The Daedalus Project

Slideshow #2

What follows are screenshots submitted by readers of The Daedalus Project. I had asked players to submit screenshots that showed interesting things they had encountered or just simply showed what it is they enjoy about MMOs. Here are some of the most interesting images I received. Below each image, I have included the description that was given by the person who submitted it. You can submit images of your own on the last page of this article.

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I'm looking to gather some more visual data points of all the interesting social phenomema happening in MMOs. If you have any screenshots that fall into the following categories, please consider submitting them. Any images you submit will be credited to you if they are ever displayed on The Daedalus Project.

In particular, I am looking for the following kinds of images:

- Player Gatherings: protests, demonstrations, vigils, etc.
- Guild / Avatar Portraits: images of your guild (posed or not), or well-composed screenshots of your avatar
- Raid / PvP Combat: well-composed screenshots that show the chaos and intensity of raids or PvP combat.
- Strange Bugs: like the recent WoW Plague
- Others: any other screenshots that you think are interesting but don't fall into a category above.

Please send your screenshot as a JPG file. Screenshots that are well-composed and where the interface elements are hidden are much appreciated. Please note that there is a file size limit of 800k per image.

VoIP Usage

As preparation for a panel presentation at Spring VON 2006 (focus on voice over IP tools) on communities and communication in MMOGs, I collected some survey data on VoIP usage among MMO players. Anecdotally, and from personal experience, VoIP usage seems to be associated with high-level raids where tight coordination and real-time crisis management are needed. I was interested in exploring this more.

In a recent survey, I asked players whether they had ever used a VoIP tool. Across the board, the results were fairly stable. About 70% of respondents had used a VoIP tool at some point. There were minor age and gender differences. Male players were slightly more likely to have tried a VoIP tool than female players. And we see a slight decline over age. After a mild peak in the 18-22 age range, we see a gradual decrease.

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I then asked how often they use a VoIP in their actual game-play. Of the players who have tried a VoIP tool, about 40% would indicated that they “often” or “always” used a VoIP tool. If we count these users as regular VoIP users, then combining this data with the previous graph, approximately 30% of all MMO players use a VoIP tool on a regular basis.

I then asked these respondents to rate the helpfulness and overall enjoyableness of the VoIP tool they use. Responses were mostly positive in both measures. There is a mild gender difference. Male players rated these tools as more helpful and enjoyable than female players.

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Factors Related to VoIP Use

These three ratings of usage frequency, helpfulness, and enjoyableness actually correlate to a high degree (cronbach’s = .86). Because I was interested in exploring what kinds of players were most likely to have enjoy VoIP tools, I created a composite measure out of these 3 variables. Then I ran a multiple regression using the motivation factors as the predictor variables and the composite measure as the dependent variable. The resulting predictive model was somewhat weak (adjusted r-square = .11), but the best predictor of VoIP use was the Achievement factor (goal-oriented, quick progression), followed by a negatively-signed Immersion factor (stories, character, fantasy world), and then the Socialization factor (chat, gossip, help others).

So players who use VoIP tools tend to be those players who enjoy leveling quickly, who care a lot about how powerful their characters are. On the other hand, they do not care about being immersed into a fantasy world. And finally, they enjoy chatting with their online friends. It’s interesting that the adoption of a social tool is more strongly driven by achievement factors rather than social factors, but high-level raids do often necessitate tight coordination, so one might expect that high-level guilds would adopt VoIP tools for these purposes (i.e., giving military commands and following orders).

If this is the case, then one interesting corollary is that VoIP adoption would be higher in MMOs where there is easy access to enjoyable raid content. By raid content, I mean content that requires well-coordinated groups. For example, instances in WoW that are easily finished by pick-up groups (i.e., Stockades, SM, ZF, etc.) would not require the tight coordination afforded by VoIP. In other words, we might expect VoIP adoption to be lower in games that had little content that required this level of tight coordination, if that content was accessible to very few players, or if that content was simply not enjoyable.

Of course, once players adopt VoIP tools and become familiar with them, then they do become social in addition to instrumental tools. VoIP then may play a significant role in creating stronger bonds within a guild. In other words, accessible raid content that is enjoyable may indirectly enhance guild cohesion via the pressure to adopt VoIP tools.

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Social Constraints and Player Reactions to VoIP

I also think there are some social constraints to VoIP adoption within these environments. One thing that I’ve already mentioned is that it breaks immersion. The ogre voice in your head always sounds better than the ogre voice most people can produce. So mismatch can be a problem in terms of immersion.

But these mismatches can cause other kinds of problems. So for example, given that 50% of all female characters in WoW are played by male players, how might they react to VoIP. One player provided an interesting perspective on this site.

