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In the summer and fall of 2006, I worked with a technology start-up, Seriosity, in Palo Alto that was working on a project for IBM. IBM was interested in exploring how leadership in virtual worlds may or may not be different from leadership in the physical world (i.e., traditional approaches to fostering and identifying leadership skills and attributes). At Seriosity, I worked with a small team to explore leadership in MMOs via game-play videos, open-ended surveys, and many internal discussions as to what was going on.
The Seriosity/IBM report has just been released publicly and I’m glad I was a part of this project. I think many of the insights in this project will resonate with players' experiences in MMOs and also provide food for thought as to the future of corporate leadership.
Note that there are two reports. The shorter one is the report for IBM. The second, longer one is Seriosity’s full report on leadership in MMOs.
We’ve looked at player fatigue and likelihood of quitting before. In this article, we’ll drill down a bit more and look at which demographic and play factors are most likely to drive quitting. These differences would also hint at how a game population changes as a game matures, in terms of which kinds of player are most likely to stay in or leave the population.
One stable finding we’ve seen before is that female players are less likely to quit an MMO. In the question below, players were asked to rate the likelihood that they would quit in the next 3 months on a 5-point scale (1 = Very Unlikely, 5 = Very Likely). The graph also shows an age trend. Older players are less likely to quit compared with younger players. Or more accurately, male players are less likely to quit as they get older. Female players across all age groups are just as likely to quit. Once past the age of 35, male and female players seem to have converged on the same likelihood of quitting.
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A multiple regression would let us tease apart the relative importance of these demographic factors (i.e., age, gender, hours played per week) as well as include motivations of play factors (i.e., achievement, social, and immersion) on the likelihood of quitting. The model that emerged showed that the relative importance of the factors goes like this:
1) Hours (b = -.17): Not surprisingly, the more a player currently plays, the less likely they will quit.
2) Social Motivation (b = -.10): What was surprising was how much the social motivations were related to likelihood of quitting. The more a player enjoyed socializing in an MMO, the less likely they will quit the game.
3) Age (b = -.08): Age comes next. As we’ve seen, older players are less likely to quit.
4) Achievement Motivation (b = .06): The result here is unintuitive at first. The more a player is achievement-oriented, the more likely they will quit the game. This may be due to grinding and “burning-out” factors, or that players who are goal-driven lose interest in the game once they reach their goals or if they perceive their goals to be not worth the effort.
5) Gender (b = .03): The somewhat striking gender difference in the graph above actually isn’t a good predictor of whether a player will quit compared with the other factors listed here.
6) Immersion Motivation (b = .008): And finally, how much a player enjoys role-playing or exploration has no impact on their likelihood of quitting.
This set of factors implies that as a game matures, and assuming that there isn’t a large constant influx of new players, the maturing player base will tend to be more socially-oriented, older, and less achievement-oriented. It’ll be interesting to see this in an actual game with longitudinal data.
In the most recent survey, I also asked players about the number of active subscriptions they had to MMOs. The majority of players (76%) only have one active subscription, and most of remaining players had 2-3 subscriptions. In less than 2% of cases, players had 4 or more subscriptions.
Of those who have more than one subscription, about one-third are playing just one of the MMOs they are subscribed to. Most of the remainder (58%) prefer one game among the ones they are subscribed to. Only very few players (10%) spend about equal time in the games they’ve subscribed to.
This data suggests that many players with multiple accounts may be transitioning between games, rather than deliberately trying to play both.
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Open-ended responses probing respondents for why they kept largely unplayed subscriptions active brought out a set of distinct reasons.
Social Links
For some players, keeping the account active allowed them to stay in touch with friends or family members who were still active in those games, even though they themselves had moved on to other games.
Waited for SWG to get fixed, but since that never happened I went back to it for the roleplay. I kept WoW because I have many friends that play. DDO same reason. [SWG, M, 35]
Sentimentality
Other players were sentimental less about their friends online than for the accumulated hard work and memories that their characters carry with them. For them, canceling the account might mean seeing all that effort disappear.
Lots of time invested in the toons, have a certain affection for them, something like that for a pet. Even if not active, it is hard to. [WoW, M, 54]
the time commitment is huge, and i don't want to lose all the progress i have made with the game (eqoa: frontiers) because i feel that i may play again. [WoW, M, 15]
I don’t want to lose the time invested in the character, I have a awesome bounty hunter in SWG and i have put entirely too much time in the character to have him disappear. [WoW, M, 33]
Subscription Plan
Others were simply waiting for their subscription plans to run out. They had bought long-term subscription plans for the discount that they will not renew in the next cycle.
Purchased a 3-month sub, and have 2 months left. [WoW, M, 46]
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Just in Case
While some players are keeping their accounts to maintain their past efforts, other players are keeping their accounts in case they may be interested in the game again in the future.
It's a matter of leaving my options open...If the MMO I am currently playing gets too frustrating, I can easily switch to the other. [SWG, M, 39]
I think I would be wasting my money either way, but I would rather have the option of playing it, and having paid for it, than deactivating time and not having that option. [Lineage 2, F, 18]
Hard to Cancel
Some players note that canceling an account may not be as easy as it seems. Several players noted that in certain instances, canceling may require a phone call.
Seems that every time I remember to cancel the account, I'm not near a computer to actually cancel it. Other times I'll remember but procrastinate and tell myself that I'll cancel right after ____. Also, the difficulty of canceling an account greatly comes into play for me. To cancel one of my accounts, I had to call customer service. It took me months to get around to actually calling them. [EQ2, M, 22]
Forgot to Cancel
And finally, a very few players admitted that they had simply forgotten about those active subscriptions until they filled out the survey. You heard it here first. Participating in online surveys by Nick Yee can save you money.
I keep forgetting about it. Will go there right now after this survey to cancel the other account. [WoW, M, 31]
Playing an MMO is more than just about the time spent within the game. Many players seem to spend time reading and posting on forums, managing guild websites, or looking up FAQs and guides that others have written - activities that are very much a part of their MMO game-play. I was interested in getting a sense of just how much time the typical player spends in these meta-game activities.
