Group 3: Tenove Kimberly, Velasco Bastidas Johanna, Widmer Ryan, Williamson Amadeus

MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE ROLE-PLAYING GAME

A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a genre of computer role-playing games (CRPGs. There is a large number of people interacting with one another virtually. Richard Garriott[citation needed] gave these online games the term of MMORPG who is the creator of Ultima Online.

The MMORPG are very famous all over the world. In all Role-Playing Games the players assume the role of a fictional character. The player takes control of the character's actions, however not all of the characters actions can be controled.

The MMORPGs are different from others such as single-player or small multi-player CRPGs because of the number of players. Another difference is the game's persistent world which continuous to exist and evolve.

The MMORPGs are a big business which revenue exceeds $1 billion a year Worldwide. From 2007 to 2008 the virtual goods buying and trading exceeded $1 billion US dollars. In 2008, Western consumer spending on subscription MMOGs grew to $1.4 billion.

History
Multiplayer games first started in the mid 1970's. These games used a LAN connection which allowed multiple computers to exist on the same network, allowing multiple people to play the same games. The games themselves were textual based unlike those that exist today that use a graphical interface

In the 1980's, the textual based games transitioned into the first graphical games. This allows the player to create an avatar or persona of themselves in game. The connection between the users also transitioned from a LAN connection which support only a limited amount of players with a online networking service. One of these was the Q-Link (Quantum Link) service that was specifically for the Commodore 64, that allowed some of these new graphical games to be played such as Club Caribe and Habitat.

As time progressed, the evolution of multiplayer gaming increased quickly and by the early 1990`s, the rise to multiplayer games, reached new heights with the creation of RPG’s (Role Playing Game's) that made the fantasy genre popular in western countries. AOL servers allowed the first graphical MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Game), Neverwinter Nights where people from around the world using the same network could play the same game at the same time. Quickly within the decade, the boom of these MMORPG's rapidly increased, with such titles of Ultima Online, EverQuest, Ragnarok Online, and Second Life. Current popular MMORPG’s include Blizzard’s World of Warcraft and Sony’s EverQuest II, with other popular but less successful games such as Guild Wars. Not only are paid MMORPG’s very popular but with the success of WOW and EverQuest II, free to play MMORPG’s are also quite popular among many people around the world, of these Silkroad Online and Flyff are high on the competition list of free to play MMORPG’s.

Social
The social aspects of playing MMORPG's is very high. Because the actual game is being played with actual users that are also engaged in the game, the there is a high social network because many of the characters in the game are real people and not non-playable characters (NPC's). Because of the high frequency of meeting actual people in the game, it is impossible to not build social relationships. In fact, one of the main reasons for people to play MMORPG's is not just to play the game itself but to build social relationships. It has been studied that heavy players are more likely to associate with and say that their friends that they meet online than their offline friends - showing that online gaming, especially in MMOG's increase social interaction. One of the reasons for this is that people in game share a relationship with each other as people come together to achieve a common goal. Although this type of social connection can exist and be achieved in real life, it is easier to achieve when in the game world. Other social features that exist in MMORPG's is that they allow people to gain tight knit social groups i.e. guilds, which also allow them and their members to gain recognition throughout 'the World' in which they are playing.

Psychology
Because of the real interaction between MMORPGs players, even though the environment are virtual, psychologists and sociologist still use MMORPGs as a tool for academic research. A research made by Dr. Sherry Turkle, who interviewed game-player users found that many of them have expanded their emotional range by exploring the many different roles, that includes gender identities, that MMORPGs allow an individual to explore. In another research by Nick Yee, who surveyed more than 35,000 MMORPGs users, found that 15% of players become a guild-leader at one time or another, however most of them find the job tough and thankless. The survey also revealed that the player often spends a lot of time doing things that are external to game play but part of the metagame.

Some of the players have admitted that the emotions that they feel while playing the MMORPGs are very strong. This emotions are so strong that "8.7% of male and 23.2% of female players in a statistical study have had an online wedding." Other researches have found that the enjoyment of a game is related to the social organization of a game. Ranging from brief encounters between players tio highly organized play in structured groups.

