作者：Nicolas Lamanna

社区管理是MMO游戏开发团队中较不受重视的一个领域，每个团队都需要设计师、美工和各种程序员，但管理社区这种事却基本上是由其他人接手。

我想结合我们程序员和设计师的经历，而不是从专职社区管理员的角度来谈谈关于管理社区的一些误区，相信不少人都已经很熟悉或看过一些此类文章。

经验1：实践出真知

我们没有专门的社区管理员，那为什么要让程序员来接这项工作（这不是“专业不对口”吗）？原因很简单，我们已经没有多余人手，但总得有人负责此事。

所以我们疯狂地寻找和参考各种相关知识资料，刻苦研究这其中的门道，我们当中有些成员已经具有应对论坛骚乱的经验，所以大家认为这多少能派上用场，不至于让全局失控。

但借鉴前人的智慧根本无法完全解决问题。我们在大庭广众之下出了不少洋相，甚至有一个MMO开发者同行路过我们论坛时，都觉得用户对我们游戏的评论实在不堪入目。如果不是他好意提醒我们屏蔽那些言论，我们可能还会误以为一切都很好很安全。

我们对此得出的结论就是，纸上来得终觉浅，绝知此事要躬行。人人都知道这个常识，但关键是将其用于实践。

经验2：要分清社区与开发团队的界线

活跃于游戏社区中的人基本上是那些喜欢发言讨论游戏内容的少数群体（还有很多玩家忙着玩游戏，没空发言），这些群体的特点各不相同，有些人对游戏开发很有研究，有些则只是喜欢聊天，分享自己的看法。

我们当然可以让玩家自由参与游戏发展方向的讨论。但要注意把握一个度，假如你不够警惕，可能就会有玩家认为游戏是“他们的”。当然，这种说法在一定程度上也不无道理，毕竟游戏就是为了玩家而存在。

我们在这一点上所犯的错误就在于，在主页面设置了一行文字：“社区推动游戏开发”。

我承认这确实是我的疏乎，其实我得再多留点神。但仅这句含义模糊的话，就已足够让玩家在论坛中无限引用。我们后来只好删除这句话，避免大家产生更多困惑。

这里的教训就是，你是开发团队成员而不是玩家，你才是负责推动游戏向前发展的主要力量。

经验3：兼听但不全信社区的言论

这与前面一点有所重叠，但其意义更广，首先谈谈不可全听社区言论的原因。

每个玩家心中都有一个有关游戏发展方向的想法。他们很关心自己的游戏体验，这并没有什么错。但这里会产生一个问题，假如你听取其中一人的意见，那也应该为所有玩家广开言路，否则就会显示不够道义。但这样你会发现自己无法提供这么多版本的游戏同时满足所有玩家的需求。

另一方面来看，你也可以走自己的路，让别人去说。你可以只看论坛上的正面评论，无视负面评价。但要注意的是，有些负面评价可能会直击游戏问题的症结所在，它可以指出那些让你大为困扰的漏洞。

我们无法决定和选择玩家要发表哪种评论。

但所有的用户反馈都有自身价值，我们需要从中提炼精华。

我们可以通过Facebook、Twitter、Google+和其他社交媒介、漏洞报告、论坛、在大会中与玩家直接交流、邮件等途径搜集有用的反馈信息，从而调整和改良游戏。

经验4：与玩家交友，但要警惕双方交恶的情况

我是来自小型开发团队的成员，我们当中有些人与社区的早期玩家成了朋友。

我们曾与一些玩家出去吃饭，甚至有个程序员还见到了好多远道而来的朋友，他们先是住在他家，然后参观了我们公司总部。

起先大家的关系发展良好，但开发团队因某种原因更改游戏中的战斗系统时，情况开始发生360度的转变。

团队与玩家建立起的脆弱友谊瞬间土崩瓦解，有人开始撕破脸皮，甚至上门威胁我们（即便我们已经明确表态，无法让游戏系统为其“搞特殊”）。

这里的教训就是，要控制好团队与玩家之间的互动程度，虽然你无法彻底杜绝此类情况，但至少可以预先警告大家，保护好自己的团队成员。

经验5：要注意持续更新内容

假设你的团队确实有一些富有经验的社区管理员，也有合适的工具和渠道，也对相关人员进行了培训，拥有可靠的技术和游戏，也没有忽悠社区玩家的举动，没有隐瞒游戏变更情况，总之你们十分尊重玩家。