Another thing to keep in mind is that voice carries social markers that can indicate age, social status, ethnic background, and geographical location - markers that could potentially be discriminated against. So for example, a mature 16 year old player who is leading a guild may not want others to know his/her real age. Many Chinese players also complain about being accused of being a gold farmer when they are seen using Mandarin in typed chat. The “English Test” used to screen out potential gold farmers in pick-up groups also reflect this discrimination. VoIP may exacerbate this discrimination based on accented English.

There are also anecdotal cases of players who have VoIP tools but prefer to not use them for fear of alienating their friends who do not have VoIP access. And finally, technology can ostracize people in another way. It is important to remember that enablers can also disable. After all, technology never benefits everyone equally and oftentimes create unintended victims. The following remark on NerfBat.com illustrates one of these cases.

The Gamer Habitat

I was pursuing several different ideas that led to this data set. One theme was the use of laptops vs. desktops. Within the MMO gaming sphere, there is a notion of “drawing spousal aggro” - spouses getting angry at gamers who spend the whole afternoon/night playing. In one of our PARC meetings, Bob Moore commented that the low technical requirements of WoW allowed gamers to play the game on a laptop next to their spouse while watching TV (i.e., increasing physical proximity via mobility), and might thereby lower their spousal aggro. But this interaction between form factor and social proximity led me to thinking about broader questions about whether gamers usually play alone (physically) or whether they usually play with someone else in the room. And given the number of gamers who regularly play with someone in their family, the next natural question was how many gamers play in a room where someone else is also playing.

Overall (N = 2692), 90% of respondents typically play on their desktops, while 10% typically play on their laptops. There were no gender differences, and the age differences were very mild (7% in the 12-17 group, peaks in the 18-22 age group at around 13%, and the rest averages around 9-10%).

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I started out by asking players how many computers they had in their household on which an MMO was regularly played. Overall, 45% of respondents had more than one computer in their household on which an MMO was regularly played. The gender differences that emerge make sense in the context of earlier data showing that female players are more likely to be playing with someone they know in real life (i.e., romantic partner, children, etc.)

Here is the graph for players who have more than 2 computers in their household on which an MMO is regularly played. Again, we see a gender difference, although this time it is only apparent after the 23-28 age range.

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This leads us to the frequency of MMO gamers who usually play with someone else in the same room (i.e., two gamers, two computers, playing together). It was striking that for female players in the 23-35 age range, more than half regularly play together with someone else in the same room.

Here’s another way to think about the issue. I asked players to indicate whether they usually play alone or with someone else in the room. With the numbers we’ve seen so far, it makes sense that female players are more likely to be with someone else while playing, whereas male players are more likely to be alone.

But overall, I think these numbers highlight the often social aspects of game-play, not only in the virtual world, but in the physical world. MMO gamers are playing together with other people in two separate worlds. Some may argue that people are displacing interaction with each other with a virtual and less real experience, but watching TV together passively seems to me to be the far more pervasive and less interactive phenomenon. Narratives from players who do play together also challenge the non-interactive argument. Their descriptions highlight how playing together in the virtual world can strengthen real world relationships.

The Origin of Guild Leaders

[I’d like to thank James Scarborough who offered his assistance in coding the open-ended responses for this data set.]

As I was thinking about guild leadership, I became interested to learn more about how guild leaders become guild leaders. For example, are they more likely to be guilds they created themselves, or did they inherit or get the position later on. At the same time, I didn’t want to assume that those were the only two options. So I asked players who were guild leaders to describe how they became a guild leader in an open-ended format.

I received 231 responses altogether. For this data set, I’d like to thank James Scarborough who offered his assistance in coding the open-ended responses. Of the 231 responses, 173 could be coded as either “created myself” or “became guild leader after guild was created”. The remaining 58 cases consisted of responses where: 1) the response didn’t make it clear how guild was created, 2) the player helped create a guild that he/she later became a leader to, 3) the guild was created by two or more people, or 4) a missing or unrelated response.

Among the 173 coded responses, the majority of guild leaders (68%) consisted of players who became guild leaders of guilds they did not create. The remaining (32%) created their own guilds. There were no gender differences, but there were significant age differences. Older guild leaders were much more likely to have assumed leadership of a guild they did not create, whereas younger guild leaders tend to have created their own guilds.

This suggests, to a certain degree, a life-cycle of guilds. While guilds tend to be created by younger players, it is older players who tend to assume the leadership role some point down the line.

Life as a Guild Leader

About 15% of players have been guild leaders at one point or another. In a recent survey, I asked some of these players to talk about their experiences and to describe pain-points and lessons learned. About 280 respondents wrote about their guild leadership experiences. Because the unique difficulties of leading and managing high-end raids has been covered in these two earlier articles, the material presented here will focus on other facets of guild leadership. What the player narratives make clear is that being a guild leader is tough, oftentimes a thankless job where moments of satisfaction are very memorable but rare.

