Group 2: Kelsey, Mahmoud, Sara, Stephanie, Trang D.

= Intro = We are Kelsey, Mahmoud, Sara, Steph, and Trang. The super Group B (Or 2) team! We are here to discuss MMORPG, and the issues surrounding it in regards to socialization. Of course, to fully understand MMORPG's, we first look at the history of the game, and what types of things are involved with the game such as graphics. We would then follow with the disadvantages and advantages of the game, which would then lead to our conclusion.

=Overview of the Technology=

History of the Game
Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG)originated over 30 years ago. MMORPG is defined as a genre of role playing game on the computer played by many people in a virtual world. . These games currently has over a hundred titles ranging from Adventure games to games that mimic a second life.

In the early 70's, there was the Plato time-sharing system which allowed people from several locations to use at the same time. By 1978, there were quite a few multiplayer games which consisted of inter-player messaging, persistent game characters and team play for 32 players. 

Soon, there were networked host-based systems, in which text-based terminals attach to a host computer to interact with programs with other host computers so games on the systems were able to be accessed in many different locations.Multiplayer host games were eventually being developed such as MUD. MUD is a program that had significant with regards to the development of shared world design, which greatly impacted the MMORPG genre. In the 80's, MUD's became so popular it was dubbed "the multi-undergraduate destroyer". 

In 1978, MazeWars was created as the first game that allowed a few people to play against one another, this was possible because of the ARPNet technology. The only game ever written directly from ARPNET protocols directly might be Maze War. 

The creation of the game XTrek was one of the first games that was played on the Internet, coming out a few months earlier than Maze War Internet-wise. However, although it was using a network, it was more of a host-based game. Following Xtrek, there was Netrek, which was the first Internet aware team game. 

In 1984, Island of Kesmai debuted, it was the first commercial multiplayer online role playing game. Depending on the modem, you could pay $6.00 or $12.00 to play.

Final Fantasy became the first (and only) game that currently has gameplay in different continents with different platforms, making it truly massively multiplayer. Its release in 2002 was well accepted. This game also happens to be in the second generation of MMORPG.

But wait! MMORPG's has existed for a while now, is there something that is even better than the second generation? YES! The current generation takes the games one step further, with better graphics, faster connections, but with the same great gameplay. One such popular game in this generation is World of Warcraft (WoW). This game is highly addictive to those who play it not only because there is a lot of fighting involved, but the socialization is quite great. You can have conversations with other people not only through the text (like an MSN) but there is an optional voice interaction. The game also has wonderful graphics compared to a lot of other generations

Now, there are many different forms of role playing that you can participate in from adventure games to just role playing and socializing.

Timeline of MMORPG

 * early 70's: the first games were created over serial cables
 * 1978: interplayer messaging expanded to include 32 people
 * 1978: ARPNet technology was used to create MMORPG games (although they weren't that massive at the time)
 * 1978: MazeWars was created to play against one another
 * 1984: Island of the Kesmai became the first game released commercially.
 * 2002: Final Fantasy released to the public
 * 2005: GuildWars introduced a different concept to the gaming industry-- a game that ends!

System Architecture
Almost all MMORPGs are built upon client-server interactions. This means requires the program on the player’s computer to make contact and send requests to the server over the Internet. The server then processes the request and sends the needed information back to the client. In addition to MMORPGs, other applications of the Internet, like HTTP and SMTP, utilize the same method of data delivery. Massively multiplayer online games use servers which are owned by the company that sells the games, and the player must purchase a copy of the client software to run the game.

Yet other types of online games are hosted by a regular player who switches his game to server mode. This can be found in peer-to-peer networking where instead of relying on a small number of servers to support large amounts of gamers, every computer in the network is able to act as both client and server through the design of the client software.

No matter what kind of structure is used, games are constantly changing, and massive databases are typically required to keep track of all the users and to store data about the changing world and character advancements. Information about each player, such as their health and current score, is contained in rows of a table and is updated regularly. Similarly, information about items a player acquires is stored in a table that contains information corresponding to that items location, such as in a treasure chest or room.

Graphics
Socialization is crucial to the success of MMORPGs. Three important graphical components of these games, and how they relate to social issues will be explored in this section.