但这也未必就万无一失了。

需注意的是，游戏整个生命周期都会涉及以上所有要素。如果是单人游戏，你只需要尽全力向公众推出好游戏，然后再操心下一款游戏面世的问题（当然，如果游戏中含有多人模式就另当别论）。但在MMO游戏中，你得不停地更新和调整内容，以便同时迎合新老玩家的需求。

经验6：不要让游戏社区失控

有些游戏漏洞很容易被QA人员发现，但有些则不然，这对任何一款游戏来说都是普遍现象，而那些可通过自动补丁修复的游戏更是如此。掌机游戏在商店上架前一般都需要经过彻底的测试（不过由于在线补丁问世，这种情况也有所变化），但MMO游戏通常总能快速更新内容。

话虽如此，我们还是不能拖延向社区宣布游戏变动的消息，及早公布消息才是尊重玩家的体现。

有人甚至成了这方面的能手，反应灵敏和交际手腕有助于社区管理员与玩家建立长期的关系。

假如你对出现频率很高的玩家抱怨采取了相应行动，就有望省心省力地减少社区失控的情况。

经验7：不要抱有“我们 vs 他们”这种对立性想法

这种想法极为危险。据一名其他游戏社区管理员所称，这种想法最不利于与玩家建立关系。

只要出现了“我们 vs 他们”的状况，你就输定了。无论你试图说多少好话，到最后都难以挽回局面。

应对这种形势的上策就是，求同存异。开发公司和玩家社区都希望游戏能够健康发展，大家应该坚守这个态度。也许会有一些偏要唱反调的人，最好不要让他们暴露公司的行动，要不断提醒他们注意大家讨论的重心是游戏，不要旁涉其余内容。

经验8：凡人总是难免犯错

MMO游戏开发者也是凡人，也会外出喝得酩酊大醉，第二天精神恍惚地上班，然后犯一些失误和过错。

有些人会因为初次接手这种工作而犯错，有些人则需顶着“最后期限”、“会议”或者“你要是完成不了任务，就没想领到工资”的压力做事。

我们从中得到的教训就是，这些情况会直接影响玩家体验，他们一般都无法容忍这种现象。你去杂货店买到烂水果，当然就会要求店主给换个东西。但在便捷的数字发行领域，处理这种事情相对简单，你只需礼貌地提出要求即可。

这种经验也同样适用于一些缺乏宽容之心的制作人。

经验9：不要与玩家打口水战

将第3、第7、第8点结合起来，你就会得出这个结论。我常发现社区版主、开发者和社区管理员使用一些讽刺性或嘲弄语气来发泄感情。我们可以理解有人嘲弄你，你也立即回敬的情况，但这会造成一个严重的负反馈问题。

确实有些玩家听不进任何理由和解释，他们常常不可理喻地与开发者针锋相对，不断骚扰开发团队直到对方难以招架为止。而后你若只是用一个笑话来回应他们，也有可能发现这会酿成一发不可收拾的后果。

如果你是在社交网站或论坛上公开回应某些玩家的问题，就等于是在向所有玩家传达信息。而其中有些玩家并不喜欢这种方式，他们讨厌被视为小孩或不明真相之人的感觉。

这里的教训就是，要慎重发表任何可能带有攻击性的言论，如果实在受不了，最好自己去打打沙袋，而不是直接在论坛上与玩家大打口水战。

经验10：争取中立玩家的支持

社区里分布着多种玩家类型，我们最好锁定那些最有影响力的群体。他们是最了解游戏的玩家，从他们所提建议的逻辑中就能看出，他们具有极高的素养。

问题就在于，这些用户有时候是保持中立态度，他们并不偏袒开发团队或玩家中的任何一方。优秀的社区管理员必须能够找到这些玩家，让他们获知游戏发展方向和最新动态。

必须确保他们不会有两方对立的意识，假如真的无法避免对立阵营的论战，开发团队最好能够争取到这类玩家的支持。

经验11：采取措施避免玩家无度玩游戏

有人因沉迷于游戏而丢掉工作，有人因此而失去女友，这些极端的游戏成瘾案例并不鲜见。

也许有人以“这只是一款游戏而已”这种态度来看待问题，然后等待有一天这种游戏成瘾问题神奇地自然蒸发。

但要注意，游戏绝不仅仅是一款游戏，它是一个逃避现实的入口，是一项兴趣爱好，是我们与他人交流的途径之一。总之，游戏对玩家的非凡意义，我们不能简单视之。但另一方面来看，我们也必须重视过犹不及这个道理。

