Supporting Communities in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games by Game Design Elina M.I
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Invisible Labor, Invisible Play: Online Gold Farming and the Boundary Between Jobs and Games
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law Volume 18 Issue 3 Issue 3 - Spring 2016 Article 2 2015 Invisible Labor, Invisible Play: Online Gold Farming and the Boundary Between Jobs and Games Julian Dibbell Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/jetlaw Part of the Internet Law Commons, and the Labor and Employment Law Commons Recommended Citation Julian Dibbell, Invisible Labor, Invisible Play: Online Gold Farming and the Boundary Between Jobs and Games, 18 Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law 419 (2021) Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/jetlaw/vol18/iss3/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law by an authorized editor of Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. VANDERBILT JOURNAL OF ENTERTAINMENT & TECHNOLOGY LAW VOLUME 18 SPRING 2016 NUMBER 3 Invisible Labor, Invisible Play: Online Gold Farming and the Boundary Between Jobs and Games Julian Dibbell ABSTRACT When does work become play and play become work? Courts have considered the question in a variety of economic contexts, from student athletes seeking recognition as employees to professional blackjack players seeking to be treated by casinos just like casual players. Here, this question is applied to a relatively novel context: that of online gold farming, a gray-market industry in which wage-earning workers, largely based in China, are paid to play fantasy massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) that reward them with virtual items that their employers sell for profit to the same games' casual players. -
University of Florida Thesis Or Dissertation Formatting
THE EFFECTS OF SELF CONTROL AND SOCIAL LEARNING VARIABLES ON DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL IN A VIRTUAL WORLD By AMANDA M. ADAMS A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2014 © 2014 Amanda M. Adams To my Mom and Dad, who knew I could do it even when I doubted ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my Chair, Dr. Richard Hollinger, for his wonderful guidance throughout this project. His time, energy and support were a tremendous help. I thank Dr. Lonn Lanza-Kaduce for his time spent proofing my paper and discussing analysis techniques and directions. I would like to thank Dr. Ken Wald for his assistance with creating my survey. I thank Dr. Kendal Broad for her help with proofing and clarifying concepts. I thank my parents for their support and understanding while I worked toward my goal and for never letting me forget why I was here. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 7 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS ....................................................................... 9 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... -
Asheron's Call
Asheron’s Call: Redefining The Role Of Player Killing Vasiliy Zhulin STS 145: History of Computer Game Design Professor Henry Lowood March 18, 2003 In the past few years, a new genre of gaming matured for the mass market – the genre of Massively-Multiplayer-Online-Games (MMOGs). Games like Ultima Online, Everquest, Asheron’s Call, and the others that followed blurred the line between gaming and reality. No longer could the player save his progress at any stage, shut down the game, and return to it later to find it in the same state. The virtual worlds of these MMOGs were persistent – life moved on even if some players were offline. Virtual societies developed, complete with their own politics and history. The designers simply provided some basic rules and framework, and the players themselves did the rest by “living” their virtual lives. One of the pieces of framework provided in MMOGs is the ability to fight other human characters, as opposed to just non-player monsters. Player vs. Player combat (hereafter referred to as PvP combat), or more commonly known as player killing, allows players to battle the toughest opponents in any game – humans themselves. Unfortunately, in the first two MMOGs, Ultima Online and Everquest, the idea of PvP combat was not balanced to satisfy the majority of the players. In Ultima Online, player killers (hereafter referred to as PKs) actually ravaged peaceful players and, after killing them, looted the players’ items from their corpses. Many customers were furious! As Al Giovetti describes, “Ultima was never about player killing, it was about good role playing. -
Cyber-Synchronicity: the Concurrence of the Virtual