Avatars
Millions of internet users find themselves in rich visual environments that are designed to engage interaction amongst their avatars, the way in which the gamer wishes to be seen online. The ability of players to create personalized avatars to represent their identity is significant because players can choose to become anybody they wish by changing their skin colour, hair colour, clothing, and body type. In what is termed “identity tourism,” every player has equal advantage generating their online physical appearance; since every player has the same opportunity to design characters that are relatively equal to others, many visual stereotypes faced in the real world are eliminated through MMORPGs. Like the games themselves, avatars can take on two or three dimensional forms.



2D and 3D
The benefit of 3D design, which appeals to a larger audience, is the added extra dimension of game play that is possible due to technology such as high speed internet connections, improved processor speeds, and enhanced graphics cards; the decreasing cost of technology makes it possible for these features to be available to a wider audience than ever before. But not everybody has the technology to participate in 3D games.

The advantages of a 2D game is that it requires less powerful systems to run, and the player can scan the pathways that lie ahead in order to make informed game play decisions. MMORPGs such as Maplestory and Battle Dawn use the two dimensional format. The most significant advantage to the two dimensional game is that countries that are new to the internet age can take part in MMORPGs because these formats usually do not require up-to-date minimum hardware requirements. 2D multiplayer games are capable of uniting people worldwide across many socioeconomic backgrounds.

Whether 2D or 3D, game environments weave graphics and plot lines to promote socialization and teamwork. Although it is possible for players to work against each other, MMORPGs are designed to facilitate cooperative strategization using graphic treatments which suit the games complex storylines. For example, games may force players to arrange teams to complete tasks, such as defeat a monster, which is a difficult undertaking that usually cannot be accomplished alone. The detailed graphics turn the computer screen into a virtual world where a player experiences the same complexity of social interactions found in real life. Through the use of design programs such as Maya, 3D Max, and Lightwave, artists construct entire cities and towns with meeting places, houses, and places of interest to explore.



Game Architecture and Design
Game architecture applies urban design concepts to computer games in order to facilitate game play and playability. Some features that game architects design are formations that allow objects or players to be concealed, homes where players can rest in private, and other structures that serve as decoration. This is an important aspect of MMORPGs as it applies to both landscapes and structures that indirectly influence how much time a gamer wishes to spend within a game.

The goal of game designers is to create spaces that are straightforward and easy to navigate, even for a first-time player. Designers create cues that subtly provide the player with hints about what direction to travel; they create pathways, roads, and points of interest along the way to the major areas. Within the major areas, such as towns, games are usually designed so that places of socialization face inward to promote a sense of comfort; adventure and battle zones point outwards toward the horizon to convey a sense of anticipation.

Playability is an important feature to any MMORPG; however, playability does not mean game stages should be simple to conquer. What designers aim for is a game that is challenging to play, yet not challenging to navigate. The interface is a way to incorporate user-friendly design to perform all the necessary functions a gamer needs to intuitively participate in the online environment.

A well-designed interface combined with an intricate world fuels the need for gamers to be involved as much as possible in the graphic evolution of the game and is one of the reasons players feel MMORPGs are as complicated as life in the real world.

Game Economics
At the start of the commercialized gaming, players could pay between $3.00 to $12.00 an hour, depending on the game.

Now, games such as World of Warcraft (WoW) costs $15.00 a month to play, but you also need to purchase the actual game as well. With 11.5 active subscribers, WoW makes a profit in excess of $500 million dollars in 2008. 

In fact, the top ten games combined make up over a billion dollars in profits, so the actual industry is doing well.

Not only do people have to pay real currency to continue the game, a lot of the games have their own currencies within the actual game. Second Life has their own Second Life Linden Dollars, in which the players use the Linden dollars to make their avatars more happy. The Second Life economy has nearly $35 million USD, and it has become one of the world's largest user-generated virtual economies.



A lot of the costs incurred to the gamers is not because the companies want a large profit, but it is actually because a lot of the games are expensive to produce and maintain. For example, the servers easily becomes overheated.

It would seem counter-intuitive that online games has a direct influence to "real world" economics. In fact, there is a correlation between the two. A real life example includes a couple who met over an online game. After meeting online, they decide to marry. The man later "cheats" on his wife by hiring a prostitute on the game they met. Following this scenario, the wife then wants a real life divorce. The costs of a divorce can be astronomical, can it not? Does Britney Spear's custody battle and divorce ring a bell to the insane costs? Game economics plays a large role in the gaming world, but then the gaming world really can influence the non-virtual world as well. 