开发者可以采取一些防范措施应对这种情况，例如设置一些玩家可见的游戏计时器，以及一些温馨提示信息，提醒玩家暂停游戏，有些游戏甚至还采用了每日游戏进程机制。

我们并不一定要出于同情心而如此行动，但若要保证每月活跃用户数量，这却也是种一箭双雕的方法。

经验12：疏于管理易流失用户

众所皆知，MMO游戏是一项持续运行的服务，所以必须提供客服支持。

客服支持是一个复杂的问题，你不但需要处理付费事务，还要提供从注册帐号、下载安装程序到游戏运行不畅、丢失道具等各种程度的技术支持。

除此之外，还要处理游戏平衡、服务器等问题。

这里的经验就是永远不要低估客服部门的重要性，要承认客服与技术部门同样重要，在游戏上线之后，客服人员的作用更是不容小觑。另外，客服支持还是收集用户反馈的一个绝佳渠道，但这要在团队内部沟通极为顺畅的前提下才会管用。

经验13：重视资深玩家的影响力

许多运营已久的多人游戏都已处理过此类问题。只要游戏上线已有一定时间，社区中就会自发形成一个老玩家精英群体，即所谓的高手同盟。

多数玩家几个月后就会离开游戏，但也有些玩家会陪伴游戏好几年。他们亲眼见证了游戏发布、推出重要扩展内容等事件，游戏中任何一点微小的改变和错误都逃不过他们的法眼。这对社区来说可能很有害处，因为这类群体通常也是意见领袖，可以左右其他玩家的看法，他们通常认为自己有权利带领新手体验游戏。

但这也是一把双刃剑，一方面你必须重视这些玩家，毕竟他们都在游戏中投入了大量精力和时间。另一方面，他们很容易用一个贴子或一条微博就在社区中引发骚乱，他们的影响力足以决定玩家社区的人心向背。

虽然你对他们无可奈何，不过最好给他们提供与社区成员沟通的工具。这方面的典型是《Eve Online》及《英雄联盟》，这类游戏创造了一个由玩家主导的公堂，支持玩家以更有组织的形式处理社区中的政治问题。

经验14：维护良好的媒体形象

你无法控制游戏的信息流动情况。

只要你发布了游戏，有玩家访问了游戏，这就不再是你自己的游戏。截屏、博客、评论、微博等渠道的用户都会讨论你的游戏，而你却对此束手无策。

就算你试图掩饰游戏中的任何一个小纰漏，最后也可能适得其反，产生史翠珊效应（游戏邦注：Streisand effect，指试图阻止大众了解某此内容，或压制特定的网络资讯，反而使该事件为更多人所了解）的结果。你当然可以在有瑕疵的游戏截屏打上水印，或者以文字说明“本样图不代表游戏的成品质量”，但千万别认为这样就能解决问题，玩家会另眼相待。

这里的教训就是，最好是一切准备妥当之后，提供最出色的截屏、新闻稿和相关资料，再发布游戏要上线的消息，这样才有助于博得玩家的好感。

经验15：提供足够的内容，持玩家自主创造内容

在成千上万的玩家中，确实有不少人是游戏的铁杆粉丝，甚至有些人还是开发团队的忠实拥趸。

由MMO游戏很复杂，再加上其向玩家传递的庞大数据，它总会遗留下一些之前未作处理或考虑不周的问题。这会到影响到用户界面的操作，有些游戏是从设计角度来解决这种问题（例如暴雪在《魔兽世界》中提供了一个基于LUA的API）。

目前来看，由于网页技术和在线技术的发展，许多玩家将可更改的界面视为一大好处，甚至希望在线游戏都采用这种做法。

这里的经验就是，在保持游戏完整性的前提下，尽可能向用户开放更多API，让用户发挥他们的奇思妙想。你当然可以选择隐瞒游戏的相关信息，但总有一天会发现网络上会出现许多关于游戏的攻略、道具、图表、NPC手册等对玩家有价值的东西。

如果你在设计游戏时心中有玩家，让他们更容易发现游戏相关信息，那么他们也会用行动支持你的游戏。

总结

需注意的是，以上经验和教训并非严密的科学法则。在管理社区时你一定会犯过错，有时得为了更大的利益而妥协。但没有关系，你只要尽量尊重开发团队、玩家和游戏即可，相信最后总会有所回报。

游戏邦注：原文发表于2011年7月24日，所涉事件及数据以当时为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Tales from Game Design and other quests

From the MMO trenches: Lessons learned from Community Management

Community Management is an area of MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game development that’s somehow under appreciated. It’s immediately obvious that you need designers, artists all of kinds and programmers but when it comes to keeping your community at bay, you need people who can handle well, to put it succintly, other people.