I first explored contributions that players may have made to the body of knowledge that surrounds MMOs. While 30% of players indicated that they almost never post on forums, about an equal percentage (36%) post on MMO forums once or several times a day.
And about 35% of respondents indicated that they had created at least one FAQ or guide for an MMO at some point.
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I then asked respondents to estimate the number of hours each week that they regularly spend in four types of activities:
1) Searching for and reading up on information about the game (i.e., character classes, abilities, quests, etc.)
2) Reading and/or posting on forums related to the MMO I play (excluding time spent on the your guild’s website).
3) Reading and/or posting on your guild’s website.
4) Guild related tasks such as scheduling raids / managing DKP points / other guild logistics.
Players spent on average 3.5 hours each week looking for and reading up on game-specific information, and 3.55 hours reading or posting on forums. For players who belonged to guilds (about 87% of respondents), they spent on average 2.7 hours reading or posting on their guild’s website, and 1 hour managing guild related tasks. In other words, the average player spends about 10.8 hours each week performing game-related tasks outside of the game.
In the sample that this data was drawn from, players spent on average 23.4 hours each week in the game. Thus, on average, the majority of players spend about an additional 50% of their game-playing time outside of the game performing game-related activities. While time spent in the game is the more intuitive and visible part of playing an MMO, this data shows that a significant part (about one-third of total invested time) of what it means to play an MMO happens outside of the game itself.
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.
I have found out there are a lot of players that expect to be talking to a girl when they see a female player. I felt uncomfortable in certain situations but I would not lead anyone on and figured no one would ever know since I was in some unknown area of the world.
Now as I get closer to level 60 I’m finding out that game end raid parties use speech/sound software to communicate instead of typing. Because of this I now have to ditch this player and roll a male player so that I fit in with what’s expected.
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.
How much fun are MMO players really having with their current game? And which players are the most likely to quit because they’re bored? Four questions in a recent survey explored these issues:
- How much fun are you having with your current MMO?
- How likely are you to quit in the next month?
- Would you sell your account for $200?
- How excited are you about experiencing content (skills, spells, dungeons, etc.) you haven’t seen yet?
With regards to the amount of fun with the current MMO, there were no age differences. Players of all ages were having comparable levels of self-reported fun. There was a mild gender differences. Female players reported having more fun overall than male players. A multiple regression with player motivations as predictors found a weak model (r-squared = .06) where the Socializing motivation emerged as the best predictor of current fun. The more a player chats and socializes in an MMO, the more likely they report having fun.
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A multiple regression with player motivations as predictors found a weak model (r-squared = .04) where again the Socializing motivation emerged as the strongest predictor. The more players chat and socialize, the lower their likelihood of quitting.
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A multiple regression with player motivations as predictors found a weak model (r-squared = .09) where the Competition and Relationship motivations emerged as the strongest predictors. The more competitive a player is, the more likely they will sell their account. On the other hand, the more a player enjoys forming relationships in an MMO, the less likely they will sell their account.
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For how many MMO players is their current MMO their first real video gaming experience, or is it more likely the case that MMO players have extensive prior experiences with video games? Players were asked about their prior experiences with other genres of video games as well as how often they played video games before their current MMO.
There were sharp gender differences with responses to both questions. Male players are more likely to have been avid gamers prior to their current MMO, while female players are more likely to have had less prior experience with video games in general.
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Of all respondents (N = 1911), 54% have had experiences with MUDs/MOOs. Among those who have had MUD/MOO experiences, most of those experiences were rated as brief. Female players were more likely to have had more extensive experiences with MUDs/MOOs.
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Experience with table-top RPGs is most likely among those who are currently between 29 - 35 of age - people who would have been teenagers in the 80s when D&D was popularized (and then demonized).
The overall pattern that emerges is that even though male players have slightly more experience with video gaming than female players, overall, current MMO players seem to have a fairly substantial background in games that were the predecessors of MMOs - i.e., table-top RPGs and MUDs/MOOs. In other words, it seems that MMOs were more of a logical next-step for many current MMO gamers than a truly new kind of activity.
How many MMO players purchase virtual currency? And how much real money do they usually spend on virtual currency?
In a recent survey (N = 1923), 22% of respondents said that they had purchased virtual currency (referred to here in shorthand as RMT - real money transfer). There was a mild correlation with age (r = .11) and no gender differences. In other words, male and female players were equally likely to purchase virtual currency. A multiple regression revealed that none of the motivations were substantial predictors of RMT likelihood (r-squared = .04) - although within the weak model, the Relationship motivation was the best predictor.
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A lot of MMO gamers play with someone they know in real life. For example, 60% of female gamers and 16% of male gamers play with a romantic partner. 40% of female gamers and 35% of male gamers play with a family member. As you can imagine, playing with someone you know can be both a good and bad thing. Here are stories that cover many different aspects of that game-play.
Enhances Game-Play
One dominant theme was that playing with someone you know in RL enhances game play. It simply makes the game more fun to know who you’re playing with.
Jason from New Orleans describes how his EQ experience was enhanced after his best friend started playing.
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Too Much ObligationBut it’s not always fun to play with someone you have an existing relationship with. Several players commented on the intrusion of obligation and how playing a game can feel more like baby-sitting.
I briefly played with my little cousin in the beta for Lineage many years ago. It was terrible, because I always felt as if it were my duty to make sure he was always getting adena, and the right weapons, and the right spells, and on and on. I don't want to play games to just have another outlet for the responsibilities i have in real life with the same people. [CoH, M, 19]
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For many, the MMO provides a space to keep in touch with a friend or family member who lives somewhere else. The MMO space is distinctively different from email, IM or the phone because you can’t collaborate and do things together in those mediums. What the MMO provides is a space to not only spend time together but to work on something in common.
Ryan is a grad student in legal philosophy from Toronto. For him, playing an MMO with a good friend reminds him of them terrorizing IRC chat rooms together when they were young.
I play MMO's with my fiancée. I'm a graduate student on the west coast, and he lives on the east coast. It's a way for us to do things together. In game, we were much the same as out of the game. I think it helped the relationship, because it was more 'personal' contact than through phone calls, email, or some sort of instant messaging program. [DAoC, F, 29]
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For others, the game-play strengthens existing bonds by providing another shared source of entertainment as well as ways for people to build trust through working together.
