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Hello! This week I shall be blogging about different player types in MMOs. These player types are based on two studies that are not based on MMOs specifically. The first study is done by XEODesign, Inc. and categorized emotions for different playing experiences for a wide variety of games, and the second study is done by Richard Bartle, who categorized player types in MUDs.
XEODesign's study recognizes four different categories of emotional reasons to play games: 1) “Hard Fun“ = overcoming challenges for a sense of accomplishment; 2) “Easy Fun“ = discovery of new and ambiguous experiences; 3) “Altered States” = therapeutic escapism; and 4) “The People Factor” = player to player interaction. Three of these four reasons to play games seem similar to three of Richard Bartle's archetypes of MUD players. “Hard Fun” highly correlates with Achievers, who are heavily interested in character growth. They also actively seek and fulfill goals, and upon reaching these goals, achievers feel a great sense of pride. Any half-decent MMO rewards accomplished achievers with some degree of visual difference from those who have not accomplished much. “Easy Fun” manifests most greatly in Explorers, who focus more on finding about the minutia that allows the game to function smoothly. They pride themselves in finding new ways to accomplish tasks, cataloging anything, and demystifying the mysterious. A good MMO enables explorers by providing a massive yet detailed world, and giving them the tools to potentially find information that is initially not available. “The People Factor” emotion best describes Socializers, whose primary form of enjoyment is communicating and sharing experience with others. Hardcore Socializers will also behave similarly to Achievers and Explorers, just as long as they are doing the tasks in or for a particular group. MMOs that are capable of catering to Socializers have a well implemented communication / messaging system and encourage players to form groups such as guilds. The emotions of “Altered States” does not seem to be noticeably more prevalent amongst any of the four of Richard Bartle's archetypes. Each player may or may not actively seek out radically different altered states, however, most players probably do it inherently. In my opinion, MMO designers do not have to consciously attempt to create altered states for the players, since certain games, by nature of the intended end product, are more geared towards creation of altered states. Detail and/or visual imagination are key in fantasy/unrealistic environments to create more heightened emotions of “Altered States.” Killers are the most detested player types, to the degree that some MMOs seek to greatly limit players of this type. Killers are the only player type that require the suffering of one individual for the benefit for the other. Because of this, MMOs will often have separate servers and/or areas for those that are more interested in Killer behavior, called PvP areas. However, this intentional segregation destroys some of the joy for Killers since players will come prepared to face Killers. Furthermore, some PvP areas start to become arenas for Achievers to accomplish more goals, instead of killing havens for Killers. If an MMO is to cater Killers without tarnishing the essence of a Killer, an MMO needs to integrate all types of players into a single area, so they can all interact with each other. It should also be noted, that, I do not think “Killers” are limited to games where there is “killing.” Killers can also enjoy ruining other's gaming experiences through cheating to achieve a goal, spamming, creating lag and visual confusion, quitting events, etc. However, we must also differentiate the Killer from the typical Cheater – the Cheater cheats for purely selfish reasons with no regard to how others are affected, while the Killer seeks fulfillment by punishing others and watching them suffer.
City of Heroes/Villains
One of the MMOs that I have been playing recently is City of Heroes/Villains. Though I have not played a significant amount of hours yet, it is clear to me that the game naturally appeals to a variety of players.
There is a lot of Hard Fun to be found in this game, which is typical of popular MMORPGs. Learning powers through leveling up is done through gaining experience. Powers are easily the coolest thing to achieve in the game, as some of the higher level powers give Achievers something to flaunt. By accomplishing certain tasks/missions, players can earn Badges, which can then be used as titles, giving achievers more to flaunt! Once a player levels up a character to level 50, special character types are unlocked which are revered by lesser players.
“Altered States” is one of the key selling points of this game, since players can create a wide array of fantastical avatars, assign a combination of power sets to them, and detail their history. By giving players this extended freedom in who they can create, players are more willing to roleplay and mentally create lengthy backstories. Furthermore, the interaction amongst other players who are almost 100% nothing similar to each other, enhances the level of believability through greater immersion.
Socializing is also a strong point of the game. Players can create supergroups which are like guilds in other MMORPGs. Unlike other MMORPGs, supergroups can form coalitions with other supergroups, furthering the level of socialization. Both supergroups and coalitions have their own chat channels. When meeting people, a player may be added as a global friend or as a friend just for the avatars that are currently present, providing the player with more freedom and emphasizing the importance of role-playing. As far as mission design is concerned, cooperation is central, especially since powersets have a limited range of functionality. In the beginning, it is easier to solo, however, as some of the missions become more difficult, it becomes important to team up. Also, teaming up with others adds more enemies, creating greater range for battle strategies.
