On Saturday 26th, Brent and I held a focus group on MMORPG addiction. All in all, it was a great session, with some very interesting and valuable responses from all who participated. Thanks James, Rachel, Andy, Chris and David for joining us, we appreciate it!
Results from the discussion will be available soon.
At Addictive Play we have devised two short surveys to help to conduct our research.
The first survey is for people that currentlt do not know much about online games and addiction.
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB227Q8EHYPDG
The second survey is for heavy users of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs).
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey-intro.zgi?p=WEB227Q8DYYP34
Thank you for your time and cooperation.
Addictve Play
Some very recent ( April, 2008 ) subscription stats from MMOG Chart (http://www.mmogchart.com):
There are currently just over 16 million active MMOG subscriptions.
The market share of MMOG subscriptions (by genre) is:
0.2% Combat Simulation/FPS
1.9% Social/Puzzle/Other
3.7% Sci-Fi/Superhero RPG
94.2% Fantasy RPG
The market share of MMOG subscriptions (by game titles):
0.6% Tibia
0.8% City of Heroes/Villains
0.9% The Lord of the Rings Online
1.1% EverQuest
1.2% EverQuest II
1.5% EVE Online
2.8% Dofus
3.1% Final Fantasy XI
6.3% Lineage II (~1 million total active subscriptions)
6.6% Lineage (~1 million)
7.5% RuneScape (~1.25 million)
62.2% World of Warcraft (10 million)
5.4% all other MMOGs
Charts-
MMOG Active Subscriptions 200,000+: http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart1.html
Total MMOG Active Subscriptions: http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart4.html
MMOG Subscriptions Market Share, April 2008: http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart7.html
MMOG Subscriptions Market Share By Genre, April 2008: http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart8.html
Chapter 2 of Edward Castronova’s book Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games looks at the motivations of users and their attraction to virtual worlds. These motivations are divided into four types by Richard A. Bartle:
1. Explorers – People who come to see what is there and to map it for others. They are happiest with challenges that involve the gradual revelation of the world. They want the world to be very big, and filled with hidden beauty that can only be unlocked through persistence and creativity.
2. Socializers – People who come to be with others. They are happiest with challenges that involve forming groups with others to accomplish shared objectives. They want the world to have extensive social infrastructure and shared activities: towns, clubs, arenas, weddings, hunting parties.
3. Achievers – People who come to build. They are happiest with challenges that involve the gradual accumulation of things worthy of social respect. They want the world that allows all kinds of capital accumulation and reputation-building. They want the ability to increase the power of their avatar, to build new structures, to hoard wealth, and to change the world itself.
4. Controllers – People who come to dominate other people. They are happiest with challenges that involve competing with others and defeating them. Also described as “griefers,” they want worlds that allow users to intervene in the activities of other users, so that a record of domination and control can be established. To them, it is all sport.
Castronova, E. 2005, Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games, The University of Chicago Press, USA, pp.72-73
“Dungeons and Dragons, long the red-headed stepchild of gaming, has decided to finally fight against the hordes of massively multiplayer role playing games that must be taking a frost giant s bite out of their profits. Their first blow is a Morningstar to the codpiece in the form of a snarky anti-MMORPG advertisement. Here s the copy: If you’re going to sit in your basement pretending to be an elf, you should at least have some friends over to help. The ad is topped with this nice new D&D slogan: Get together. Roll some Dice. Have Fun.”
Image source: http://craphound.com
Whilst browsing MMORPG user groups on Facebook i came across other people that have performed research on MMORPGs. Yahem Shalom has created a questionnaire and these are some of the questions asked.
Another example questionnaire from Alex Chan & Jonathan Ramirez, who are studying a Psychology degree at York University.
I received a comment back from news writer John Shmuel from Canada who could not assist us with prior research but interestingly suggested that “It’s a controversial topic, but it’s definitely something more people should be aware of.”
Here is a personal testimony from a user on Facebook. Regardless of its crediblity it is a story that is all too familar. His brief message goes into the onset, the consequences and then the fight against it.
A Current Affair have done on Cameron Sandler, a 16 year old Wolrd of Warcraft addict. Basically outlines that it is a growing problem that isn’t fully recognised.
After reading through many posts on Facebook there is a general theme. People looking back on the time they had spent on the game and then coming to the realisation that it had taken over them. Case after case you hear of the amount of money they have wasted, the friendships that have been severely dented, girlfriends/boyfriends lost, school classes failed and lives ruined. One youtube video makes the comparison of what else they could have done with the time they had spent on WOW, like learn another language. I’ll leave you with another example of WOW overuse.
A major theme in our research is the real world vs virtual world(s). I am interested in finding how these two environments influence one another and how they can be brought together.
The Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters attraction at Disneyland’s ‘Tomorrowland’ is a small-scale example of online and offline interaction.
At the attraction, guests ride a vehicle and are given a laser cannon to blast enemy targets and score points to defeat Evil Emperor Zurg.
An online version of the game allows gamers to connect to the Disneyland attraction and team up with guests on the ride. By rescuing characters in the online game, special targets light up in the theme park ride, giving the offline participants the opportunity to score more points and earn a high score.
In the book, Game Design; From Blue Sky to Green Light, Roger Holzberg (a Walt Disney Imagineer) talks about merging the two worlds in the Buzz Lightyear attraction;
“There clearly is a generation who grew up with video games, and video games are part of their language. And the Buzz Lightyear attraction talks that language like no other; it’s a ride through a video game. It became a compelling part of that experience to take this ride out into the virtual world.
“…the real world meets the virtual space and these two come together and play. Impacting the attraction during the course of play–well, it’s a very interesting phenomenon when you’re playing online. The online gameplay is a lot more robust and deeper, even though it’s the same length as the attraction gameplay in the ride.
“We …thought how cool it would be to play online where you match one-on-one with the players in the attraction. You’re teleported into a game where you are attached to a ride vehicle. So the players online are wedded with the players in real time, with exactly the same pace and speed as a ride vehicle at the park, and you have similar perspectives.”
Disneyland Park – Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters Online
Todd, D, 2007, ‘Game Design: From Blue Sky to Green Light’, A K Peters, Ltd., Wellesley, MA, pp. 37-38
- Focus groups, possibly having two groups, one that contains heavy game users. The second group are not so privy to heavy online gaming. The results of this would hopefully illustrate the awareness of online gaming addiction. The second focus group would probably not be so aware of online gaming addiction. The first group would be aware of it and it would interesting to see where their discussion leads.
- Online survey that would be posted in online game forums obtaining information about heavy online gamers. They probably wouldn’t admit to having an addiction and we would also need to ensure that people that aren’t addicts are answering the survey.
- Documenting people withdrawal from technology. Getting them to take down how they cope without technology for a designated period of time. This would illustrate how people cope without the technology and whether or not they can function in their everyday life without it.
- A case study of a friend that is an excessive gamer in an online MMORPG. Would be able to see the origin of the addiction and how it has progressed.
- Set up multiple user with trial accounts and see if there is any differentiation across the sample group with their outcomes. We would see if people had similar attitudes to the online games. Hopefully people would work the game out, play it for a while, then not play it. Signs of excessive users would want to progress with the trial after the study period has ended. We could possibly follow up at a later stage to see how the person is going with the game. Might be some ethical things we need to consider here.
Stumbling across the net at work and found this article here is an extract from the article:
Different age groups exhibit different gaming preferences and behavior. One-third of adults spend 10 hours or more playing games each week, compared with 11 percent of teens. See the article
Literature Review of our research into play and the addictions associated with it.