I play with my boyfriend. We 'dork out' together, side by side on our respective computers. Gaming is considered to be quality 'us' time. During game play, there's a lot of high emotions, yelling and screaming. But we value the game time because it brings us closer together. And it's a lot more fun if you can coordinate efforts verbally (instead of through the chat window). It's important for couples to have a common activity that they participate in on a regular basis. Our common interest is gaming. Actually, I don't think I would play if it weren't for him, but he plays regardless. [AO, F, 23]
I've played with a work colleague, that I sat beside most days and enjoyed that. Probably bought us closer together and we are good friends rather than colleagues now. Also played with my wife for a while, which was very enjoyable as I was partaking in something I enjoyed with the person I most wanted to be with. [EQ2, M, 39]
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But playing together means making decisions together and personality differences are magnified in MMO spaces because so much of the game play revolves around reacting to and acting upon something that happens. And playing with someone you know can become more of a struggle.
I currently play with an ex-colleague. My colleague and I lost contact with each other after I left my job because our lives had taken different directions. I started up and account on EverQuest II and called my colleague and told him about it. That day he signed up and now we play together almost every night and even talk on the phone again. I'd say we're as close now as we were when we were working together. Since he always needs to be the best at everything, playing with him can be difficult at times. He plays often and is motivated by gaining experience and levels. His goal is always to be the highest level character in the game. I like to play multiple characters and find enjoyment in doing quests, helping others, chatting, role-playing, etc. His character (he concentrates on one at a time) will surpass mine in levels and we end up splitting up in the game. He doesn't care to slow down to wait for my character to catch up to his unless he needs my character to help his character with something. [EQ2, F, 28]
My boyfriend and I have played many MMORPGS together and, in my opinion, the experience is always a poor one. We each have different playing styles: I get frustrated by how he always wants to group with me (sometimes I like to play alone), and he gets annoyed when I recreate my character (which I tend to do frequently), causing him to lose an equal-leveled partner. [CoH, M, 22]
For others, the MMO space highlighted existing conflicts in a relationship in unexpected ways.
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It All Spills OverJust as the good things carry over into real life, so do the bad things. It’s hard to contain disagreements and fights that happen in the virtual space and keep them there.
Tamara, a planet-hopping ESL teacher currently in Austria, ran a guild with her roommate and describes the good and bad sides of that.
For a few people, the conflicts that emerged from the game play had a significant negative impact on their RL relationship.
I had a real life friend playing on the same server as I did on EverQuest. It was neither good or bad, but we had a lot of arguments. He didn't know the game as well as I did, even though he started first, so he disagreed with me a lot. I also lend him money every so often, but he did not focus on repaying back to me. In a way, it loosened the relationship [DAoC, M, 18]
At first, my wife and I started to play SWG to do something together. Unfortunately we only opened one account, so she had a toon on one server and I had one on another, therefore this rarely happened. Furthermore, with her being more outgoing and social than I, she developed friendships more rapidly and was invited to do more interesting things, thus leveling her toon much faster than I did mine. This led to her getting more and more of the playtime, until I hardly played at all and she played VERY frequently. It has caused strain on our marriage and I have since developed a resentment for something I initially really enjoyed playing. [SWG, M, 34]
A co-worker of mine drew me in to playing Asheron's Call. Since we sat next to each other at work and both became intensely absorbed in the game rules, mechanics and adventures we actually spent a good portion of our work days discussing, creating charts, planning quests, and mapping out careers for the game. In-game we enjoyed a lot of teamwork, we pooled our resources together and both became experts on the game. His real life bipolar personality and high stress level drove him to take the game a little too seriously, and it carried over to our work environment, which turned very sour. Although he quit the game, I still had to deal with him at work and my only escape from him was when we were all laid off. This story is odd to me because normally you can just squelch a grief player in-game or move to a different server, but in this case the caustic 'virtual' personality plagued me in real life. [EQ2, M, 36]
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Another kind of spillover that occurs doesn’t derive from an existing personality difference that results in a conflict but sometimes players feel the game forces them to choose against people they know in real life. The problem is that your virtual decisions impact your real life.
“Witkin” is an IT director who works in the Nevada casino industry. He played EQ with a co-worker but decisions he made in EverQuest played out in the real world.
The EQ world can be social or solitary depending on how you choose to play, and I had developed an in-game reputation for being knowledgeable of my class, and a reliable player all around. That reputation resulted in my being invited to join a well-respected guild. This created tension in the real life relationship with my co-worker. I couldn't invite him to the guild, and while I liked him as a RL friend, I wasn't fond of his play style. Eventually we stopped hanging out much in RL, and he started alternate characters to avoid interacting with me in-game. There was a definite, tangible effect on my real life friendship with that person based on how we choose to play a video game. [EQ, M, 33]
2 of my friends where basically really sucky at playing games and thus I had them removed from the guild. This obviously caused some friction IRL but luckily not so much as our friendship ended. I used the analogy of 'Michael Jordan doesn't have all of his RL friends playing on the same team as them' to justify this. I guess it boils down to whether or not you think that a RL friendship is enough of a reason to make your OL gaming experience less fun that it could be. [WoW, M, 30]
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But in the same way that the MMO space can magnify existing personality differences, they can provide the stage on which those RL tensions can be resolved because the roots of those tensions are clarified and laid out. The play space can become a space where RL tensions are “played” out and resolved.
Constance is a graduate student in theology from Wisconsin. Here she describes how playing together reshaped her relationship with a close friend.
He had played the game since creation date, I started two years in. He knew everything and he was very bossy and controlling and it made me insane. (Not to mention how many times he lead me to my death.) I would get more furious playing the game with him then I think I had ever gotten in real life. I am typically very mild, but he made me feel like a piece of luggage and I would get so mad that my eyes would water and I would have to log out. Often when I logged in I hoped he wasn't on.
I kept making chars and not giving the names to him. It baffled me. 'It's only a game,' I would tell myself. But I felt like a puppet. Or a disgruntled 50s housewife. I felt like I did not have a char, I was just an extension of his char. It speaks to the immersion level of the game, because I was truly upset on a personal-identity level. What is interesting, is that we don't fight at all anymore. We still fought for some time after ceasing to be romantically involved and only being friends, so I don't think that was it.