I’m hoping that bringing their stories together here can serve two goals. First of all, the disparate experiences do reveal common pain-points that some respondents suggested potential solutions for. Players who are currently guild leaders or are thinking of becoming guild leaders might be able to glean some helpful information from them. And secondly, the experiences of these players highlight the complex, emergent properties of play in a networked environment. When you are the leader of a guild of 50 players, gaming can become more stressful than your daytime job.

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You Can’t Please Everyone

Many guild leaders described how they tried to be everyone’s friend and tried making sure that everyone in the guild was happy. The most common lesson that respondents learned was that it’s simply impossible to please everyone.

One reason why this is the case is because guild leaders do not have the resources to make everyone happy. And in fact, trying to do so creates a culture of asking the guild leader for more.

But the main reason you can’t please everyone is because of the sheer diversity of needs and motivations in any group of people. Different guild members are in the guild for different reasons and derive satisfaction from different things.

Another feature of the MMORPG demographic exacerbates this problem. Groups in real-life workplaces are typically composed of people with similar backgrounds, experiences, and training. Being a leader at college means leading people between the ages of 18-22. And the new recruits at big consulting firms every year are eerily similar people. But being a leader in an MMORPG means leading people between the ages of 10 and 70 - some have never had a job, some are professors, some are retired grandparents, while others are veterans. Pleasing everybody has never been so hard.

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Mediating Conflict

In any situation where people have different needs and motivations, conflicts will arise. Inevitably, the guild leader will be asked to become the mediator.

For many guild leaders, mediating conflict becomes stressful due to their petty nature and the time it takes to resolve these constant conflicts.

These conflicts tend to be particularly stressful because of the existing friendships and ties within the guild. Because guild leaders are friends with many players in the guild, these disputes oftentimes involve one or more of their friends.

As several respondents noted, being fair and impartial was the most important aspect of mediating these conflicts.

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A Firm Hand

Many respondents noted that laying down a firm hand was important. Because many guilds start off as small, casual and friendly guilds, guild leaders oftentimes feel conflicted when it comes to disciplining guild members.

A common theme that arose was the uneasiness in learning that sometimes you have to be tough and say no. The following two players describe this transition in their leadership experience.

Other guild leaders agreed that delaying these hard decisions tends to make things worse, and that problems tend to fester if they are not dealt with.

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Den Mother + Bitch Goddess

At the same time, several respondents articulated the duality of being a guild leader. It is not easy to be friend and leader at the same time.

The notion that guild leadership was a form of motherhood echoed among other respondents.

And this aspect of being a guild leader also produced its unique set of challenges.

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In and Out

One final pain-point that emerged was the difficulty in picking the right people for the guild as well as the difficulty in kicking people out of the guild. Several guild leaders lamented that they oftentimes do not have the resources to screen potential guild members.

The worst of these cases would deliberately use the guild for their own persona gains and had no intention of staying with the guild.

And as we’ve seen already, kicking people out is difficult for many guild leaders because they are uncomfortable with taking on a disciplinary role. But for some players, having someone leave their guild is sometimes an emotional loss.

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Make Rules. Follow Them.

As respondents discussed their difficulties in leading guilds, two important guidelines emerged. First of all, guild leaders highlighted the importance of having ground rules, making people aware of them, and being consistent with those rules.

You can only be consistent if you have pre-established rules. And these narrative suggest that it is this consistency that makes conflict resolution and discipline far easier to deal with.

Delegation

Secondly, there is only so much one person can do. As a guild grows, it becomes impossible for one person to deal with everything that happens.

As the following players have learned, guild leaders need to learn to promote trusted guild members to officer roles and delegate duties to them.

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Obligated To Play

Now that the difficulties and complexities of guild leadership and management have been laid out, it should not come as a surprise that many respondents described their game-play as an obligation. For many of these players, there simply was no longer time for “play” in the game.

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More Work Than Their Real Jobs

Some players described their game-play more explicitly as a second full-time job.

Others lamented that they escaped into a fantasy world only to be doing their day-time jobs again, the difference being that they didn’t receive pay checks in this fantasy world.

The following narrative draws out an unsettling question. What happens when our leisure activities become more work than our day-time jobs? After all, how many of us get to lead 500 people in real life?

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Acquiring Leadership Skills

One theme that has flowed through many of the narratives we’ve seen is that people have learned important leadership and management skills from their game-play experiences. After all, leading people involves many of the same skills regardless of where it happens. Several players noted how these new skills have helped them outside of the game.

These examples highlight games as places where the opportunity to learn important skills emerges, without prior planning by explicit teachers, and without a set curriculum. Video games do change people, and fortunately, those changes aren’t always towards mindless violence or aggression. It is unfortunate that so much of the current media attention on video games, with the incessant finger-pointing at addiction and violence, distracts us from the far more interesting ways in which games can affect and change people.

Welcome to The Daedalus Project

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