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Vague Patch Notes: Solipsism and what it means for playing MMORPGs
- MMOs are defined by having other people around that you cannot control, which also leads to the solipsism problem where players treat the other people as mechanics to achieve their goals.
- Solipsism refers to a belief that you are alone in being a conscious, thinking entity and everyone else is not, there are no other sentient human beings who have separate wants, desires, and thoughts.
- When it comes to single-player games, solipsism is actually correct; you are the only person with actual agency in the game world. Everyone else is a digital simulacrum without any actual ability to make choices.
- But the solipsism problem comes up when an MMO treats the other people around you not as people who are doing their own thing but as mechanics to achieve your goals.
- World of Warcraft has a bad habit of doing so; the people in your party are your competition for things you want, not your allies or friends.
- There are lots of ways that game design can subtly reinforce the idea that you are the person whose needs, wants, and desires are real, or at least the only ones that actually matter.
- The reality is that if you are playing an MMORPG, your desires are not the sole thing that the game should revolve around.
- The game should balance not only for yourself but for everyone else and if that means that your preferred playstyle gets weakened just a bit, then so be it.
- My desires are not the sole thing that the game should revolve around, which means that sometimes I should find myself getting outclassed by others' picks but be thankful for it.
- In MMORPGs, if you want to live completely separate from everyone, you aren't, since you are playing in a shared space with others, and treating them as if they are not real will lead to character failure.
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