I honestly believe that we both changed in RL because of this experience. I learned not to get so upset if I'm not in complete control and don't always know everything about what is going on. And he learned how to be co-operative and not controlling, and how to communicate rather than dictate. Now there is no one I'd rather game with, and I don't have as much fun playing when he isn't on. I think the in-game arguing, though it never occurred to the same level outside of the game, was an intense version of something that existed in real life, but was not as clearly seen in real life. The game situation heightened tensions that were more muted in real life. Mild communication problems in real life became extreme in the game. [EQ, F, 34]
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Oftentimes, the game space allows people we know to take on roles that differ from their roles in real life. Some players commented on how MMOs allowed them to see people they knew in a different light. The MMO experience allowed them to rethink the predefined roles they were used to seeing each other in.
In the real world my grandson is a fairly silent, somewhat withdrawn, boy who acts much younger than his 12 years; inside the game his characters are outgoing and verbose. In the real world he hides his intelligence and asserts that he is uninterested in most things most of the time; his ingame attitude is one of immense curiosity -- he's discovered things about some of the zones within hours of his first visit to them that some long time players don't know. In game he values loyalty and fair play very highly; out of game he seems unaware of the concepts. He regularly tries to help characters who are lower level than he is by communicating either out of character or using tells. e.g. he said to me during one game, 'you med for a while Nana' and went zipping off, up the hilll and out of sight; on returning he explained that he'd seen another character that was 'green' going somewhere 'over his head'. [EQ, F, 58]
Brian is a system admin from Maryland who works on a military base. Here he first describes his surprise at his wife’s more extraverted personality in the game and then how that allowed them to work on bringing that confidence into the real world.
It's perhaps a little sad to admit, but prior to seeing her express those traits, I had considered her personality quite limited due to her shyness and lack of confidence. My role as a husband was part equal and part superior; I made the decisions for our relationship, I decided what we would do for dinner, I took care of things and acted as much parent as spouse.
When I saw her start to show confidence in-game I started giving her real world reminders of her other personality. In retrospect I could have taken steps to build her confidence and help change her personality around without the game as a motivating factor and sandbox, but sadly I probably would not have tried -- it was knowing that she had the potential that in turn caused my change in approach.
She gained a lot of confidence in herself. Instead of being a quiet and uncertain woman, she now goes out with friends, enjoys karaoke, has worked a couple of jobs (previously she was afraid to go to interviews!). [FFXI, M, 25]
The MMO space can be many things for a relationship. It can create conflicts that spill over into the real world. It can become a stage where differences become magnified and conflicts escalate. It can be a window into parts of other people that we’ve never seen in real life. And most interesting of all, they can be catalysts of change by highlighting those differences and nuances in people who we already know and helping us think about them in entirely different ways.
The issue of civil liberty has been debated a lot over the past few years, especially after the 9/11 attacks, but let me describe to you what is probably the most perfect police state that exists.
The state knows exactly where you are at any given moment. It has the ability to teleport you and imprison you instantaneously and without warning. The state can change your name if it doesn’t like it and provides no way for others to connect your old and new name. More importantly, the state can alter your height, your gender, your age and any other aspect of your physical appearance with a few keystrokes. It can make everyone equal in every aspect of physical appearance and ability.
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Others might argue that players can always leave a game if they don’t like it, but it is not easy for most players to quit a game because of the emotional and time investment that has been made. More importantly, this particular critique implies leaving one MMORPG for another, in essence transferring between different police states. As more of our work and personal lives become embedded into virtual worlds, perhaps the central question becomes - what does it mean when police states become seductive and fun? What does it mean when police states are chosen as places to escape to?
As our virtual worlds take on social and cultural complexity of their own and begin to mimic many real world functions - businesses, elections, and protests - will we find more or less freedom than we have in the real world?
Addendum (In response to reader comments):
I totally apologize for the unintended downplaying of those who do live in real police states.
I was more interested in pointing out the total control (especially over communication channels) that online environments have. And granted we can currently leave the medium altogether, but how soon is it until everything we do is digitally mediated?
And will those systems always remain separate or are they more likely to merge? And if only a few corporations control most of our communication channels, do we really trust them to be benevolent and working towards the greater good?
What fascinates me is this - Are MMORPGs a glimpse of how work and social life will become in 5-10 years? And if so, how comfortable should we be with the idea of such perfect control of communication and existence?
The boundaries between work and play have become increasingly blurred due to digital media technologies. Take web cookies for example. Companies such as DoubleClick.com use hidden cookies to build in-depth profiles of individual users as they surf the web:
Over a period of time DoubleClick compiles a list of which member sites the user has visited and revisited, using this information to create a profile of the user's tastes and interests. With this profile in hand the DoubleClick server can select advertising that is likely to be of interest to the user. (from http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/wwwsf2.html)In other words, as individuals browse the web, they become both content producers and consumers. More importantly, users are performing this work under the guise of entertainment, producing information with economic value but which they derive no profit from. Users are in fact performing free labor.
The same occurs with TiVo. As Andrejevic (2002) has pointed out, as TV watchers use TiVo, they reveal their tastes to the system which in turn caters more and more to them - a “commercial paradigm of interactive media as a means of inducing viewers to view more efficiently”. This form of work benefits media companies at the expense of individuals. After all, in a strange way, consumers are paying TiVo while performing free labor.
The blurring of work and play in MMORPGs has three primary forces - economic profiteering from the sales of virtual goods, the growing resemblance of play to real work, and the embedding of real work into these environments.
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As Dibbell (2003) describes, virtual items and property in online environments such as Ultima Online have economic value, and users accumulate these items to sell for real money on Internet auction sites such as eBay. The transformation of gaming activity into economic activity is most striking in the presence of companies that pay teenagers in developing countries to “play” these games for 40 hours a week and derive a profit from selling these virtual goods for real money (The Walrus, 2004). This transformation of play into work is driven by entrepreneurial users who see the opportunity for bringing economic activity into the game, but what is more intriguing is how the increasing complexity of play in these worlds is coming to resemble real work.
