Anti-Aliased: Socially awkward pt. 2

I was the law, and people certainly fought me

One of the other lesser known games that likes to leverage social interaction is Face of Mankind, a third-person shooter MMO. While FOM features real-time shooting combat, the game also takes a very different approach to classes and game roles.

"The simple act of griefing a pilot may spark an intergalactic war that wasn't there a minute ago."

Instead of choosing a class or pulling a sandbox, you literally choose a role to take on in FOM. These roles branch out into everything from mercenaries, to the military, to corporations, to the police. Each faction, as they're called, isn't just your class for the game -- they're your guild and the game's driving forces. Joining the police means you join the Law Enforcement Department, and your tasks for the game will be centered around stopping criminal activity, catching murderers, putting people in jail, and providing a sense of security for civilized planets.

Once again, these factions work with and against one another, providing a dynamic state of play for everyone involved. I got to experience this from the perspective of the police, and I need to say that catching and handcuffing griefers were some of the best moments of my online career. You screw around with people? I throw you in jail. It's wonderful.

These faction relationships can also become deeper through the use of alliances, business deals, and developer events. I've already seen the police and military, two factions which are usually tightly allied, be at odds with one another over the issue of jurisdiction on civilized planets. This all adds to the depth of the game, providing content without developer intervention.

And that leads us to...

Why is social content so important for online games?

Social content does amazing things when the developer does things right. It provides a changing game world, it keeps the player constantly engaged and drawn into the experience, it helps eliminate problems by putting solutions into the hands of the player base to deal with it, and, most of all, it lets the developer have a constantly evolving game for the low, low cost of free.

Social games are an endless resource of new content and experiences, something that puts them in a different school of thought when placed next to single-player games and static content MMOs. That's only a good thing as our genre is becoming crowded with World of Warcraft remakes and predictable gameplay.

So do yourself a favor, harness the power of douchebaggery today!

Going to Dragon*Con? So am I!

So readers, as a final note, if you're going to be at Dragon*Con in Atlanta this weekend, then chances are you'll get to see me and the rest of the Massively gang! I'm going to be speaking at the Champions Online, Second Life, City of Heroes, and Warhammer Online panels, in addition to being present at all of the hip parties and meandering the halls.

Can't wait to meet you guys, and hopefully I'll see you at one of my panels!

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Colin Seraphina Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who really likes meeting people and being social. When she's not writing here for Massively, she's rambling on her personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message her, send her an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow her on Twitter through Massively, or through her personal feed, @sera_brennan.