The weakest part of the game for me is the amount of exploration, or “Easy Fun,” primarily because the world is somewhat bland and repetitive. There are not that many hidden locales nor secret treasures to be found. However, the designers do a good effort to counteract this by giving players tools to make roaming around a little bit more entertaining. Because the game takes place in a cityscape, there is a significantly higher amount of vertical space to explore than in other MMORPGS. Also, the navigation user interface is one of the better ones I have seen in an MMORPG, providing users with a clear frame of reference. Exploring in dungeons is boring though, since, like the overworld, there is little reward to going astray of one's primary objective other than more enemies for experience points.
The Saga of Ryzom
While this game seems to be near its doom, Ryzom provides players with an MMORPG experience that has greater flexibility and customization than others.
Unlike most traditional MMORPGs, players do not choose classes. Instead, players can grow freely in four areas – Fight, Magic, Craft, & Harvest – each with a maximum level of 250. Within each area, there are numerous amounts of skills. Depending on the skills a player learns, a specialization title will be earned that can be used for flaunting. The sheer amount of skills can keep Achievers playing the game for a while, though the variety of the skills within each area is lacking. A player who is highly skilled in the Craft area can create rare armor that can also be used for flaunting!
While Achievers can be thoroughly satisfied by Ryzom, Ryzom seems most aligned for “Easy Fun” Explorers. The Harvest skill area encourages Exploring the most, though the three other areas also matter. Harvesting requires players to search far and meticulously for certain materials which can be used for Crafting, quests, making money, etc. However, Ryzom doesnt just encourage exploring systematically. The attention to aesthetic detail in the world is overwhelming – the leaves in the trees rustle as the branches sway to the wind, ominous sounds briefly surround players in peaceful environments, etc. Furthermore, animals and other creatures behave in very Earth-like manners – some move in packs, others will approach players gently, many sleep during the night, and some hunt NPCs and other animals in a solo predator like manner. Such behavior grants the animals a personality – I felt really horrible when I needed to kill some of them in the beginning in order to increase my Fight. Because there is so much vibrance to be found within the world, typically non-Explorer types will feel compelled to Explore. However, I do think Ryzom could have expanded on its already strong explorer aspect even more with a picture-taking mechanic for example to give greater meaning to cataloging animals and plants within the game. The Ryzom Ring is a scenario editor which allows players to upload their content and share it with others. A beginning player will not be able to add as much as an individual who has explored greatly.
Ryzom also encourages Exploration through Socialization by means other than the typical quality MMORPG fare. Individuals who choose to heavily specialize in Harvest will often find themselves with death penalty XPs if all they do is solo. Therefore, Harvesting in groups is much safer , and players can share the materials that they find. Also, many quests require completion by a teamRyzom also lets players rent apartments, which is an aspect more akin to social-centric MMOs, rather than traditional MMORPGs. However, apartments are, from what I have heard, not well implemented, and currently, there is no option to invite others to a player's apartment.
Other MMOs – Non MMORPGs and issues with Killers & Cheaters
Second Life and other MMO Social Environments
Social environments are obviously geared towards giving players “The People Factor,” though there is also a lot of “Easy Fun” to be found. In order to cater to both Socializers and Explorers, who are very curious individuals, successful social environments provide their users with a lot of degree of freedom and interactive objects. But with increased freedom comes increased problems. For example, in Second Life, Explorer-esque Killers are rampant as they aim to spam and damage the world in the most creative ways possible. While online social realms focus on housing freedom to create possibilities for Explorers and especially Socializers, they must also find ways to limit the power of Killers as they can completely destroy the game for Explorers and Socializers, and thus, the game itself.
Albatross18
I know I have talked about this game in many of my blogs already, but I feel it is a good game to reiterate how well it accomplishes appealing to Achievers and Socializers, while attempting to limit but not doing its best against Cheaters.
As mentioned in my earlier post comparing ease of socialization in Albatross18 and Audition, Albatross18 has a very robust yet easy-to-use and clear chatting+messaging system. Recently, Albatross18 just added an instant messaging system for friends which can be used anytime during the game. In this new season (episode) of Albatross18, players can also organize interactive chat spaces, where players can walk around course holes and set up shops for selling items. Also, socialization is encouraged through guild v. guild battles which also have some appeal to Achievers. Achievers also enjoy the game in other ways than mentioned in my earlier post about Theme V. Mechanics. Tournaments, rankings, incentives for higher rankings (such as increased statistics and more items available), endless amounts of improvable statistics/records in the user information menu, and more money (pang) to spend on lotteries can keep Achievers addicted to the game by giving them endless goals to reach. Special Events with rare prizes, as in any MMO, gives the game more staying power for all types of players, especially Achievers.