The Growing Resemblance of Play to Real Work
Most MMORPGs base their core mechanics on operant conditioning, a system of rewards that increases frequency of a behavior. The rewards cycle is a random ratio schedule (exactly like casino slot machines) where a reward is given every x times an action is performed, where x increases exponentially as the user progresses. Simple actions are gradually replaced by complex, time-consuming actions and typical users are essentially trained to spend on average 22 hours per week in these environments. This is striking given that the average MMORPG user is 26 years old and about 50% of MMORPG users work full-time. As some users note,
I stopped playing because I just didn't want to commit to the crazy raid times (6+ hours in the evening?) [EQ, F, 27]
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While early MMORPGs focused on combat-oriented advancement, recent MMORPGs have provided non-combat advancement options, so users can now choose to become chefs, hair-stylists, architects, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and yes, even politicians in certain MMORPGs. The example of pharmaceutical manufacturers (PMs) will be used to illustrate the seriousness of play in the MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies.
To become a PM, a user must locate raw chemicals and minerals on the planet using geological surveying tools. Different resources have different attributes which contribute to the final quality of the product as described on each product schematic. To produce high-quality products, users must therefore find the best combination of resources through a time-consuming planet-hopping process. Resource gathering is only meaningfully performed using industrial harvesters bought from architects (other users). Even then, resource gathering is slow and users must check their harvesters on a daily basis. Raw resources are combined into sub-components in factories (also bought from architects), and then combined into the final product. Because each factory run take a few hours of real time to complete and because most products require several sub-components, users have to plan out their production chain fairly well to ensure their machinery doesn’t idle and drain their capital. To complicate matters, resources are randomly replaced on a weekly basis, so users have to constantly survey for new resources as well. Finally, users must market and sell these goods on the open market, which means competing with other users who are selling similar products.
The time required to acquire the expertise and capital to become a PM in Star Wars Galaxies is in the order of 4-6 weeks of normal game play, and thereafter requires sustained daily time investment to maintain the business. The irony is that users are paying to perform what increasingly resembles serious, complex work in these environments.
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Given that MMORPGs are creating environments where complex work is becoming seductively fun, how difficult would it be for MMORPG developers to embed real work into these environments? In fact, this is already occurring in There.com – a virtual world in a contemporary setting. Fashion companies pay There.com to embed test products into the environment where they can track user purchases and how often they wear the garment. More importantly, because the social network of every user can be mapped, it is also easy to spot who the trendsetters are. The information of how likely trendsetters purchase and wear a test product provides highly valuable information to the fashion companies. Of course, the irony is that There.com users are paying to work for a third-party company, with both sources of profit going to There.com.
This can be taken one step further because we know that users are willing to perform complex, tedious tasks in these environments. In fact, they have been trained to have fun performing these tasks. Consider the fact that cancer screening is routinely out-sourced to India because it is relatively cheap to train a lay-person to identify suspicious patterns on a diagnostic scan, and it is cheaper for several dozen of these workers to look at a single scan than it is to have a doctor in the US look at the same scan. Moreover, the accuracy rates are actually better because the redundancy lowers the rate of misclassifications. MMORPG environments could easily tap into their free labor pool of dedicated users by embedding real world tasks into the “game”. What is clear is that there are many different ways in which real work can be embedded into MMORPGs – different ways in which game developers can seduce users to pay to perform free labor.
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Considering all the things that happen in these worlds - weddings, political elections, sales of virtual real estate for real money, genocides, and teenage mafia gangs and prostitution rings - it seems strange that some people, both gamers and non-gamers, still say that “it’s just a game”. Ironically, the most appropriate reply might be “No, it’s just work”.
References
Andrejevic, M (2002). The work of being watched: interactive media and the exploitation of self-disclosure. Critical Studies in Media Communication.
Dibbell, J. (2003). The Unreal Estate Boom. Wired 11.01, January, 2003. Available at: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.01/gaming.html
The Walrus. (2004). Game Theories, from http://www.walrusmagazine.com/04/05/06/1929205.shtml
Player fatigue is the flip-side of attachment to the game. The following survey questions were used to explore player fatigue:
For both, the response choices were 5 fully-labeled points on a unipolar scale. The correlation between the two responses was .69 (p < .001). The two were summed to create a player fatigue index for each respondent. Male players (M = 4.20, SD = 2.01) scored significantly higher on this index than female players (M = 3.60, SD = 1.85), t(2348) = 5.18, p < . 001. Younger players scored higher than older players (r = -.14, p < .001). In other words, younger and male players have faster life-cycles than older and female players.
Because female players tend to be older than male players, an ANCOVA was performed, controlling for age, to make sure that the age difference wasn't driving the gender difference. The ANCOVA showed that gender was significant independent of age, F(1,2330) = 14.2, p < .001.
As another step in exploring and fleshing out a way to assess motivations for playing, users were asked to rank the following seven motivations in terms of their relative importance in why they play MMORPGs. These motivations were previously identified using rating and factor analysis techniques. Respondents ranked these seven items using a PHP-driven script that functioned as a dynamic visual aid allowing respondents to sort and reorder the 7 items:
The “Analyze” element echoes Bartle’s Explorer type – which has never seemed to resonate with data from players, and the ranking data suggests that even if it does exist that very few players would be Explorers. Note that the “Bartle Test” (not created by Bartle btw) forces respondents to make dichotomous choices, and every answer gives you a score on one of the 4 types. Therefore, that instrument might actually be creating player types rather than assessing them.
Because video games were born out of communication mediums (TV’s, computers), they have been mainly examined as media artifacts rather than construed as extensions of games and past-times. The lens that has been focused on video games is mainly derived from the “media effects” tradition – an attempt to examine the consequences of exposure to different kinds of media. The carryover from that perspective is quite palpable – the incessant suggestion that video games can’t be good, and that the more of it you’re exposed to, the worse off you must be (essentially a parallel of critiques of watching TV). While this framework has mainly been used to vilify violent video games, its basic conclusions seem to have spilled into video games in general and helped ferment general paranoia about video gaming – that they are pointless at best and might actually be highly addictive and dangerous. After all, media has to have an “effect” on you, right?
