to make it feel forced by our system, losing it's sentimental and social meaning. After all, the best way to make same someone else feel special is to give them something just because the system rewards you for it.

And this was unnecessarily rude. I gave a lot of suggestions because throwing everything up on the wall and seeing what sticks is how I like to sort through ideas with people. And I am super aware that probably zero of those things will happen in game and am okay with that. As for the being sorted randomly, yeah, arbitrary questions sort people randomly. What that accomplishes isn't getting you your soul mate, it's getting people into smaller groups where conversation is more feasible (and friendly competition can then begin). It's a mechanic that shows up in a lot of party games and forum games and pretty much everywhere. Once you're sorted the mere fact that you are a team is often enough to get you liking and supporting each other. I wasn't suggesting that sphinxes or griffons are particularly deep subject matter. It was literally the first silly thing to pop in my head. Just, if the game were to host a pub quiz (for example) people could be sorted into teams that way instead of with a number generator because it has more flavor. If it's too much of a burden on the game than it's not important. The crux of the jumble of things I threw out was just that I want a chance to play with people, not just near them at the same time as them in the game. Because, you know, MMO.

And as for encouraging players to be nice to each other with a mechanic, I don't know how sour a person you have to be to think that encouraging kindness and generous interactions with the gameplay will somehow ruin it. Oh no people are benefitting from choosing to be nice to me, that's terrible, how can I possibly enjoy a game where everyone wins?

I'm not saying such a mechanic could never become unbalanced, because literally every game mechanic can. But your belief that it's impossible for giving and talking to each other to be made more fun by a game's design is really underestimating games and how good they can be.