Instrumental Play in a Mmog

COPYRIGHT Copyright © 2003 by authors, Utrecht University and Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA). All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any forms or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, filming, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holders. 24.POWER GAMERS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN?: INSTRUMENTAL PLAY IN A MMOG T.L. Taylor ABSTRACT In this paper I explore a particular slice of massive multiplayer participants known as power gamers. Through my ethnography of EverQuest, as well as interviews with players, I analyze the ways these participants, who operate with a highly instrumental game-orientation, actually facilitate their play style through a variety of distinctly social activities. Rather than seeing this segment of the gaming population as “lone ranger” figures or via various other “geek gamer” myths, this work explores the way high-end players are actually embedded in deeply social structures, rituals, and practices. KEYWORDS Massive multiplayer online games, MMOG, EverQuest, social- ization, styles of play, player typology, power gaming INTRODUCTION While there is a growing body of literature on massive multiplayer online games (MMOG) it has typically focused on a generic player. Given the newness of the field this kind of homogeneity is understandable – the terrain has been getting a basic mapping and so fine-grained distinctions had not yet emerged. Earlier work however by people like Bartle [2] provide some indication that not all players are the same. He proposes that there are a variety of different types of activities people prefer do in MUDs (though the theory is often used for other games) and that we can characterize such players through a basic taxonomy. His now oft-repeated categories – killers, achievers, socializers, explorers – form a continual basis for discussions of player types. While such distinctions are often overstated as complete archetypes, it is worth exploring the different kinds of styles of play users engage in. The notion that people play differently, and the subjective experience of play varies, is central to an argument that would suggest there is no single definitive way of enjoying a game or of talking about what constitutes “fun.” I would argue we need expansive definitions of play to account for the variety of pleas- urable labor participants engage in (see [9] for further discussion of the multiple pleasures of games). Suggesting that games are always “fun” (and then in turn endlessly running after the design of such) is likely to gloss over more ana- lytically productive psychological, social, and structural components of games. q Social MMOG 301 One of the most interesting distinctions I have found of behavior) others hypothesize it is an unethical in my research on MMOGs is the difference between choice on the part of the gamer – they are not play- the casual and power gamer. Both terms are likely to ing fair or “right.” Some suggest power gamers are evoke a kind of stereotyped figure. The casual gamer inclined to cheat more readily, as one person I inter- is often seen as someone “with a life” who invests viewed said of a high-level EverQuest (EQ) guild, only moderate amounts of time in a game while the “They were not interested in playing by what was power gamer appears as an isolated and socially basically the rules. They realized the disadvantage inept player with little “real life” to ground them. For they were at by playing by the rules so they just bent the most part dialogue about the types rests on them.” Or the other who said, “I’m not that much of unproductive rhetoric and tells us very little about a power-gamer, I still go by the rules.” The notion styles of play and what brings people back to a game that power gamers are out to spoil everyone else’s over and over again. It dichotomizes and oversimpli- fun or that they are inclined to cheat more frequent- fies the much more complicated social experience of ly looms as a stereotype in the player community. each category. In this paper I will, using ethnograph- But what if we untangle the specter of renegade ic and interview data, focus on power gamers and try players set on cheating from the more general cate- to provide some initial thoughts on their style of play gory of power gamers and consider this style as a and identify ways in which they participate in a kind serious play strategy in which typical notions of fun of social labor and collective knowledge production. and pleasure are complicated? How might our understanding of the nature of play be extended if TYPES OF GAMERS we take the power gamer as a legitimate participant The question about styles of play and gamer types is in game space? an old one and debated in both designer & player communities. There are often a normative aspects to Power gaming such divisions, as in, for example, the “roll player, Rather than write power gamers off as simply chea- power gamer, or munchkin” frame. In each of these ters I propose they actually constitute a group who the player is seen as perverting a pure gamespace play in ways we typically don’t associate with notions by distorting some aspect of play (too much hack n’ of “fun” and leisure. In worlds like EQ they are often slash, loot greediness, under developed characters) juxtaposed to the role player: or by taking advantage of the game design itself (through loopholes and actions not intended but There are people that play for the role play nonetheless not prohibited by the system). In an arti- aspect who say ‘thus’ and ‘forsooth’ a lot […] and cle at the GameGrene website entitled “Just Say No then there are people who have their statistics To Powergamers” the author suggests that such and what’s best for advancing their character (EQ players ruin role play games by their insistence on player). being as powerful as possible and “see[ing] no other purpose in the game besides winning” [1]. In querying players for their definition of power gaming the comparison with role players and casual While some put the blame on the system, the gamers often emerged. In EQ role players are seen designers, or the game master (suggesting that the as people dedicated to the backstory and narrative structure of a particular game may produce this kind structure of the world. They game through develop- POWER GAMERS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN?: INSTRUMENTAL PLAY IN A MMOG 302 ing characters, alliances, and plots (though it should ficiency. I would suggest that one of the reasons be noted that there is no formal mechanism in the power gaming as a style occupies a kind of “oth- game for rewarding this activity and it has little part ered” space in games is that it appears to operate in actual leveling). Casual gamers, on the other hand, directly counter to an understanding of fun and are likely not developing elaborate backstories for leisure. The kind of activities and orientations their character or following plot. They may change power gamers bring to games often look more to characters frequently, level more slowly than some, the outside world as work and this leads to a much and focus on doing quests or skill development. broader ambivalence about what constitutes legit- Though they can be involved in guilds they are often imate play. of the “social” or “family” sort. In EQ casual gamers may never attend a high-level raid or even visit some Efficiency and Instrumental Action of the zones in the game. Despite playing with vary- One of the most notable characteristics of the playing degrees of regularity they nonetheless find the ers I observed and spoke with was the fundamental game engaging. They are often perplexed by the adherence to a kind of focused cause/effect model of power gamer however, as one interviewee mused game involvement. Power gamers in EQ are particu- about the comparison, larly attuned to making the most of the time in the game and undertaking actions to produce efficient They [a guild of power gamers] did things I reward paths. would just consider ridiculous like getting three or four accounts or having a group that was just [I’m] more what you might call a power gamer. I them [one player playing multiple characters, look at EverQuest as the numbers. If you do this essentially grouped with himself] and level you’ll get this, this is a better combination, you’ll themselves up and get items for themselves. I have a better chance to kill. That’s all it is for me have lots of hate for the powergamers. I think - to see the new stuff and do the new stuff and like, for me I felt I played the game a lot, 4-6 find the new stuff. hours a day, almost the equivalent of a fulltime job and I couldn’t keep pace with the pow- One player described how knowing the best, most ergamers cause they were on 10 hours a day. efficient way to play was central to success, espe- cially at the high-end game. The game is seen as a This sense that somehow power gamers are just problem to be broken apart and solved. Working out too dedicated, almost bordering on the (psycho- solutions and strategies with a kind of focused intent logically) pathological, is a popular theme.

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