Correlation Between Player Types and Design Features of Mmorpgs And
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Correlation Between Player Type and Design Features of MMORPGs and Loot Systems A thesis presented to the academic faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree Masters of Science in Game Science and Design in the College of Arts, Media, and Design by Sri Bharadwaj Tolety Thesis Committee Thesis Advisor: Derek Curry, PhD Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts December 2019 1 2 ABSTRACT Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) lets players live out their fantasies through their online avatars. The system that is used to distribute rewards to players is called the loot system. The aim of this study is to correlate player type to features of loot systems and define a framework that can help future designers. By focusing on the foundation of the game i.e the design of the activities, the rewards, and how these rewards are given to players and incorporate features such as randomness, misfortune mitigation, luck, etc. that increase satisfaction for the type of player they are designing the game for. This study used the player type defined by Quantic Foundry to analyze the player types for the 6 participants and found preliminary evidence that suggests that further research could be productive. Keywords: MMORPGs, Loot systems, Rolls, Randomness, Misfortune Mitigation, Grinding, Rewards, Loot Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts December 2019 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 3 List of tables 5 List of figures 6 Acknowledgements 7 1. Chapter 1: Introduction 8 2. Chapter 2: Design Features in MMORPGs 17 3. Chapter 3: Loot Systems 31 4. Chapter 4: Results and Discussions 38 5. Chapter 5: Conclusion 48 Bibliography 50 Appendix A 52 4 LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: Participant survey data (All numbers are in percentile) 5 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Example of perks on the weapon along with other details such as impact, power level, reload speed, masterwork, etc. Figure 1.2: An example of random rolls. Same weapon but different perks (indicated by the blue icons). Figure 1.3: A weapon that has a static roll i.e can only drop with the same set of perks FIgure 3.1: A common class item indicated by the white icon. (Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, Bungie, 2019) Figure 3.2: A rare tier item as indicated by the blue icon.(Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, Bungie, 2019) Figure 3.3: A legendary tier item as indicated by the purple icon.(Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, Bungie, 2019) Figure 3.4: An exotic tier item as indicated by the yellow icon.(Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, Bungie, 2019) Figure 4.1: High-tier reward drop Figure 4.2: Low-tier reward Drop Figure 4.3: Situation in which player has low resources i.e health, ammo, abilities, etc. Figure 4.4: Final reward drop after the completion of an activity 6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like to thank Professor Derek Curry and Christopher Holmgård for their advice, feedback, and counseling through this entire process. Your guidance through this process helped me shape my thesis and for that, I am extremely grateful. I would also like to thank Professor Jennifer whose valuable advice helped me shape the methodology and got me valuable data for the study. Finally, I would like to thank Professor Casper Harteveld who has been a mentor and guide for the duration of my graduate study even before I started. He believed in my potential and gave me the opportunity to pursue this path. I would also like to thank the participants who took time out of their busy schedules to help me out. Recording the video, taking the surveys and also participating in the interview. This study would not have been possible without your contribution. Thank you for all the help and hopefully my study can improve your much loved MMORPGs in the future. To my parents, family and friends, thank you for the support through these years and believing in me and allowing me to pursue game design as a career. To my classmates over the past 2 years, I have learned so much from you. Collaborating with you on class projects or just talking to you regarding ideas and inspirations for games has made me a better designer. Thank you, everyone. Words cannot describe the gratitude I feel for you all. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. 7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Massive Multiplayer Role Playing Online Games (MMORPGs) are a combination of role-playing games (RPG) and Massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs) which have created online ecosystems and have millions of players interacting with one another. The fantasy world that MMORPGs create has players coming back to it every day to live their fantasies through their avatars, interact with new players and form bonds with one another (Lim, S., & Reeves, B. 2009). Early examples of such games are DragonMaul, Kingdoms, Ultima Online, and World of Warcraft. The core mechanic of MMORPGs is to give players the avenue to strengthen their characters and change their appearance (Maggiorini, D., Nigro, A. et al. 2012). The strengthening of a character refers to increasing the level of the character which increases the health points (HP), shields or inherent armor (SP), magic or mana capacity (MP), and award players ‘skill points’. These skill points are invested by players in various traits or skills of the character commonly referred to as ‘skill trees’. Examples of skills players can invest in are intelligence, stamina, attack, defense, magic power, etc. to create various combinations of skills and traits along with weapons and armor. These combinations are called ‘Builds’. Examples of builds for a character can be investing points in increasing the attack value and leaving the defense value low. This is known as a glass cannon build. Other examples include a healer/support build, mage build, melee-based builds and so on. Another way of changing an avatar’s in-game physical appearance and prowess is by gaining in-game items such as armor and weapons. This is implemented with the help of the ‘Loot system’. This system is in charge of 8 distributing the loot among players in a fair and balanced manner. Proper design of rewards and their association with appropriate in-game activities like quests, dungeons, exploration, etc along with the frequency at which rewards drop, known as drop rates, has an impact on the player's investment in-game. Many types of loot systems have been used since MMORPGs were first introduced. Some of the most commonly used loot systems depend on in-game points the player earns by completing activities, defeating bosses, etc.. The point-based system is known as Dragon Kill Points (DKP) and it has many variants (Maggiorini, D., Nigro, A. et al. 2012). ‘Dragon kill points’ refers to a behind-the-scenes points system maintained by the game. These points are awarded to players each time they defeat a ‘Boss’ enemy at the end of an activity. The points are used by the group leader or players themselves at the conclusion of the activity to obtain rewards. DKP and its variants are discussed in depth in Chapter 3. For this study, we shall focus on the loot systems used in games like Destiny, Division, Borderlands, Diablo, Anthem, Monster Hunter, Warframe, etc. which involve the use of randomness or Random Number Generation(RNG) as a basis for distribution of loot. Randomness ensures that the frequency at which rewards drop i.e drop rate is varied. This variation affects anticipation in players and the replayability of an activity. Items also drop with either random or static combinations of traits/perks. Examples of some perks are a perk that increases damage from a weapon after a kill, grants ammo for rapidly defeating enemies, barrel 9 or magazine type on weapons, scavenging or reload perks on armor, etc. A random combination of these perks is called ‘random rolls’ and a static combination is called ‘static rolls’. Randomness is involved in determining what perks or traits a weapon or armor has when it drops and this encourages the player to chase the ‘god roll’, an item that has the best set of perks in the game. Examples of such perks are bonus damage against certain boss tier enemies, enhanced reload speed of for a certain weapon and so on. Search for a ‘god roll’ item and the varied frequency at which rewards drop encourages players to replay a certain activity multiple times. Figure 1.1: Example of perks on the weapon along with other details such as impact, power level, reload speed, masterwork, etc (Destiny 2: Shadowkeep. Bungie. 2019) 10 Figure 1.2: An example of random rolls. Same weapon but different perks (indicated by the blue icons) (Destiny 2: Shadowkeep. Bungie. 2019) Figure 1.3: A weapon that has a static roll i.e can only drop with the same set of perks. (Destiny 2: Shadowkeep. Bungie. 2019) Items can either be specific to an activity with average and above-average drop rates or part of a general loot pool with below-average drop rates and they can drop from any activity. Activities that reward players items with random rolls have more favorable drop rates for rewards as compared to activities that reward players with items with a static roll. This ensures that randomness decides when a reward drops or the combination of the perks or both. As we shall see in the study, randomness increases replayability of the game and its activities, and anticipation in players when playing said activities. Due to the unpredictability that comes with randomness, it has caused players to be vocal regarding the involvement and extent of randomness in the system.