Today I’m going to talk about several lessons learned while trying to manage the community of a MMO. An old and familiar tale that many people have read and written about.

This case is rather strange, since it’s the collective experience gathered from programmers and designers. Not community managers nor people who wanted to be in the forefront when things got heated.

Nonetheless, I hope that somebody can take this and at least be a little more prepared than we were. Let’s get to it, shall  we?

Lesson #1: It doesn’t matter how much you’ve read.

I did mention we were missing a Community Manager when we started, right? I mean, why on Earth would you put programmers to do that instead? (Talk about using the wrong tool for the job). The answer was simple, there was no one there but us and somebody had to do it.

So we exhaustively tried to read as much as we could about it. There were articles like this, of course, dozens. We studied hard and some of us had experience dealing with forums outrages, that surely would’ve sufficed to guarantee at least some level of comfort.

Not even close.

It didn’t matter, all the omens wisely told by ancient Community Managers were not enough. We would go and stumble upon each and every one of the rocks on the road, in broad daylight. There was one occasion, a fellow developer from another MMO (Eternal Lands) stepped by the forums to warn us, possibly out of pity because of the comments we were receiving. I naively thought that we were safe since they were warning us, “meh! we got it covered!”.

Who’s laughing now? (Hint: not me).

So basically, the lesson here is that there is no substitute for experience. Yes, that common phrase that all of us have probably read somewhere, go ahead and brand it on your hand.

Lesson #2: The community is NOT part of the dev team.

Your game community usually is a vocal minority that loves to discuss about the game (the other ones are too busy actually playing the game, go figure). You have all kinds of people mixed in together, some are into development and some don’t have anything to do with that but like to chat and share their thoughts.

It’s okay to let the players participate in the direction the game is going. But this is a fine line, because if you are not too careful, some will start to think that it’s “their” game. Of course, in a way it is, since without the player base, the game would be just a fistful of bytes.

The error on our part, was just a single line on the home page: “Community driven development“.

My mistake, I admit it and in retrospective, I should have been more careful. But that small ambiguous bullet was enough to be quoted ad infinitum in the forums. So much that we ended up deleting it to avoid any further confusion.

The lesson here is YOU are the development team and not the players. You have the responsibility to drive the game forward and have the tools to do so.

Lesson #3: Do listen to the community and do NOT listen to the community.

Okay, this one overlaps a little with the previous lesson. But it’s broader in a sense. Let’s start with the NOT part.

Each player has an opinion on how the game should go to. After all, they are worried about their own experience and that’s completely fine. But here lies the problem, if you listened to one, you have a moral obligation of listening to everyone and if you did that, well, you would have as many games as there are players.

On the other hand, you can go ahead and not put an official forum. You can ignore any negative comment and focus on the positive ones. But hey, one negative comment that was actually spot on could have been the reason why that elusive bug was giving you trouble, on the payment system no less.

We don’t get to choose how the feedback is sent to us.

And all feedback is valuable, we just need to filter all the nuggets and separate the gold from the rest.

There are proven ways to do that, fortunately. Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and several other social media are perfect inlets. Bug reports, forums, support tickets, talking directly to players at conventions, mails, anything can be a potential hint of something that needs improving.
Lesson #4: Make friends, prepare for war.

This one is kind of odd and I don’t know how it applies to the big behemoths out there. I had the opportunity to be part of a really small development team so some of us became friends with early members of the community.

We would go out and have dinner with some of the players, one programmer even met a lot of friends from other countries that would come and stay at his house, then visit the company headquarters.

That’s perfectly normal on a social game, where there is a lot of interactivity between the development team. So far so good until you make a change on the combat system, a nerf there or you have to remove items because of an exploit.

Then everything changes.

The weak friendships that were formed, immediately shattered. We even had threats and people coming by the building (even though we explicitly told there was no personalized support).

The lesson here is to limit the team interaction and while you cannot completely avoid that (everyone does what they want on their spare time, which is fine), at least you can warn and protect your team.

Lesson #5: It’s going to come back to haunt you anyway, deal with it.

Let’s say you actually have experienced Community Managers in the team. You have proper tools and channels, you did your homework and trained your staff. You have a solid technology and game, you haven’t lied to your community and your roadmap is up for grabs in the official website, there are no hidden changes and you do show a profound respect for your players.