But in reality, video gaming is much more like a hobby or past-time than passive exposure to media, and the critiques along the lines of addictiveness seem misplaced when we consider our cultural attitudes towards other past-times and hobbies. We seldom ask avid book readers how often they stay up late at night just to finish a chapter from their favorite author. We don’t ask avid mountain climbers how distracted they are while working because they are thinking of their next climb, or whether their spouses feel neglected when they go mountain climbing. We also don’t ask aspiring writers or actors how often their art consumes the rest of their lives. In fact, it’s perceived as noble to be consumed by artistic endeavors.
Furthermore, by categorizing MMORPGs as video games and video games as media artifacts, it allows researchers to talk about MMORPGs using an exposure model. The problem is that this implicitly denies the importance and effect the other thousands of people in the environment have on the experience. It likens MMORPGs as passive an activity as watching TV. But in fact, MMORPGs are social communities. What's frustrating when talking about MMORPGs to non-gamers or some researchers is that they are examing a social community as a media artifact - where fascinating issues of social identity and social interaction are reduced to issues of media exposure and usage.
Games have always been human constructs. The goal of any game has always been a seemingly meaningful task in a scaffolding of arbitrary rules. To a Martian, it may be incredibly difficult to understand the point of football (or golf) or why so many people are emotionally invested in how a ball is tossed on a field, or why any sentient beings would reward tossing balls on fields. When we take a step back, it seems odd that the very people who find so much value in one game deny any value to other kind of games considering that all games at an abstract level are goals defined in the context of arbitrary rules.
Non-gamers scoff at the joy derived from looting a rare item or when a dragon raid succeeds. They wonder how so much happiness can be derived from something that is not real. The answer is that it’s an exact parallel of any other game. After all, achievement is entirely defined by the rules scaffolding. Getting a paper published in a peer-reviewed journal is as much a game as defeating Vox in EverQuest. It’s about a set of rules that were defined by us, not some universal guideline for achievement. The universe could not care any less about what we do.
A colleague once critiqued MMORPGs this way – “Why don’t I just give you a black box with a crank? Every once in a while, you get a piece of candy. That’s what an MMORPG is, right?” Of course, this focuses on the grind and doesn’t take into account the social interactions of the environment, but even if we conceded that point, there’s a problem with that analogy. The problem is that that’s a good description of almost anything in life. When you take away the specifics, even something like trying to get a paper published in a peer-reviewed journal is like that black box.
Many of the frustrations associated with talking about MMORPGs to non-gamers stem from two incorrect categorizations. Either they lump MMORPGs with media artifacts, or they see MMORPGs as games but forget that much of life is a game as well. For some reason, popular culture would like us to think about video games as a very different beast from what it is. Many people talk about video games without noting its striking parallels to other activities we deem worthy and wholesome. Many would have us think that video games can never be taken seriously. The reality is that when you take a step back, most of life is a game.
Sharing real life contact info is one way to measure how willing MMORPG players are in bringing their virtual social network into the real world. While it could be argued that people giving out their IM’s and emails are maintaining superficial guild contact information for distribution, that is a less viable argument for why people give out their phone numbers. I feel that measuring the prevalence of sharing contact information gives a rough approximation of the strength of social ties that develop in the game. Any thoughts?
Below are gender differences in the sharing of contact information, separating the people who have given their contact info to only one person from the people who have shared that information with more than one person.
And here are the age differences. The doubling of people who give out their phone numbers over the age range is quite striking.
Respondents were asked to rank the appeal of 4 non-combat oriented professions. The 4 chosen professions are likely to be instantiated in many upcoming games, so it’s interesting to see how different people are drawn to them.
• A farmer or shepherd that grows crops and breeds livestock on a large plot of land. Provides base resources for crafters.
• A geologist or miner that explores different areas to locate and mine precious ores and gems for crafters and gems for spells.
• A fashion designer or stylist that provides other players with fashionable clothing, hair styles and personal flair.
• An elected governor of a town or city managing taxes and resources, and the approval and construction of new structures.
All differences shown below are significant at p<.001. The appeal column is the average rating on an 8-point scale across all respondents. This gives a rough indicator of appeal relative to each profession.
On an abstract level, a speed increase spell (like Spirit of Wolf in EQ) is the functional equivalent of a hovercraft (when that gets implemented in SWG) in that they both enhance traveling speed. And in the same way, a heavy plasma cannon is the functional equivalent of a Darkwood Bow in that they are both ranged weapons. The question is how these implementation and genre differences influence appeal across age and gender differences. Knowing how these differences interact with genre differences lets us understand what demographic an upcoming game might attract.
Three sets of implementation/genre differences were used that focused on different aspects of a game – pet instantiation, ranged weaponry, and method of enhanced traveling. The following tables summarize the age and gender differences among these implementation differences. All differences shown are significant at p<.001. The appeal column is the average rating on an 8-point scale across all respondents. This gives a rough indicator of each implementation relative to others.
Because a higher percentage of respondents came from medieval/fantasy-based MMORPGs, those implementations that come from those genres appear to be skewed higher, so do not focus on the Appeal column too much.
And finally, as a fuller synthesis of an actual genre, respondents were asked to rank the appeal of the following 4 hypothetical tribes that had different values and strengths.
• A tribe that relies on technology and mechanical inventions (droid, hover-craft, laser cannon)
• A tribe that relies on magical abilties and spells (magical pet, speed spell, lightning bolt spell)
• A tribe that relies on a symbiotic relationship with nature (creature pets and mounts, darkwood bow)
• A tribe that relies on psionic abilities (charm pet, levitation ability, psionic shockwave)
Personally, an MMORPG that had Nature/Tribal factions against Technological/Mechanical factions is very appealing. Is there one like that in Beta or design around?
Knowing how different key elements of an MMORPG differ in importance across age and gender help us predict how games that emphasize different components will appeal to different people and gives us a sense of why certain gender or age skews appear. It also lets us understand how enhancing an element in the game might impact the player base. For example, if a game enhanced the visual quality of the landscape, who is most likely to enjoy that change?