In another research by Zaheer Hussain and Mark D. Griffiths, it was found that 21% of the MMORPGs users prefer to meet people online that offline. The research also shows that there are more male users than female users. It was also found that 57% of gamers had created a character of the opposite gender, and it is suggested that the online female persona has a number of positive social attributes.

Benefits
There are many benefits that can occur from playing multiplayer games. One such benefit has already been mentioned and is the high social interaction that can exist due to playing these games. This is highly beneficial as people who do not necessarily have strong social skills in real life for being themselves, but in the game, they can become any persona that they want and may feel more comfortable in. Because they can be whoever they want, they may be able to establish those social connection that are necessary in life but are unable to do so in reality. Another huge benefit of playing these online games is that they allow players to gain and use knowledge that is not scholarly based. People learn how to work together and be apart of teams, as well as learning and applying new ways of problem solving that do not follow traditional divisions of scholarly work. This allows an opportunity to discover strengths and contributions that scholarly traditions cannot offer. Another benefit to online gaming is the increased skill in hand eye coordination.

Education Benefits
The Brunel University School of Sport and Education released its findings of a three year MMORPG study in 2007. The study was conducted on youth aged 11 to 18 playing the game RuneScape. The study found that, far from being simply a distraction, online gaming aids young people in transitioning from school to work by mirroring aspects of society. One of the noted skills that gamers learn is to balance leisure and work within their online communities, as well as to gain training to achieve more valuable skills. Lastly, this three year study in the UK in 2006 showed that the complexity of online gaming supports character, social, and vocational development in users. Users go online to escape into a fantasy land, relax, chat with friends, and gain self and social awareness. To do this, they must first divide their time between homework and gaming, which is a skill essential to post-secondary education and full-time employment alike. Once online, players must also work within the game to earn the money they need for the rest of their session. Another study conducted on the benefits of online gaming was done so by Dr. Joshua Smyth, who studied correlations between MMORPG’s and college students. The results of this experiment showed that those who played an MMORPG for one month played their game more than other groups (who were given different types of gaming, ie. Playstation), rated their game the highest, were more inclined to continue playing the game after the study concluded, and had more online friends than any other group.

Economic Benefits
A new phenomenon arising with the increased popularity of MMORPG's is the idea of making money by playing these games. In games such as World of Warcraft and Everquest, many people have been known to spend many hours developing a character and making it very strong and wealthy, then selling the character for real currency in online retailers such as eBay. Another popular way to make real money playing MMORPG's is to solely dedicate your time to accumulating in game currency, then selling large amounts of it online. However popular this trend has become, the game hosts such as Blizzard Entertainment see these acts as untrue to the purpose of the game and ban these activities. Large amounts of characters have been deleted by Blizzard because they have been found to only be playing to earn gold to sell in the real world. A more legitimate way to make real money playing MMORPG's is to develop new items or ideas in the game Second Life. This game has an entire economy where people can legitimately buy or sell the in game currency for real life money. Players develop item and ideas then sell them to other players for in game currency, which they can then exchange for real life money. Some people have even been known to do very well doing this sort of thing, and if a product sells well, many people are able to play Second Life as a career, earning all the money they need to live. Many major brands such as Coca-Cola and Nestea are also attempting to make money off Second Life by developing unique areas to explore and using in game advertising. Companies such as Prima or Brady have also found a very effective way to make money off MMORPG's. These games can be very difficult and complex, and many players get very frustrated trying to complete quest and efficitenly play the games, so these companies began to develop strategy guides that contain solutions to the games puzzles and many if not all of the games secrets to sell to players.