It doesn’t matter.

The one single fact that affects this all is that the game is under development, the entire lifespan. With a single player, you make your best to release it to the public and then worry about the next game (of course, it’s different if your game has a multiplayer component to it). But with MMO’s, you need to constantly churn out content and changes to please both new and old players alike.

So, sit back, relax, prepare of course, get ready for a bumpy ride and deal with it.

Lesson #6: Damage control is your middle name.

Bugs are little things impervious to the Q.A. department. Some of them are eventually caught but some of them go right into the wilderness, some like to call it the Live version.

This is a common fact of any game and more so with games that can get away with automatic patching. A console game needs to be tested thoroughly before making it to the gold master (although ”thanks” to online patches, that’s starting to change) but an MMO can usually be updated blazingly fast.

Having said that, there is no reason to stall facing the community over a unannounced or ill-received change. The sooner and the more respectful you are about it, the better.

One even starts to develop a talent for these things. Swiftness and diplomacy go a long way in the long-term relationship you have with the players.

There is a hidden lesson here (Lesson #3?), maybe if you listen long enough to a common complaint and do something about it, there would be less damage control to be done.

Lesson #7: Us vs them mentality is the key to insanity.

This one is dangerous. I recall now reading about it from a community manager of another game (maybe I should have listened more carefully). This is the worst thing you can do with the users. There are some people who play this card to their advantage.

Do not let them.

The minute you have an “Us versus Them” situation, you lost. It doesn’t matter if you try to sweet talk out of it, you will be the bad guy at the end of the day.

The best way to win in this situation, is to deny the battle (Thank you Sun Tzu!). Both the company and the community want the game to prosper, it’s an important fact that should be insisted upon. There will be naysayers, sure, just don’t let them put the company actions in the spotlight, one should remind them constantly that the discussion should be focused on the game. There are exceptions of course, this is unfortunately a gray area.

Lesson #8: Only humans.

Yeah, even though MMO developers are seen as strange people who came from other planets, they are still people. They will go out, drink one too many beers, come to the office the next day and make mistakes.

Some will even make mistakes because they never have done this in the past (who knew?). Others will have to deal with strange situations like “deadlines”, “meetings” or “you better finish that or you won’t get a dime out of me”.

As much as I’d love to think these and other facts are uncommon, they are not. And this lesson is actually directed towards the players and their unforgiving nature. Of course, if you get to a grocery store and the fruit is rotten, you will ask for an exchange. But in this case, it’s somewhat easier thanks to the wonders of digital distribution, you just have to ask nicely.

This can also be a lesson to some unforgiving producers as well.

Lesson #9: Mock me once, shame on you. Mock me twice, shame on me.

Combine the “Only humans”, “Us vs them” and “Do not listen to the community” into one and you end up having things like this. Far too many times I’ve seen moderators, developers and community managers use sarcasm or mockery as a catharsis mechanism. It’s understandable that once it gets to you, you react but there is one big problem.

It’s a slippery slope.

I swear, some players (scrap that, some people, in any line of work) do not listen to reason. They will come back and make a counter argument that’s not even an argument, they will annoy you until you cannot handle it anymore. Then you respond with a simple joke. All of the sudden, it’s a little too late.

If you are answering publicly on a social network or forum, you are giving a response to ALL of your players. And some are not there to waste their time and be treated like childs or ignorant people. No one likes that.

The lesson here is two-fold: Be careful not to deliver any remarks that could be considered offensive to some and if you reached that point of the day where you’d better off punching a sandbag, for the love of god, go ahead and punch the bag instead of answering on the forums.

Mind note: Get a sandbag.

Lesson #10: Converting the undoubtful.

There are several types of users on a community. Long articles have been written about it and it’s really beyond the scope of this one.

But let’s concentrate on the ones that matter here. There are players that show an impressive amount of knowledge about your game. You can see that given the data they have, they display excellent criteria when it comes to the logic behind their proposals.

The problem here lies in that sometimes these users are on the fence, they are not taking the dev team side nor the players (Remember, “Us vs Them” bad!). A good community manager will find these players, and give them assurance and information about the direction of the game.

Naturally, making sure that they know there are no sides on this. And even if you cannot avoid a two-sided battle, it’s better when they are on yours.

Lesson #11: “It’s only a game” is not true.