Respondents were asked to indicate on an 8-point scale how important the following elements of an MMORPG are relative to each other.
• A good combat system
• A good crafting system
• Varied and interesting landscape
• Varied and interesting quests
• Highly customizable character creation
Overall, the “combat” element is more important to male players as would be expected, and the “quest” element is more important to female players. The age differences among male and female MMORPG players are summarized below. The percentages shown are percentages of players who ranked that element in the 2 highest points on the 8-point scale. The range shows the two percentages of the 12-18 age group and the over 35 age group to give a rough sense of how strong the trend is.
When asked whether they would quit their current game when a new game came out, female players indicated they were less likely to switch to a new game completely.
It was also found that older players were less likely to quit their current game for a new game.
The demographics and social changes that a game goes through over its life-cycle would be interesting to explore further.
Many interesting questions and issues arise from MMORPGs and the individuals who inhabit these immersive worlds, and sometimes the attitudes and opinions of players towards these issues are in and of themselves interesting.
The chart below shows the attitudes of players with regards to whether characters can fall in love without the players falling in love as well. While players tended to indicate that it is possible for players to role-play a romantic relationship without actually having romantic feelings for another player, about one-third of players leaned towards the other side.
Question to Readers: Why is it possible or impossible for players to role-play a romantic relationship without actually romantic feelings for other players?
The following pair of charts reveals an interesting pattern. While almost all MMORPG players agree that an individual can become addicted to an MMORPG, they are in complete disagreement as to whether this addiction is something we should be concerned about. The agreement of the first chart is in complete contrast with the disagreement in the second chart.
In other words, when we discuss MMORPG addiction, the question isn’t whether it exists, but whether it is more or less serious than other addictions and how much attention we should pay to MMORPG addiction in relation to other addictions we already know about.
Question to Readers: How serious is MMORPG addiction? Or rather, how serious could it become as MMORPGs become more prevalent? Should it be considered a real medical/psychological condition?
On average, about 60% of female players (N = 312) and 16% of male players (N = 1592) play the game with a real-life romantic partner. The gender difference is expected and is a function of the ratio of men and women playing the game (about 5:1), although a small proportion may be attributed to same-sex romantic partners. Even so, knowing that up to 2/3’s of female players are not playing the game alone is important, because this probably influences their game-play patterns, and this has to be kept in mind when trying to explain gender differences in in-game data. The following graph plots the percentage of players who play with a RL romantic partner across gender and age groups.
And the following graph shows how frequently the respondents grouped with their romantic partner.
Respondents who played with a romantic partner were not more likely to spend more time playing the game, but they were more likely to indicate a greater willingness to stay with the game when compared with players who do not play the game with a romantic partner. When asked how long they projected themselves to continue playing the game, about 50% of players who play with romantic partners (N = 447) indicated they would continue playing the game indefinitely, while only 32% of players who do not play with a romantic partner (N = 1464) chose that option.
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And the following graph shows how frequently the respondents grouped with their family members.
Respondents who play the game with a family member were not more likely to spend more time playing the game, and they were also not more likely to indicate a greater willingness to stay with the game when compared with respondents who do not play the game with a family member.
Asking players who have quit why they quit gives us insight to an aspect of MMORPGs that we can’t explore by asking active players. Ironically, it also highlights the not-so-fun parts of what is advertised as an entertaining experience.
The most common reason ex-players gave for quitting was the boredom and repetition that these games revolved around:
Coming into EQ from UO left me feeling rather unsatisfied with the game play. The mechanics of the world itself didn't help either, it may seem like a little thing but not being able to sit in a chair or really change clothes to an extensive degree was really immersion breaking. Early game when I played was also extremely monotonous, and I simply did not desire to spend 20 hours killing the same rat when I could go role-play in UO. [EQ, m, 18]
The game got old. I don't care what anyone says, after a while it's all the same old grind. I play these games for fun. When they are no longer fun, or when I start feeling like I 'have' to log on...I quit. In fact, I'm about to quit my current game (DAoC) for those very reasons. [EQ, m, 30]
The game reached a state of repetition for me. The only activity that I followed in-game was leveling, which was very dull considering I was unable to find anyone to role play with. No one had any interest in taking chances or doing things differently, which created this mediocrity that made the game lose its sense of fun. It simply ceased to be worth my time. [DAOC, n, 33]
All of a sudden, I found myself being logged in and sitting in front of the computer, bored or anxious. I tried for a couple of weeks to come up with things I could do to make the game fun again -- working on tradeskills, starting a new character, even moving to a different server -- but then I realized how silly it was to try and force myself to like again something I'd grown tired of. [EQ, f, 24]
Was more like work then fun. One day got burnt out trying to get exp for level 55 and quit. Got tired of always complaining about how I disliked the game but still playing it. Also had a traumatizing event happen in real life. Stop playing and never went back. Sold all my gear and gave character to an online friend. [EQ, m, 22]
I've played EQ off and on for almost 3 years now. I quit this time for 2 reasons: 1. Other people's attitudes. Some people were downright rude, just to be mean and hurtful. 2. There was no possible way to get past level 46 without a serious guild and serious playing and I was just playing for the fun. Didn't want to put in the incredible amounts of time and effort in the hopes of being invited into a guild and being allowed to loot what was needed to improve my characters. [EQ, f, 32]
The community became too eccentric over time. More and more people took everything personally as if their whole life was depending on this game. Also everything had to be bigger, mightier and more and more complicated. The pure fun playing the game with just a handful of nice people has vanished over time. To put it simple: playing the game was much more stress than fun. [EQ, m, 34]
I stopped playing because I just didn't want to commit to the crazy raid times (6+ hours in the evening?) and because I'd kind of stalled out on my interest in my main character. [EQ, f, 27]
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Nothing in particular. The game just seemed like an endless race to nothing...in other words it was more work than fun. [EQ, m, 21]
I stopped playing EQ because: 1. As I leveled, I felt less powerful. At first level, you can hunt in any number of places. Not so at 49th. 2. Difficulty of getting the content I paid for. Maiden's Eye, a high level area, was difficult to get a group in, i tried several times, albeit briefly. That had a lot to do with my leaving EQ. I have few places to hunt and getting groups there is not worth it. 3. It takes ~1 hour to get a group together. That's unfortunate. 4. The guild I was in spent more time saying hello to one another than adventuring. [EQ, m , 36]
