Ian>

renting a character implies a qualitatively different play experience than playing one through...virtual world tourism seems like an activity potentially orthogonal to "normal" gameplay itself. I am never, ever going to start playing EverQuest or Lineage. But I might be interested in visiting, especially if I could visit my friends who do play those games and see them first-hand.

This is a great point. When I first played EQ (I), group I used to play with would take great pride in showing off (guided tours and all) their little areas of Norrath to visiting friends etc. House guests. Somewhere along the way that zeal was lost. The place became less a world and more a game.

I think there are two aspets:

a.) the world is novel enough - something worth exploring and (re-)discovering;

b.) the world is open-ended/"non-confrontational" enough to encourage "touristic" interactions - e.g. socialization. If characters are evaluated narrowly by the world (e.g. all you can do in the world is hunt) so that tourists are particularly handicapped (e.g. not experienced) then likely fewer natural points of frictionless interaction between natives and tourists.

Nate -- I think what you're suggesting is that the two aspects you mention are sort of prerequisites for "successful" in-world tourism?

In case (a), does novelty lie in the eye of the beyolder? Or do you have some specific properties in mind that would facilitate exploration of this particular kind?

In case (b), I wonder if more closed-ended, confrontational worlds wouldn't be more about testing the world than exploring it. This is what I was trying to get at by mentioning car rentals in the Wired article. Sometimes you rent a car to get from point A to point B. Other times you rent one to explore a physical space in comfort, style, etc.. But yet other times you rent one because you want to try out the car itself, either out of curiosity or as part of research for a purchasing decision. Since VW's can easily become investments of time and money akin to such a largescale purchase, I think the analogy holds to some degree.

Ian>does novelty lie in the eye of the beyolder? ...more closed-ended, confrontational worlds wouldn't be more about testing the world than exploring it

Sounds reasonable. I 'fess that I'm likely more of a Bartle explorer type. The interesting question here is where most players would lie here.

One difference between renting a 55 necro and your car rental analogy is that, by and large, a Ferrari can be driven by a Saturn owner. Not a lot of new knowledge needs to be brought to the table. Whereas, lot of work upfront to figure out how to "work the necro" by those too far afield.

In practice, this may suggest that those who might be inclined to rent a 55 necro to try-out "combat" would already be players in that world, and perhaps high-levels already. E.g. "what if" comparisons power-gamer recipe/forumlas.

[Funny thing, was just invited the other night to join in an online game of Diablo2 - went to an online site and found a recipe I liked (based on projected play style) and started building toward it - with some personal variation for sauce...

What-if'ing high levels incarnations of these recipes would be interesting...

]

Explorer types in contrast may come from anywhere - merely interested in short-circuiting 55 levels to see the world.

Nate>> One difference between renting a 55 necro and your car rental analogy is that, by and large, a Ferrari can be driven by a Saturn owner. Not a lot of new knowledge needs to be brought to the table. Whereas, lot of work upfront to figure out how to "work the necro" by those too far afield.

Great point. And an interesting design question too. What would it mean to design for low- and high-level entry into a world. Maybe that's something that's already been considered tho.

Maybe the issue would be providing the proper quick-start tutorials for high level renters. It's a bit like a safari at that point... you have to be a marksman already to participate.