Comment I disagree, to an extent.. (Score 1) 88
I believe that while it might not be possible to plan a brand new community of indefinite size in indefinite settings, it is certainly possible to plan and predict based on settings and size of the environment such as in MUDs and other online games.
Take the original NeverWinter Nights. No one at AOL, SSI or TSR could have predicted that a simple bug in the game would turn the whole game into something new, and give the players a shared purpose that forms one of the best and earliest online communities ever. They couldn't have predicted it then because it was new. But it would be possible to recreate the same type of community by inviting the same people and same types of people back into the same environment and giving them the same things they had.
Instead of trying to create whole new meshes of people, throw them into an online environment, call it a community and pray that it works, you need to take something that works, or has worked, and recreate it in an online setting.
:)
Take the original NeverWinter Nights. No one at AOL, SSI or TSR could have predicted that a simple bug in the game would turn the whole game into something new, and give the players a shared purpose that forms one of the best and earliest online communities ever. They couldn't have predicted it then because it was new. But it would be possible to recreate the same type of community by inviting the same people and same types of people back into the same environment and giving them the same things they had.
Instead of trying to create whole new meshes of people, throw them into an online environment, call it a community and pray that it works, you need to take something that works, or has worked, and recreate it in an online setting.