I took a break from EQ to play DAOC; EQ was getting to me a bit and I needed time away. DAOC I found interesting, there was much to like about it (especially in contrast) but what I missed was all the social interaction I had in EQ. I knew that I could develop a new social network on DAOC but I was wondering too much about my EQ friends to get interested in that. Soon I found myself popping onto EQ to see if any of my EQ friends wanted to go to DAOC with me. When that didn't pan out very well, I finally quit DAOC. [DAOC, f, 49]
All friends out-leveled me, so I could no longer group with them. [EQ, m, 32]
I feel that there is no real role-playing in the game, I had imagined it as a world alive with creatures and characters/personalities but was disappointed. After a year I gave up trying to find other role-players in the game and decided to quit. There are some very talented role-players out there but they are few, most people are only interested in gaining levels as fast as possible. [EQ, f, 28]
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Although the addition of new content via monthly patches was fun, it also caused a number of problems due to Turbine's constantly rolling over for the loudest players. They nerfed their own game balance and then completely destroyed the in-game economy at which point I left. Additionally, Turbine's attitude towards exploiters was unbelievably irresponsible to their larger player base -- people who are utilizing in-game exploits should be removed from the game to avoid incumbent issues (server crashes among them). Overall, I felt that Turbine was incredibly disrespectful to the largest part of their community while catering to the vocal few. [AC, f, 39]
The developers' actions and attitudes towards the game encouraged me to quit, because they keep messing around with stats, spells, skills, classes, nerfing this group of players or that group, but never finding the holy grail of a happy medium and sticking with it. [DAOC, m, 28]
Anarchy Online was a great premise handled horribly by a company who wanted to get their product out before it was finished. The lag and bugs that I experienced in the game made it unplayable. I gave it 4 months of my time that I wish I had back. I have heard that it has solved all of its lag and bug issues and even was given some awards, but I have refused to return because of the initial bad experience. That is one company whom I will never play another game by strictly because of its handling of the release of Anarchy Online. [AO, m, 31]
Game balance was pathetic. Developer had no idea what the issues were and was making changing that had little or no impact. Often made changes that made stronger classes stronger and weaker classes weaker. [DAOC, m, 37]
Grew tired of the repetitiveness of the activities and annoyed by the way they were self sustaining. (kill something to gain skill and items so you can kill something stronger to get more skill and better items so you can kill something stronger .....) Also Verant / Sony's downright antagonistic attitude toward their customers really pissed me off. The atmosphere of the game became such that it was as if they were doing you an enormous favor just by allowing you to pay and play, a privilege they would rescind at their slightest whim without any justification or chance of defense. [EQ, m, 34]
I found it was an escapist mechanism; a growing addiction; a way to keep me irresponsible & childish; a way to get away from my bad relationship. I didn't give away any avatar items because I cancelled on a 1-minute realization.... it still feels good. [AO, m, 29]
Players who have quit are by definition difficult to target, because they are far less likely to go to MMORPG portals when they are no longer playing the game. Because I maintain a database of respondents to facilitate analyzing across survey phases by matching a respondent’s email address, I found myself in a position to target players who were in my database but who had quit the game since they first participated in my surveys. Of course, the following data is by no means representative of all players who have quit, but it is a first step in understanding players who quit and why they quit.
418 respondents completed the “exit survey”, of which 51% are not currently playing any MMORPG.
Respondents were asked to indicate how long they played the game before they quit, as well as how long they kept their account active for after they stopped playing. Because of the large variance of this variable (0 to 60), it was difficult to do significance testing on age and gender differences.
Even with a non-representative sampling, we can still find valid subgroup differences. For example, even with a non-representative sampling of the general population – 4 times the number of women versus men, we will still probably find that the men in this sample weigh more than the women. This is true as long as there are no systematic biases that affected these subgroups. Thus, the age and differences below are likely to be true even though the overall sampling is probably skewed.
There were significant age and gender differences with regards to whether these respondents were currently playing an MMORPG. Overall, 48.5% of these respondents were currently playing an MMORPG. Female players were more likely to be currently playing an MMORPG than male players (68% as opposed to 45%). Furthermore, older players were more likely to be currently playing an MMORPG when compared with younger players.
Respondents were also asked whether they gave away their character’s items when they left the game. Overall, 60% of respondents did not give away their items, 29% gave them away to friends, and 10% gave them away to strangers. There were no significant gender differences, but players under 23 were more likely to give away their items than players above 22 (50% as opposed to 35%).
About one-third of players answered that they would not be willing to sell their accounts.
Further analysis showed that female players are significantly less likely to be willing to sell their accounts. Perhaps this is because selling the account means losing the social relationships that a player has formed, and these relationships are more important to female players than male players.
The average amount that players from different games were willing to sell their account at is presented below. This amount is probably directly correlated to the attachment a player has to that game.
Players were asked whether they were looking forward to switching to an upcoming MMORPG, and the following graph shows how players from 5 current MMORPGs answered. The loyalty of UO and EQ players is quite impressive in contrast with players from DAOC, AO and AC.
Because socialization is more important to female players than to male players, as demonstrated in “Men are from Ogguk. Women are from Kelethin”, it would be expected that female players are less likely to want to switch to a new game when compared with male gamers. This is because the existing social networks would be broken if a player switches to a new game.
Players were asked to type in the game they were looking forward to trying out, and Star Wars Galaxies came out as the most frequently listed.
Another interesting finding was that players who are anticipating the 3 main games had different average ages.
Female players are more likely than male players to choose “Making Friends” as the most important aspect of the game. 50% of female players (N=385) chose it as the most important aspect, compared with 32% of male players (N=2459).
As the following graph shows, most players have made some good friends online.
These findings underscore the importance of thinking of MMORPGs as an environment where relationships form and social networks are created, rather than just a hack-and-slash playground.
This also goes along well with the finding in “Facets” that the desire to form relationships online, as opposed to other factors (such as achievement, or role-play), is the best predictor of attachment to a game, as measured by hours played per week.