One group of individuals that continues to stay are Cheaters. The most annoying and common type of Cheaters are those who “calculate” or spend immense amounts of time and possibly external programs to calculate the power, direction, and club needed for their shot to land in the hole. One can avoid a cheating player by not joining games where the shot time allowed is 90+sec., or the other player has ridiculous high statistics. Unfortunately, sometimes I get so caught up in trying to find a room with the course that I want to play, that I ready up my character before I notice that the shot time allowed is 90+sec. Albatross18 should allow some way for the user to limit these types of rooms from showing up in the room lobby, instead of detailing the shot time in small text once upon entering the room. However, I accept, that it is still largely my responsibility that I can get caught up in these dilemmas. Players can formally accuse Cheaters of Hacking/Calculating through an in-game reporting system, however, no one really knows the efficacy of this system. Unfortunately, in tournaments and Guild Battles, there is no way to discourage cheating other than limiting the total time for the entire tournament. Albatross18 could add time restrictions for each hole, or add a speed tournament option that has a very short overall tournament time and restricts the use of speeding items. Players can also quit in the middle of a game if they are frustrated enough or are doing poorly, though this increases the quit rate of the quitting player. If the quit rate is high enough, players are punished in various ways, and other players can easily tell who quits often. Quitting harms other players by decreasing the rewards for players that remain. Quitting in game can be seen as a form of cheating, however, the game is punishing enough that Quitting does not become an effective way of cheating. Other than the systems way of punishing the quitter, quitters are often pissed on by the rest of the community.
Just like with Cheaters, the game is punishing enough for Killers. The only real effective way of “Killing” is through quitting, provided the player does not care about the outcome/status of their character. If anything, killers are a momentary entity that resides in all, and emerges more frequently in those that are less patient to finish games in which they are doing poorly and others are doing very well. An ineffective way of “Killing” is when highly ranked players victimize low ranking players. I haven't met any high ranking players who enjoy picking on newbies because of the striation of the server system and the fact that, by nature of the game, it is simply not enjoyable or wise to play against newbies as they take a significantly longer time to finish a hole. Also, newbies are smart enough not to play against highly ranked players, unless they want to do so as learning experience or socialization.
Playasport.com
Another based on sports, Playasport.com is a browser-based MMO that has immediate appeal for “Hard Fun,” and attempts to harness the essence of “The People Factor,” but like Albatross18, fails to address the issue of Cheaters well enough. Cheating is done through various methods of training. One way to earn points for training is answering weekly sports trivia. There are random sites on google that have almost the exact same questions as well as their answers. While there are some mechanisms to counteract such cheating, such as limiting the time allotted to finish the trivia, playasport.com could do more such as randomizing the questions and/or not using questions that are on these random websites. Players also train by randomly selecting a group of cards each day for each team/player. Some cards are worth more points than others. Last time I played regularly (I still play now, but I am only managing one team/player), I noticed that there were ways to cheat by manipulating the html so that the player could always select the card that was worth the most points.
Darkness and Light
Some call this game a Defense of the Ancients clone, and thus, is a game geared primarily towards Achievers. Killers enjoy this game as it is primarily PvP. However, the game does a good job of keeping away purist Killers by employing a shifting ranking system that uses both the winners ranking and the losers ranking. Victory over a higher ranked player will grant a player an immense amount of experience, while victory over a low ranked player will grant a player minimal amount of experience. Losing to a higher ranked player will result in a small loss of amount of experience, whereas a loss to a significantly lower ranked player will result in a major loss of experience. This type of ranking system is more effective in deterring the sadistic type of Killer than regular experience/ranking systems such as in Albatross18, though it can only really be implemented in a hardcore game, as this type of ranking system highly discourages casual gamers. This type of ranking system, however, increases the level of competitiveness, encouraging the use of hacking programs. So far, I have only, yet frequently, seen hacking programs used in room lobbies to kick players out of the game. I have heard of many other stories of hacking in-game, though I am sure some of these claims are not legitimate.
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Both Albatross18 and Playasport.com do limit cheating to a degree, while Darkness and Light has some noticeable problems with it. Cheating and hacking seem to be extensively more prevalent in non-RPG, Achievement-centric MMOs than in RPG, Explorer/Socialization-centric MMOs. Achievers have specific goals they feel compelled to achieve, whereas Explorers & Socializers do not. Cheating allows for potentially quicker means to fulfill these goals.
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Travian and other Killer Acceptable/Encouraged Environments
Travian is a browser based MMO that is essentially a civilization-management war game. Other MMO war games such as Planetarion and EVE Online freely accept Killer behavior and may often encourage it. Unlike traditional MMORPGs and many other types of MMOs, MMO war games focus primarily on PvP. Thus, these games do not have to appeal to a wide audience, focusing on hardcore gamers. And, in order to increase the believability of such worlds, greatly powerful players victimizing new players seems almost essential for structure. New players come to these games with the expectation of war, and understand that they may be attacked early in their development.
I spent a lot more time on this than I expected...