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MMO players would be a good research group for Psychoanalysis
Greyhawk4x4
Member UncommonPosts: 480
Seriously, I think that the "love/hate" relationship MMO players have with their games would be a great research source for someone studying Psychology. Specifically, how a large percentage of MMO gamers seem to focus negatively towards new games as they draw close to release, almost "wanting" the games to fail even before they are released.
I understand that some titles probably deserve the criticism, however, it seem that nearly every title has several "game x" is going to fail miserably because of "xyz" while the game is still in beta. I know personally, I want as many games as possible to do well so that we get a more diverse catalogue to experience.
Don't we all want the genre to do well so more developers will invest creatively and financially in our hobby?
Comments
If it's rainning they complain it's rainning. Sunny? Too hot. Snowy, too cold. Same goes with politics, sports, gaming, etc, etc
Complaining is a way of life not restricted to MMO players. Then again, at some point, if you never complain nothing changes.
The various dev studios have been using psychoanalysists for some time already. They know how to get people addicted and to exploit the weaknesses of the human psyche to keep us paying for games we clearly hate. Eq1 was originaly termed Evercrack as far back as 2000 or so. It is no joke that some can become as addicted to MMOs as junkies are to crack cocain. Use psychoanalysis is one of reasons the MMO industry has not suffered a 1983 style video game crash.
Well, as sad as that sounds, it may very well be true.
that me in a nutshell hehehe. let it be spring all year round i say not to hot not to cold ^^
if the game is in beta, and suffers from "xyz", that game is 100% doomed
beta phase is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), dont ever expect to see a game in beta/close to release changing anything fundamental. if the game is flawed in beta, it will be flawed in release and most likely will still be flawed till the day they pull the plug.
more often than not, when someone says that game x is going to fail miserably and then he raises 2 or 3 valid points, he isnt spouting some nonsensical hatred, he is simply stating a cold, logic fact that anyone with a working cell could see being true.
the problem is that one guy points to the moon and everybody looks at the finger...hes quickly labelled prophet of doom, negative nancy, hater, whatever...
There is some sociological research being done. Here is a linkhttp://gamestudies.org/1001
Nice avatar OP: That's DnD right? With DnD players can create a world and their imagination can create great stories with complexity/humor/surprises/camaraderie/immersive storytelling/achievement/journey etc all to the desired level. MMOs mostly are build to be sold to the most people possible and that does not create a game that makes a percentage of those players really stoked to play that game, just a large number of players just about satisfied to play it and pay for it.
That's why players know there is that great game "out there" but the same sh*t that developers keep making comes out due to the above as well as the various stages caused by marketing of MMOs: anticipation/dream game?/frustration and eventual nightmare beta stages in mmo development you always see.
That and something about putting your eggs in one basket.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
The motto of retirees and Jewish mothers everywhere... but can you blame them? That bowl of soup at their favorite restaurant isn't going to fix itself.
Btw Ecabana; Mushroomhead is epic. /thumbs_up
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
There are plenty of people that have and are doing social research into MMOGs.
Dr. Edward Castronova works at Indiana University and focuses on the political, social and economic impacts of MMORPGs in and out of the virtual world(s).
Dr. T. L. Taylor works at the Center for Computer Game Research at the IT University of Copenhagen. She works with players perceptions of embodiment and gender in MMOGs.
Dr. Nick Yee is a social researcher at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and created the now defunct Daedalus Project which worked with psycho-social mixed method surveys from gamers of WoW, EQ, Eve, etc.
Dr. Tom Boellstorff is a professor of anthropology at UC Irvine who started with an ethnography of Second Life (Coming of Age in Second Life) and continues to lead research into other virtual worlds.
Dr. Bonnie Nardi is a professor of anthropology at UC Irvine who uses ethnography to study human-computer interaction (HCI). She has recently done an ethnography based on her time in WoW (My Life as Night Elf Priest).
There are others that I have undoubtedly forgotten and there was more information about each person but my browser refreshed so that I lost the original post. The blog Terra Nova will have more information as well!
http://mypage.iu.edu/~castro/home.html
http://tltaylor.com/
http://www.nickyee.com/
http://www.anthro.uci.edu/faculty_bios/boellstorff/boellstorff.php
http://www.artifex.org/~bonnie/
http://terranova.blogs.com/
I hope that this helps to sate some of your interest!
M
Looks like I have some interesting reading ahead of me...thanks!
FYI...Dr. Yee and Dr. Taylor I know have pdf's of some of their published research on their respective websites. Edward Castronova has two books out that are good introductions to the field: Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Worlds and Exodus to the Virtual Worlds. Dr. Boellstorff and Dr. Nardi also have the books that I mentioned in my previous posts which focus more on qualitative, ethnographic research (whereas Yee and Castronova usually use quantitative techniques, especially Castronova) in case that is more to your liking.
Another person that I forgot to mention is Dr. Richard Bartle. He is kind of well-known and is embarassing that I forgot him...He created the first MUD while he was a PhD student at the University of Essex, he pioneered the Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology and his book Designing Virtual Worlds is used as a foundation for most MMO development!
It is still surprising to me how deviant working in video games is in the social sciences at least in my experience as and undergraduate in New England (born and raised!) and now as a postgraduate in Scotland! People see it as a non-serious pursuit even though many people are making careers out of it (not too mention the billions that are made around the globe in the MMOG industry!), although if you go to the websites from my previous posts you will notice that Castronova, Yee and Taylor ( economist, social researcher and sociologist, respectively) are now entirely focused on MMOG/video game research while the two anthropologists (Nardi and Boellstorff )have other work that they explore as well as such the anthropologists have not changed their concentration away from anthropology it is just one research interest while the others have made computer games (and MMOGs in particular) their raison d'être in academia.
As a person that is training to be an anthropologist, I have interests in studying certain facets of MMOGs but do I want to make a career out of it? Not likely. I believe that if I were to study MMOGs full-time then the enjoyment that I receive from playing them would be lost. It would become work to enjoy my hobby.
M