01-04-2013, 03:26 PM
Maybe what chatter really represents is "the individual impact of a dynamic, changing environment". You have to keep the conversation flowing to keep up with changes in the game environment. Ports being taken over. Major oak suppliers dropping out. Or, in PvE, advancing to the next dungeon or gear set.
Lack of conversation means the environment isn't changing much or it is, but not in any way the player has enough input into or cares about enough to discuss. e.g., GW2 WvW has changes but the changes are too rapid to talk about. I can't go to the forums to discuss "the big attack on Ogrewatch" because in the time it takes me to come here and type about it, the battle is over and possibly it's already been flipped back. At the other end of the spectrum, Battleground Europe has things that impact the individual but you are so far removed from them they there's no real input to give, positive or negative. There are changes but you just roll with them because there's no other choice.
POTBS again hits the sweet spot because while taking over a port is a high level decision that an individual may have little say in, once it flips and that oak production goes away, there may be an impact on you, which you, in turn, can effect (oak prices go up, people talk about it on forums, so you make more oak, somewhere else and advertise it on forums).
I do think chatter helps drum up interest and keep it drummed up. To generate chatter, you need a dynamic environment that's not TOO dynamic. Enough impactful change to discuss, but slow enough to give us time to discuss it.
Lack of conversation means the environment isn't changing much or it is, but not in any way the player has enough input into or cares about enough to discuss. e.g., GW2 WvW has changes but the changes are too rapid to talk about. I can't go to the forums to discuss "the big attack on Ogrewatch" because in the time it takes me to come here and type about it, the battle is over and possibly it's already been flipped back. At the other end of the spectrum, Battleground Europe has things that impact the individual but you are so far removed from them they there's no real input to give, positive or negative. There are changes but you just roll with them because there's no other choice.
POTBS again hits the sweet spot because while taking over a port is a high level decision that an individual may have little say in, once it flips and that oak production goes away, there may be an impact on you, which you, in turn, can effect (oak prices go up, people talk about it on forums, so you make more oak, somewhere else and advertise it on forums).
I do think chatter helps drum up interest and keep it drummed up. To generate chatter, you need a dynamic environment that's not TOO dynamic. Enough impactful change to discuss, but slow enough to give us time to discuss it.