The Presentation of Self in Massively Multiplayer Online Games Alexander D. Meredith A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Nottingham Trent University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy October 2014 Copyright Statement This work is the intellectual property of the author. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed to the owner of the Intellectual Property Rights. 1 Abstract This thesis examined the presentation of self in Massively Multiplayer Online games, to investigate how players create and maintain versions of self in these environments. Key research questions concerned the motivation for engaging in these behaviours, the impact of such activities on their offline lives and for those that did not engage in the active presentation of self, why they did not do this. There were three studies in the thesis, employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The first study consisted of interviews (n=29), analysed using Grounded theory, and the second an online focus group (n=13 participants) explored using thematic analysis. These results were combined to create a theoretical model for the presentation of self in MMOs. Based on these concept statements a third study (n=408) was created, using an online questionnaire design. Results indicated that a five factor model was the most satisfactory means of explaining the presentation of self in MMOs – with Presentation of the Existing Self, Social Interaction, Gaming Aesthetics, Presenting Different Sides of the Self, and Emotional Impact as the salient factors. Virtual environments are rapidly emerging as a core element of human socialising, as evidenced by the growth of the games industry and the expansion of social networking sites in the last ten years. MMOs represent just one type of virtual environment but also some of the most exciting, since they allow the presentation of multiple versions of self in a fantastical social environment. The thesis adds to the literature through its examination of the presentation of self, in illustrating how and why playe3rs experience and represent their offline self in MMOs. This has not been achieved in any other previously published work and is an original contribution to the literature. 2 Thesis Introduction This thesis looks at the presentation of self in Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs) – an immersive game type where thousands of people can play at the same time. There are a number of different MMOs, although the most common sub- genre is the ‘Swords’n’ Sorcery’ type where players can cast spells and engage in melee combat to fight mythical creatures. The most popular game of this sub-genre is World of Warcraft (WoW) (Blizzard, 2014) which currently has 7.4 million active subscribers; it is 10 years old at the time of writing and has been superseded by other games such as Guild Wars 2 (ArenaNet, 2014). The term ‘virtual spaces’ is used to identify all areas where individuals can virtually exist, with the term covering blogs, websites, social networks and spaces such as MMOs or Second Life. The last two elements are known as ‘virtual worlds’ (Ducheneaut, Wen, Yee, & Wadley, 2009), characterised by the manipulation of avatars in an immersive environment. The traditional acronym for these games is MMORPG’s (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Play Games) though the acronym is flawed; its direct ancestor is the MUD (Multi-user dungeon) that had role-players as participants and, as such, it might be expected that the ‘RP’ of MMORPG represents the same. However, very little role-play occurs in MMORPGs today (Yee, 2006b) and the term is becoming increasingly obsolete. In recognition of this, and given the cumbersome nature of the original acronym (Barnett & Coulson, 2010), the term MMO is increasingly used (Williams, Kennedy, & Moore, 2011). There are a number of phrases in the literature to differentiate between the physical world and the virtual one; for ease of comprehension, the words ‘offline’ will be used to refer to the physical world, and ‘online’ to the virtual one. There are a number of common features of MMOs; first, the servers are permanently on, so the game state is continually changing and there is no ‘save’ as per traditional games. Second, the player exists in the game through an ‘avatar’, which is a 3D rendered model that exists in the game space. Third, the avatar is created through the ‘character creation’ process where typically the player will choose the avatar’s race (e.g. Orc.), faction (e.g. evil), class (e.g. Necromancer.), a name, plus the physical appearance of their avatar. Fourth, players can typically either fight game generated monsters (Player vs. Environment – PvE), or against other players (Player vs. Player – PvP). 3 Finally, aside from general social interaction through a number of chat channels, there are two main social structures within MMOs – the first, Guilds, are membership only structures where players can associate more freely, with dedicated chat channels. The second, Raid groups, are also membership only, but unlike Guilds, only exist for the purpose of high-level gaming. In addition, players can commonly trade with other players, and engage in short-term group activities such as tracking down a fugitive. To aid comprehension of what a MMO looks like, appendix I has two screen shots from a typical MMO - Guild Wars 2. Appendix 1.1 illustrates the game without the graphical user interface (GUI), with the author’s avatar in the centre of the screen. Appendix 1.2 shows a different shot (and character), with the GUI showing – the standard set-up for a gaming screen. In appendix II a glossary of common gaming terms is provided, which may also prove useful. MMOs are one of the most interesting virtual environments currently in existence, providing players with the opportunity to create exciting new versions of self, should they so wish. Furthermore, they are places where people can learn about themselves, and explore aspects of themselves, resulting in improvements in their offline lives. Given these benefits, and the large player base of MMOs, understanding how players engage in presenting new versions of self will enable the creation of even more varied virtual spaces, with the resulting benefits to their users. 4 Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 2 Thesis Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter One: The Presentation of the Offline Self ............................................................. 11 1.1 Chapter Introduction ..................................................................................................... 11 1.2 Terminology .................................................................................................................... 11 1.3 Historical Context ........................................................................................................... 12 1.4 Self as Structure (SaS) ..................................................................................................... 13 1.4.1 Schema Theory ........................................................................................................ 14 1.4.2 Versions of Self ........................................................................................................ 20 1.5 Self as Process (SaP) ....................................................................................................... 25 1.5.1 Psycho-Sociological Research ................................................................................ 25 1.5.2 Presenting the self ................................................................................................... 28 1.6 Motivation for managing the self ................................................................................. 32 1.7 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 36 Chapter Two: Review of Research and Theory into the Online Self ................................ 37 2.1 Chapter Introduction ..................................................................................................... 37 2.2 Affordances ..................................................................................................................... 37 2.3 The Virtual self ................................................................................................................ 38 2.3.1 Avatars ...................................................................................................................... 39 2.3.2 Presenting the Self in Contemporary Virtual Spaces ......................................... 41 2.3.3 Presenting the Self in MMOs ................................................................................ 54 2.4 MMOs as the Virtual Space of Choice ........................................................................ 63 2.5 Research Questions ........................................................................................................ 64 2.6 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................