Index of Journal Articles and Conference Papers
For other researchers who are looking for published material relevant to MMOs that they can cite, here is a list of my journal articles and conference papers that I will keep updated. I will provide brief summaries for each to make it easier to pick out what is relevant for you. The digital copies of these papers are also provided for easy access. All articles here, except for the book chapter, are peer-reviewed publications. A list of all my academic publications can be found in my CV.
Yee, N. (2006). The Demographics, Motivations and Derived Experiences of Users of Massively-Multiuser Online Graphical Environments. PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 15, 309-329. (pdf)
This is a three-part paper that has much of the earlier demographic and usage data. If you need a paper for age, gender, and usage breakdown of users, this is the most relevant paper of mine to cite.
Yee, N. (2006). The Psychology of MMORPGs: Emotional Investment, Motivations, Relationship Formation, and Problematic Usage. In R. Schroeder & A. Axelsson (Eds.), Avatars at Work and Play: Collaboration and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments. (pp. 187-207) London: Springer-Verlag. (pdf)
A book chapter that provides an overview of MMOs with an emphasis on relationships and motivations, but with a broader focus and provides more narrative data than the Presence (2006) paper.
Yee, N (2007). Motivations for Play in Online Games. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 9, 772-775. (pdf)
This is the more recent 10 component model of player motivations. An earlier 5 factor model is presented in the Presence (2006) paper.
Yee, N. & Bailenson, J.N. (2007). The Proteus Effect: The Effect of Transformed Self-Representation on Behavior. Human Communication Research, 33, 271-290. (pdf)
A paper covering two experimental studies on how our avatars change our behaviors in virtual environments. We often think of avatars as things we create and customize, but our avatars change us in turn.
Ducheneaut, N., Yee, N., Nickell, E., and Moore, R.J. (2006). "Alone Together? Exploring the Social Dynamics of Massively Multiplayer Games." Proceedings of CHI 2006, pp.407-416. (pdf)
This was the CHI 2006 paper that came out from my research at PARC with my colleagues there. In this paper, we argue that the "social" nature of MMOs may have been over-estimated. We present analysis of longitudinal data of groups and guilds to suggest that many players enjoy the "alone together" aspect of MMOs.
Ducheneaut, N., Yee, N., Nickell, E., Moore, R. (2007). The life and death of online gaming communities: a look at guilds in World of Warcraft. Proceedings of CHI 2007, 839-848. (pdf)
This was the second CHI paper coming from the PARC PlayOn Project. In this paper, we looked at guild metrics and in particular what factors were most predictive of long-term guild survivability.
Williams, D., Ducheneaut, N., Li, X., Zhang, Y., Yee, N., Nickell, E. (2006). From Tree House to Barracks: The Social Life of Guilds in World of Warcraft. Games and Culture, 1, 338-361. (pdf)
In this study, we interviewed a representative sample of WoW players to map out a typology of players and guilds.
Yee, N., Bailenson, J.N., Urbanek, M., Chang, F., Merget, D. (2007). The Unbearable Likeness of Being Digital: The Persistence of Nonverbal Social Norms in Online Virtual Environments. The Journal of CyberPsychology and Behavior, 10, 115-121. (pdf)
In real life, our social interactions are guided by well-known psychological rules. For example, when people get too close to us, we avert our gaze to lower the intimacy (i.e., the elevator effect). But do these rules transfer into virtual worlds? In this paper, we collected data from Second Life to answer this question.
Yee, N. (2006). The Labor of Fun: How Video Games Blur the Boundaries of Work and Play. Games and Culture , 1, 68-71. (pdf)
A short paper on how complex play can be in MMOs and talking more broadly about the intersection of work and play in virtual worlds.