Cyber-Synchronicity: The Concurrence of the Virtual and the Material via Text-Based Virtual Reality A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Scripps College of Communication of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Jeffrey S. Smith March 2010 © 2010 Jeffrey S. Smith. All Rights Reserved. This dissertation titled Cyber-Synchronicity: The Concurrence of the Virtual and the Material Via Text-Based Virtual Reality by JEFFREY S. SMITH has been approved for the School of Media Arts and Studies and the Scripps College of Communication by Joseph W. Slade III Professor of Media Arts and Studies Gregory J. Shepherd Dean, Scripps College of Communication ii ABSTRACT SMITH, JEFFREY S., Ph.D., March 2010, Mass Communication Cyber-Synchronicity: The Concurrence of the Virtual and the Material Via Text-Based Virtual Reality (384 pp.) Director of Dissertation: Joseph W. Slade III This dissertation investigates the experiences of participants in a text-based virtual reality known as a Multi-User Domain, or MUD. Through in-depth electronic interviews, staff members and players of Aurealan Realms MUD were queried regarding the impact of their participation in the MUD on their perceived sense of self, community, and culture. Second, the interviews were subjected to a qualitative thematic analysis through which the nature of the participant’s phenomenological lived experience is explored with a specific eye toward any significant over or interconnection between each participant’s virtual and material experiences. An extended analysis of the experiences of respondents, combined with supporting material from other academic investigators, provides a map with which to chart the synchronous and synonymous relationship between a participant’s perceived sense of material identity, community, and culture, and her perceived sense of virtual identity, community, and culture. -
The Decline of Mmos
The Decline of MMOs Prof. Richard A. Bartle University of Essex United Kingdom May 2013 Abstract Ten years ago, massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMOs) had a bright and exciting future. Today, their prospects do not look so glorious. In an effort to attract ever-more players, their gameplay has gradually been diluted and their core audience has deserted them. Now that even their sources of new casual players are drying up, MMOs face a slow and steady decline. Their problems are easy to enumerate: they cost too much to make; too many of them play the exact same way; new revenue models put off key groups of players; they lack immersion; they lack wit and personality; players have been trained to want experiences that they don’t actually want; designers are forbidden from experimenting. The solutions to these problems are less easy to state. Can anything be done to prevent MMOs from fading away? Well, yes it can. The question is, will the patient take the medicine? Introduction From their lofty position as representing the future of videogames, MMOs have fallen hard. Whereas once they were innovative and compelling, now they are repetitive and take-it-or-leave-it. Although they remain profitable at the moment, we know (from the way that the casual games market fragmented when it matured) that this is not sustainable in the long term: players will either leave for other types of game or focus on particular mechanics that have limited appeal or that can be abstracted out as stand-alone games (or even apps). -
381 Karlsen 17X24.Pdf (9.567Mb)
Emergent Perspectives on Multiplayer Online Games: A Study of Discworld and World of Warcraft Faltin Karlsen Doctoral thesis submitted for the degree of Ph.D. Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo, June 2008. © Faltin Karlsen, 2009 Series of dissertations submitted to the Faculty of Humanities,University of Oslo No. 381 ISSN 0806-3222 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission. Cover: Inger Sandved Anfinsen. Printed in Norway: AiT e-dit AS, Oslo, 2009. Produced in co-operation with Unipub AS. The thesis is produced by Unipub AS merely in connection with the thesis defence. Kindly direct all inquiries regarding the thesis to the copyright holder or the unit which grants the doctorate. Unipub AS is owned by The University Foundation for Student Life (SiO) Acknowledgements Thanks to my supervisor Gunnar Liestøl for constructive and enthusiastic support of my work, from our first discussions about computer games long before this project was initiated, to the final reassuring comments by phone from someplace between Las Vegas and Death Valley. Thanks to my second supervisor Jonas Linderoth for generously accepting my request and for thorough, precise and not least expeditious comments on various drafts during the last phase of my work. I would also like to thank Espen Ytreberg, Ragnhild Tronstad and Terje Rasmussen for reading and commenting on different parts of my thesis. A special thanks to Astrid Lied for introducing me to Discworld back in 1998, and for commenting on and proofreading parts of this thesis. -
Section One: Getting Started