=The Issue= What are the social advantages and disadvantages of MMORPGs?

What Makes MMORPGs addictive
The Creators of these MMORPG were very intelligent in the formation of their games, in that the online world is so deep that the games virtually have no end. This is where the problem of excessive playing enters. Although you would think that gamers would not be online as much because in theory they have all the time in the world to play. This is not true, What grabs players into a warp of endless game time is the new upgrades the game offers and there will always be someone online to play against. Online gaming is a city that never sleeps and unfortunately for the passionate gamers, they never sleep as well. 

Damages of Addition
. Excessive game playing can often lead to the neglect of important activities outside the computer screen. When an online game gains a higher priority then friends, family, school, health, there is a problem. Having a recurring compulsion to engage in any activity can impair a persons daily life and can lead to a psychological addiction, in this case to an online game. A study was done with online gamers stating that 14% exhibits at least three diagnostic criteria of addiction as outlined by the World Health Organization. Symptoms for Addiction include: Craving, withdrawal symptoms, loss of control, and neglect of other activities. There are several cases of gamers losing important social components in their life, including relationships, jobs, school, and friends. These components are essential to ones happiness. Two extreme cases of addiction to the MMORPG world include the story of the 13 year old boy in China committing suicide over Warcraft, and a teen being arrested after online suicide threats to get further in the game.

What is the opportunity cost of playing these games? Time you could be outside, engaging in activities to keep the body active, working to make money, getting an education, and becoming worldly. So Although the idea of a never ending game can be appealing to the average online gamer, abuse of this technology lead to social degeneration.

Online Help
Fortunately there are online help groups for individual who need the help to get over their MMORPG addictions, the most popular is MMOGology: Addiction and you, by Marc Nottke [], [].

Health and Addiction
Online gaming is becoming more and more popular especially among youth which sometimes is harmful more than is fun. Many Young people get addicted to online gaming and end up sitting all day in front of a computer. At home or at coffee shops the endless hours of game time can often lead to the neglect of other activities and can effect ones health. Some Health issues can arise when you don't eat anything all day and stare at the screen, which will affect their eating habits and vision. It can also lead to lack of physical, and mental activities which can make someone less active and less socially communicative, ignoring everything around them. Different kind of games can be dangerous for example; games for adults gambling can be addictive and costly when they start playing these games as a getaway time and fun then leading to family problems. Online games can be dangerous depending on how the person have self control or not.

Whether or Not to play MMORPG
What is the opportunity cost of playing these games? Time you could be outside, engaging in activities to keep the body active, working to make money, getting an education, and becoming worldly. So Although the idea of a never ending game can be appealing to the average online gamer, abuse of this technology lead to social degeneration. 

Advantages
MMORPG offers a wide range of benefits to its players if they spend a suitable amount of time on playing it []. The most four popular advantages of MMORPG will be presented in the following.

Entertainment
First, nowadays, MMORPG is becoming a popular media of entertainment, playing games online help relaxing, reducing stress, anxiety and anger, or escaping from pressure of real life[].Online games give the player the feeling of being the master of the game, for example, adventure games bring gamers to places that they have never been to (it does not matter if those places are real or just sort of imaginary inspiration). Action games push players into critical situations where they have to strive to survive or to save the whole world. We can see it through some games such as Resident Evil, Halo Wars, Resistance 2, and so on. As well as action games, sport games also create challenges for the players, asking them to overcome big obstacles to get the wonderful feeling of the winner.

Connecting and expanding friendship
Second, MMORPG connects people and expands friendship []. The birth and development of the Internet and the high-end technological entertainment industry have become the foundation for the creation of online game. Besides PC games, more and more video game consoles are integrated with internet wifi connection such as Xbox 360, Wii, or Playstation. The unique and global account ID can help gamers meet others all around world. Texting and voice chatting are really bringing gamers closer one to another. Furthermore, with MMORPG we are free to make friend without being afraid of any discrimination such as discrimination about race, gender, religious orientation, social class or educational level which we meet frequently in real life. Especially, there's a case in U.S.A about a couple that got married after being friends through game Halo. [].

