What if you wanted to create an MMO, but instead of targeting their traditional audience of hardcore games you go after casual gamers? How would you go about tweaking the MMO model, tweaking what has been very successful for a hardcore gaming audience and attract casual gamers?

That is the very question MindFuse is trying to answer – targeting casual gamers with an MMO. My guess is that to attract the casual gamer MindFuse had to lessen some of the game dynamics of a traditional MMO. The whole concept of casual gaming is that players don’t have time to invest – invest in leveling and all that. So it’s also understandable that they also won’t be as invested in the game. The problem then is how does MindFuse keep users coming back? My guess is with story. If the game dynamics are weak the story must pick up the slack. Visit the MindFuse site you’ll see that they devote an entire page to story. In a way, story is lighter than all the game dynamics found in MMOs. The same reason you can’t turn off that horrible movie is that you’re hooked – hook the viewer and they’ll keep watching, they’ll keep coming back.

It’s likely that as virtual worlds and more importantly MMOs move to try and attract a more mainstream audience they will need to lessen their game dynamics and rely more on story. Story will increasingly play a bigger role in the evolution of virtual worlds.