Section One: Getting Started As you get started on your journey, you will be faced with a few decisions. Some of these will have minimal impact on your long term play, while others will play an important part in how you experience the game. This section will cover the first of those decisions – server (known as ‘shards’ in UO) selection, character creation, and an explanation of the different clients used to play the game (Classic and Enhanced). In this section we will also cover some of the most basic elements of the game that will be a foundation for understanding your new world. This will include basic movement controls, as well as how to use the overhead radar feature. Choose Your Client – Classic vs. Enhanced We will begin with an explanation of the two clients available for use with Ultima Online – the Classic Client and the Enhanced Client. Your choice of client will greatly affect how you view, and play, the game. The best part about having two different clients is that you are not bound to one or another – you are free to switch back and forth so long as you have both installed on your system. Following is a brief explanation of the differences between the two clients. Later in this section will be pictures illustrating some of the differences between the two clients. Classic Client The Classic Client is the original client used to play Ultima Online. It does not have as many features as the Enhanced Client, but is still preferred by many longtime players who favor its simpler nature and the nostalgia that comes with experiencing the game as it was originally intended. -
Player, Pirate Or Conducer? a Consideration of the Rights of Online Gamers
ARTICLE PLAYER,PIRATE OR CONDUCER? A CONSIDERATION OF THE RIGHTS OF ONLINE GAMERS MIA GARLICK I. INTRODUCTION.................................................................. 423 II. BACKGROUND ................................................................. 426 A. KEY FEATURES OF ONLINE GAMES ............................ 427 B. AGAMER’S RIGHT OF OUT-OF-GAME TRADING?......... 428 C. AGAMER’S RIGHT OF IN-GAME TECHNICAL ADVANCEMENT?......................................................... 431 D. A GAMER’S RIGHTS OF CREATIVE GAME-RELATED EXPRESSION? ............................................................ 434 III. AN INITIAL REVIEW OF LIKELY LEGAL RIGHTS IN ONLINE GAMES............................................................................ 435 A. WHO OWNS THE GAME? .............................................. 436 B. DO GAMERS HAVE RIGHTS TO IN-GAME ELEMENTS? .... 442 C. DO GAMERS CREATE DERIVATIVE WORKS?................ 444 1. SALE OF IN-GAME ITEMS - TOO COMMERCIAL? ...... 449 2. USE OF ‘CHEATS’MAY NOT INFRINGE. .................. 450 3. CREATIVE FAN EXPRESSION –ASPECTRUM OF INFRINGEMENT LIKELIHOOD?.............................. 452 IV. THE CHALLENGES GAMER RIGHTS POSE. ....................... 454 A. THE PROBLEM OF THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR. ................ 455 B. THE DERIVATIVE WORKS PARADOX............................ 458 C. THE PROBLEM OF CULTURAL SIGNIFICATION OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIALS. ....................................... 461 V. CONCLUSION .................................................................. 462 © 2005 YALE -
Virtual Worlds Proof 5
Position Paper November 08 Virtual Worlds, Real Money Security and Privacy in Massively-Multiplayer Online Games and Social and Corporate Virtual Worlds www.enisa.europa.eu About ENISA The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) is an EU agency created to advance the functioning of the internal market. ENISA is a centre of expertise for the European Member States and European institutions in network and information security, giving advice and recommendations and acting as a switchboard of information for good practices. Moreover, the agency facilitates contacts between the European institutions, the Member States and private business and industry actors. © ENISA – European Network and Information Security Agency Virtual Worlds, Real Money 1 Position Paper November 08 Security and Privacy in Massively-Multiplayer Online Games and Social and Corporate Virtual Worlds List of Contributors: Experts participated as individuals. This paper should therefore not be taken as representing the views of any company or other organisation, and does not in any way bind group members when dealing with the issues it covers in other contexts. • David Barroso, S21sec, Spain • Richard Bartle, University of Essex, UK • Patrice Chazerand, PEGI Online, France • Melissa de Zwart, Law Faculty, Monash University, Australia • Jeroen Doumen, University of Twente, Netherlands • Slawomir Gorniak, ENISA, Greece • Eyjólfur Guðmundsson, CCP Games • Mateusz Kaźmierczak, UPC, Poland • Markku Kaskenmaa, Sulake Corporation, Finland • Daniel Benavente López, ISDEFE, Spain • Adam Martin, NCSoft, UK • Ingo Naumann, ENISA, Greece • Ren Reynolds, Virtual Policy Network, UK • Janice Richardson, Schoolnet, Belgium • Christian Rossow, Institute for Internet-Security, Germany • Anna Rywczyńska, CERT Polska, Poland • Michael Thumann, ERNWIT Security, Germany Editor: Giles Hogben, ENISA (European Network and Information Security Agency) Examples are given from a number of providers throughout the paper. -
Griefing, Massacres, Discrimination, and Art: the Limits of Overlapping Rule Sets in Online Games Sal Humphreys University of Adelaide (Australia)
