Massive Multiplayer Online Games

Research Approaches

One approach to studying MMOGs focuses on the process of participation. For example, players differentiate between online friends and real-life friends. The distinction between the cyber and noncyber worlds provides a sense of the divergence in expectations about interaction.

The impact of fantasy is also important. In MMOGs, a man may choose a female avatar and an old man may even opt to become a young woman. Essentially, players can choose to create a new version of themselves out of a fantasy or a desire to express something different from their current social or physical status. For this reason, concerns about the relationship of media content and the effect on players receives a great deal of attention in research on MMOGs.

Theoretical Approaches and Understandings

The challenge of understanding MMOGs stems from the games’ fantastic elements. The challenge is greater, however, when a person with some type of mental issue becomes a part of the cyberworld. One juvenile woman in Wisconsin stabbed a classmate 19 times to gain favor with a mythical creature called “Slender Man.” The question about how influential various MMOGs could be on persons remains a serious empirical question (see research by Ulrika Bennerstedt, Jonas Ivarsson, and Jonas Linderoth in 2012 and potential methods of parental influence suggested by Ryan Torre).

Ethnic Inquiry Into the MMOG Conduct

The conduct of players in the MMOG environment offers an important laboratory to observe the actions, motivations, and characterizations of others.

[Page 918]For example, in World of Warcraft, the ongoing commentary by some players involves issues of the game as well as politics and gossip. Gossip involves the characterizations of how other persons (avatars) play the game, evaluating the conduct of the players and labeling (positively or negatively) other players. The term gold farmer often is used to apply negatively to the mythology of young Asian players receiving payment for playing and succeeding at the game. Poor or inexperienced players may receive criticism or be called names (noob or tard) by other players disappointed in the performance. Despite the desire to create a new and separated world, the old world or real life intrudes in various ways into the created world of the online gamer. The same set of prejudices and difficult social relations become expressed within the game.

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