This document provides an overview of MMORPG communities. It discusses the predecessors of MMORPGs like MUDs and RPGs and how they emphasized character development and online chat. MMORPGs integrated social media features like customizable avatars, friends lists, and chat channels. Players are motivated by both game incentives like narrative and character progression, as well as social incentives like guilds and acquiring reputation. Guilds and parties encourage collaboration and provide social pressure to play. The document also notes that players experience a sense of "alone together" by playing surrounded by others for background chatter and spectacle, despite not always directly interacting.
2. • MMORPG Predecessors
• Integration of social media
• Incentives/motivation of play
• Guilds and Parties
• Idea of playing “Alone Together”
• Tying it all together
OUTLINE
3. • MUD – Multi-User Dungeon
– Text based gameplay
– Online chat
• RPG – Role-Playing Game
– Interact with NPC’s to follow a narrative
• Both hold emphasis on character development.
PREDECESSORS
4.
5. • MUD + RPG = MMORPG
• Avatar – customizable character/persona
• Online Chat (private messaging, shout, friends list)
• Still interact with many NPC’s, but a high reliance is
placed on other users
– LFP, WTS, WTB, LFG, WTF…?
INTEGRATION OF SOCIAL
MEDIA
6. • There are no final victory or loss conditions
– Therefore the game continues to evolve
• “Emotional proximity” for their avatar
• Although there is a single background narrative, the
player is allowed to interact with the environment and
help shape the game.
Dickey (2007)
INCENTIVES/MOTIVATION
OF PLAY (GAME SIDE)
7. • Shared experience with others
• Role-Playing concept
• Collaborative nature of in-game activities
• Most importantly, the reward of being socialized into a
community of gamers and acquiring a reputation
within it.
Ducheneaut, Yee, Nickell, Moore (2007)
INCENTIVES/MOTIVATION
OF PLAY (SOCIAL SIDE)
8. • A way to cumulate in-game social capital.
– Guild mates function as weak ties typically
• Many aspects of an MMORPG require/encourage
Guilds and/or Parties.
– Difficulty of level
– Class variety
– GvG
• Social pressure to play presented by guild.
GUILDS AND PARTIES
10. • Players seem to play surrounded by others, instead of
playing with them.
• Background chatter supplies a sense of social presence.
– Player can input at anytime.
• Other players provide an audience and a sort of spectacle.
Ducheneaut, Yee, Nickell, Moore (2007)
NOT THAT SOCIAL? WHY
NOT PLAY “ALONE
TOGETHER?”
12. • Social aspects of an MMORPG are nearly unavoidable.
• The game itself helps facilitate and encourages social
interaction.
• “community of practice” (Bogost 2007)
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER
(CONT’D)