You know the case of that guy who lost his job because he wanted to keep playing that game? Or that girlfriend who left his boyfriend? And I don’t want to go to the extreme cases, but they do exist.

The answer seems to be obvious, tell them “It’s only a game” and wait for the problem to magically disappear.

Wait a minute.

Of course is not only a game, it’s an escape route, it’s a hobby, it’s a way to meet other people, it’s a lot of things and one should respect that. On the other hand, it’s important to respect that everything in excess could be a bad thing.

From the developer side, a few tips can be applied, like making sure there is a playing session timer visible to the user, a few reminders here and there about making pauses, some games even use daily pacing mechanics. Granted, maybe not out of empathy but as a way to ensure a lot of monthly active users.
Lesson #12: Build it and they will come. Fail to support it, they will leave.

This is a no brainer, after all, MMO games are running services. And like any worth having service, you need customer care.

Now, customer care in this case is a complex problem. You have billing on one side and then you have several levels of support, ranging from simple problems when signing up or downloading the installer to specific game problems like getting stuck or losing an item.

Then you have fraud screening, balance issues, server issues, you name it.

The lesson here is to never underestimate the support department. Resource wise, it’s as important as having a good tech department and maybe more after you have launched. Support also is a great way to gather feedback on key issues but that only works if the communication inside the team is oiled.

Lesson #13: The elders ruling.

This is something that possibly most long running multiplayer games have dealt with. Once your game is out there for a certain period, an elite of old players begin to form. A covenant of the greatest players ever lived.

Most players leave after a few months but some endure several years. They have seen it all, the first release, the first great expansion, remember that big old nerf? they were there, every tiny change and mistake you have made have been imprinted on their minds.

And with any long and washed out relationship, it doesn’t matter what you promise them, the outcome will be indifference. This can be hurtful to the community since they also tend to be very vocal, they have a self-appointed right to lead the newcomers to whether they see fit.

This is a double edged sword, you definitely must appreciate these players, all the hours and effort they have poured in. But on the other side, they tend to be able to provoke riots with just a post or a tweet, they have this power to herd the community to your favor or against you.

The lesson here is that since you cannot do much about it, you might be better off giving them tools to channel the community. Great examples of this are Eve Online or League of Legends where they have a player run tribunal of sorts that help carry on community politics in a more organized fashion.

Lesson #14:  The forum is in the hands of the enemy.

Raph Koster said, the client is in the hands of the enemy. I think that the same can be applied to the forums or any other channel that’s publicly manipulated. This leads to a horrible truth.

You don’t control the information about your game.

As scary as it sounds, once you release something, once players have access to it, it’s no longer yours. Screenshots, blog posts, comments, tweets, reddits, anything you can imagine will be said about your game and there is really not much you can do about it.

And even if you could try to cover every tiny little hole, it would end up being a big case of the Streisand effect. Yes, you could go ahead and put a watermark on those alpha screenshots, or have a legend that says “this may not represent the final quality of the game” but you cannot trust that because of that, it will be perceived in good faith.

Lesson here is, once you go public, you better be ready with some top-notch screenshots, press-releases and whatever you can muster to turn the tide into your favor.

Lesson #15: Empower them and they will power you.

Of the hundreds of  thousands of players that have played your game, there are really some brilliant people out there. Even some that could be a great addition to your team.

Coupling that with the complexity of MMOs and the amount of data it gives the players, there are all kind of angles you probably didn’t tackle or worried about. This usually has to do with the User Interface and definitely some games have even considered that from the design perspective (Blizzard providing an API to World of Warcraft with LUA for instance).

Right now, RESTful interfaces are pretty common and with the advent of web technologies and online services, a lot of players see that as a benefit and even demand it from their online games.

The lesson here is simply, open as many API’s as you can to the users while maintaning integrity and you’ll be surprised with that the users may come up with. You can decide to withhold information as much as you’d like but at the end of the day, a website will pop up with all the quests, all the items, all kind of charts, NPC finders and anything that might be worthwhile for the players.

If you design the game with this in mind and make it easier for players to find game information, you’ll be rewarded.
Last lesson and conclusion.

After re-reading this article for proof-reading, I’ve found that some of the lessons overlap, some are redundant and others are contradictory. This led me to this final lesson.

This is not an exact science.

You are bound to make mistakes, to be contradictory, sometimes you will have to bend your own rules for the greater good. And that’s fine, you just need to do that with as much respect for the development team, the players and the game as possible. And at the end of the day, hope that it pays off.（source:gamedesigntales）