UC Irvine Law Review Volume 2 Issue 2 Governing the Magic Circle: Regulation of Article 3 Virtual Worlds 6-2012 Griefing, Massacres, Discrimination, and Art: The Limits of Overlapping Rule Sets in Online Games Sal Humphreys University of Adelaide (Australia) Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.uci.edu/ucilr Part of the Contracts Commons, Internet Law Commons, and the Rule of Law Commons Recommended Citation Sal Humphreys, Griefing, Massacres, Discrimination, and Art: The Limits of Overlapping Rule Sets in Online Games, 2 U.C. Irvine L. Rev. 507 (2012). Available at: https://scholarship.law.uci.edu/ucilr/vol2/iss2/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UCI Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in UC Irvine Law Review by an authorized editor of UCI Law Scholarly Commons. UCILR V2I2 Assembled v4 (Do Not Delete) 7/14/2012 2:14 PM Griefing, Massacres, Discrimination, and Art: The Limits of Overlapping Rule Sets in Online Games Sal Humphreys* and Melissa de Zwart** Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 507 I. Game Rules, the Magic Circle, and Heterotopias .................................................. 510 II. End User License Agreements ................................................................................ 515 III. Breaking the Rules ................................................................................................... 516 IV. Griefing ..................................................................................................................... -
Personality and Character Selection in World of Warcraft
Personality and Character Selection in World of Warcraft Ian D. Mosley: McNair Scholar Dr. Steven Patrick: Mentor Sociology Abstract The present study examined the relationship between players’ personality characteristics and their online behaviors, including character faction, class selection, and game play in the massively multiplayer online role playing game the World of Warcraft (WoW). Data were collected from 205 WoW players who participated in an online survey that included the Big 5 Personality Inventory (Extroversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability and Openness to Experience) and portions of the California Personality Index, as well as original questions pertaining to WoW (Goldberg, et al. 2006). Statistical analysis showed that although there was not a significant relationship between player personality traits and their class or faction selection, there were significant relationships between personality traits and engagement in player versus player game play. Introduction Game developers go to great lengths to ensure that game worlds are realistic to players. This is perhaps most present in World of Warcraft (WoW). Although the overarching theme of the game may be fantasy, there are several elements to the game that parallel our own world and history (Krzywinslca, 2006). These parallels further the attachment players develop to the characters they portray, and the transference players experience from their game world interaction into their out of game lives. WoW and other games are now so well constructed that it has even been suggested that they could be “…windows into and catalysts in existing relationships in the material world” (Yee, 2006, p. 312). In WoW and all other massively multi-player online role playing games (MMORPG’s) players self select into specific racial and cultural stereotypes. -
The Sopranos Meets Everquest: Social Networking in Massively
The Sopranos Meets EverQuest : Social Networking in Massively Multiplayer Online Games Mikael Jakobsson School of Arts & Communication Malmö University [email protected] T.L. Taylor Department of Digital Aesthetics and Communication IT University of Copenhagen [email protected] Faydark or Newark? Being virtual world aficionados, although not of the game world kind, we both tried out EverQuest when it was originally released but while Mikael quickly gave away his account information to some students, T.L. stayed. When Mikael started playing again several years later on a new account, she was already a seasoned veteran. As with other players completely new to this type of game, his main reference for how to understand EverQuest was the manual that came with the software. According to this information source, the most important tasks for a beginner were to gain experience and make money through killing small animals and to do quests to get gear that slightly improves ones character statistics. Mikael thought he would spend most of the time alone, fighting low level creatures for a long time before becoming a character of interest to the other players of the game. Secretly he nursed a vision of finally revealing himself to the community once he had become truly powerful, similar to the way Gandalf returns in The Lord of The Rings (Tolkien 2002). These expectations, however, soon proved to be based on several misconceptions. Despite first impressions of the game and, indeed, despite what one might gather from the written material, there is a much more important layer of activity to consider for successful living in the world of EQ .