I was struck by part of the Blizzard press release–er, battleplan– regarding new raid zones and expected group sizes:

For example, in our next major update, we will be releasing Blackwing Lair, a 40-person raid dungeon, where you will be able to battle against the epic dragon Nefarian and his minions. We are also working on a 20-person dungeon called Zul’Gurub. . .

This morning, I’d read something in David Brin’s Otherness collection about the ideal size of a neolithic hunting party being a dozen people.

In fantasy we are free to be heroes and heroines. Through a protagonist we can battle unadulterated evil–by ourselves or in the company of a few stalwart, archetype sidekicks numbering no more than the dozen or so our ancestors knew in a tribal hunting band. Imagination vents fizzing notions through a brain that, after all, spent far longer peering into forest glooms than sitting safely by electric lamps. In the fantastic we give our egoes room to stretch, and our fears simple shapes that we can fight. Midway along evolving from bipedal apes to . . . who knows? . . . we can’t give ourselves over wholly to maturity. In all of us there remains a need for the extravagant, the irrational, the vividly unreasonable. — David Brin, Otherness, “Science versus Magic,” page 265

From previous readings, I’ve learned human brains pay attention to or keep track of five to seven things at a time, and that the ideal size of a community is around or under 100 people.

How does an encounter designed for 20 or 40 people work psychologically? Is that the ideal encounter size, or should it be smaller? (It should be smaller.) Can a raid leader keep track of all the players locations, abilities, strengths and weaknesses? (No, not without additional tools or assistants.)

I believe a player group should be allowed to contain up a dozen people. Boss encounters in a game should be balanced for a group of a dozen people (groups of players handle groups of mobs). Small, five or six person groups are popular in both WoW and EQ, and do make it easier to limit AFKs or other player problems, but unnecessarily limit player grouping and interaction. The eight player group in DAOC, while not always filled, was much more popular and made it a lot easier to bring friends and spouses along on adventures. I haven’t played SWG, so I don’t know firsthand how well very large groups work in that game.