Educational benefits
The third benefit of online game is educational []. Players can learn a lot of things about history like in the game Dark Age of Camelot, World War II []. Especially, MMORPG is an interactive method to study foreign languages. When gamer from different countries are together in a group, it’s necessary for gamers to understand each other by learning other’s languages through voice chatting, texting and reading instructions [].

Consolidating soft skills
The fourth benefit of playing MMORPG is that it can help players consolidate soft skills. Strategy games, puzzle games stimulate the brain think logically []. Adventure games help speeding up gamers’ sensitiveness to reaction. In addition, PC games help players improve their knowledge about computer hardware and software, about networking, and help pushing up the speed of typing. It also strengthens teamwork, cooperation and leadership skills of gamer. Recently, it’s said that MMORPG offers a good way of erasing the shyness, of improving the physical ability of many children with disabilities [].

=Conclusion= In conclusion there are both facts that support and don’t support people engaging in online role playing games. Although there are no biases in the friendships you make, the lack of face to face connection only limits these relationships, And its up to the individual whether to engage in MMORPG’s or not.

=Sources=

Steph

 * http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=MMORPG&i=56863,00.asp
 * http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/mmorpg/history.html
 * http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-11719294_ITM
 * http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=04343702
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_online_games
 * http://www.legendsofkesmai.com/
 * http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/2-23-2006-89655.asp
 * http://www.mmorpggames.eu/
 * http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/43735/World-of-WarCraft-11-5-Million-Subscribers
 * http://secondlife.com/whatis/marketplace.php
 * http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1859231,00.html?imw=Y

Sara

 * http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson53.htm
 * http://www.designersnotebook.com/Columns/047_The_Role_of_Architecture/body_047_the_role_of_architecture.htm
 * http://lsvp.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/tips-on-designing-layouts-for-games-and-virtual-worlds/
 * http://www.nickyee.com/pubs/Yee%20-%20MMORPG%20Demographics%202006.pdf
 * http://www.articlesbase.com/computer-games-articles/advantages-of-a-2d-mmorpg-over-a-3d-mmorpg-306975.html
 * http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~soar/Classes/494/talks/User-interfaces.pdf
 * http://um3d.dc.umich.edu/software/second_life/
 * http://lostmaplestory.blogdrive.com/
 * http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/gateway_identity.html
 * http://www.nickyee.com/eqt/menwomen.html
 * http://disweb.dis.unimelb.edu.au/staff/gwadley/wadley-database-mmorpg.pdf
 * http://weikyttmmorpg.blogspot.com/
 * http://ccr.sigcomm.org/online/files/p79-v37n1p-neumann.pdf
 * http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/mmorpg.htm

Kelsey

 * http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/02/are-virtual-gam.html
 * http://www.gamespot.com/news/6162382.html
 * http://www.massively.com/2007/11/05/mmogology-addiction-and-you/
 * http://www.icaservices.com
 * http://www.middletownjournal.com/news/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/12/31/fe123108falsealarm.html
 * http://news.bbgsite.com/content/2009-02-04/20090204093235039.shtml
 * http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=54320
 * http://www.peele.net/lib/moa1.html
 * http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/29/1947243

Mahmoud
http://www.misterarticle.com/Art/109160/331/Advantages-And-Disadvantages-Of-Online-Games.html

Trang

 * http://ezinearticles.com/?Advantages-of-Playing-Online-Games&id=628074
 * http://news.ea.com/portal/site/ea/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&ndmConfigId=1013897&newsId=20071206005957&newsLang=en
 * http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/study-want-to-make-a-friend-for-life-play-an-mmorpg/70799/?biz=1
 * http://groups.imeem.com/HJlrZk4W/photo/XamxWKRCBF/
 * http://people.coe.ilstu.edu/rpriegle/mmorpg/index.htm
 * http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1601252/20081212/story.jhtml
 * http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=82026
 * http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs.cfm?isapi_rewrite_remap=AndyLee%2F102008%2F2821%5FMMOs%2Dcan%2Dimprove%2Dyour%2Dlanguage%2Dskill&bhcp=1
 * http://edtechlife.com/?p=1960
 * http://www.mmofury.com/component/option,com_kunena/Itemid,169/catid,5/func,view/id,61/