Cons
Although there are many great benefits for playing MMORPG's, there are problematic issues. One of the main problems with online role playing games is that they are very addictive for many people. The addiction to playing these games takes first priority to many of the players, thus causing people to miss work, school, opportunities for socializing in real life and all in all isolating themselves from life. Doctors have found that 40% of all World of Warcraft players are addicted to the game. Games such as this are designed to slowly introduce players to the game while constantly enticing them to keep playing and offering continuous rewards for time dedicated to playing in the online world. This slow, methodical introduction seems to be a very strong factor in catalyzing an addiction. The results of this addiction can be quite ruinous as well; players have been known to lose their job's, spouses, and houses merely because they devote too much time to MMORPG's. Not only does the addiction to online games cause isolation from life, but physical health problems also arise. Lack of sleep from playing many hours of the day as well as weight gain problems from the lack of physical activity can drastically increase.

Roleplaying
In some MMORPGs the players are expected to roleplay their characters. In a roleplaying game (RPG) the participant assumes the role of the fictional character. The participant choices the actions of the character according to their characterization. Whether the action succeed or fail depends on hoe good the formal system of rules and guidelines are followed. However; because the behavior of the characters are far from normal most of the player do not play the roles of their characters.

The majority of the "role-playing games are conducted like a Radio Drama." One player, the game "Master" (GM), who usually are employees or unpaid volunteers. The "GM" is responsible for describing the game world and its inhabitants; the other players on the game describe the intended actions of their characters, and the "GM" describes the outcome. A different variety of role-playing game is the Live Action Role-Playing Game (LARP), where the players assume the assume the rolr of their characters and perform it.

System architecture
A client server system architecture is used in most of the MMORPGs. Players connect to the software that generates the "world", which runs continuously on a server, thought "via client software." This software provides access to the entirely "world," however; sometimes further "expansions" may be rewired to be purchased in order to allow access to some areas of the game. For example, EverQuest and World of Warcraft are games that use such format. Players generally must purchase the client software for a one-time fee, although an increasing trend is for MMORPGs to work using pre-existing "thin" clients, such as a web browser.

Monthly subscription are required for some of the MMORPGs. "Massively Multiplayer" are always online, and most require monthly payments or some sort of continuous payment. That is use for the maintenance and development of the game. Some MMORPGs might be run on multiple separate servers, each one representing a different world and not allowing the players to interact with other players using different servers. World of Warcraft is a prominent example, in which each server houses thousands of players.

MMORPG Competitors


Blizzard, the company that created and released World of Warcraft (WoW), faces serious competition from another MMO called Guild Wars. Guild Wars and its expansion packs, such as Nightfall, were created by ex-Blizzard employees under the company ArenaNet and are now WoW’s biggest competitor. The upsides to Guild Wars are the: Guild Wars does, however, have some cons:
 * amazing graphics
 * a massive variety of quests
 * constant updates
 * millions of people to play with, including your friends
 * is customizable
 * has no monthly fees
 * not enough races to choose from
 * social aspects are mostly friendly
 * there is an 8 party limit
 * all missions/quests must be completed in one sitting – once logged out, a player must start over

Second Life was the only user-created 3D online ‘world’ until the company Mountain View released Multiverse in 2007. Multiverse is a multi-platform game that allows users to access a network of different worlds. It also has e-commerce tools built within it, so developers can earn an income – from which Multiverse takes 10%. This California company, headed by Bill Turpin, generated well over four million dollars in its first round of funding and was aimed at creating a branded network that will help monetize their creations from the beginning. As well, it wanted to create a ‘toolkit’ to allow developers speed and efficiency in producing MMO’s and virtual worlds. According to Multiverse, over ten thousand developers and a hundred and fifty teams signed up to use the technology when it first came out. The most significant difference between Second Life and Multiverse is that Multiverse’s technology can support up to a thousand users per server and it incorporates         Google Earth and 3D Warehouse. This allows any virtual world using the platform to have hundreds, or even thousands, of users playing in a setting that looks like the real world. http://no7onsecondlife.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/multiverse.jpg

A graph representing the MMORPG's and their active subscriptions to date.

MMORPGS Statistics
http://www.big-boards.com/board/1660/