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How many psychologists are working for MMO companies?
Booksy
Member Posts: 64
How many of them do you think are working for the likes of Blizzard, NCsoft, Turbine, SoE?
There's a real pattern of addictive behavior in MMO and it's not a coincidence. These games are specifically designed to get players addicted.
I don't believe everyone gets addicted and it depends on the person's lifestyle and social contacts I think.
But MMO all use very elaborate schemes of success and rewards in many different ways to stimulate dopamine releases. How many psychologysts are helping to create this environment?
Do you think MMO companies have psychologists who purpously help to make these games addictive? And if so is what they are doing honorable?
Comments
I doubt it. you seem to imply that the MMO devs purposfully desire addiction over enjoyment. I doubt they have a team of psycho-pathologists who go around trumping design concepts and artists to ensure maximal addiction
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
Yes, I believe they are made addictive on purpose. The same patterns of small steps of success is in a lot of MMO and in many different aspects of MMO.
When the success of an MMO depends on the retention of players, and addiction is a method to keep them playing, it's very probable that they are doing everything to keep them addicted. And the people who happen to know how this works are psychologists. It's not far fetched to believe that they have hired psychologists to help them with that.
I would actually say they have very few. Copitalising on people's addictions is easy and requires no degree. In fact psychologists are probably rank amateurs compared to real Con-men, advertisers, and Bar promotoers.
In fact I would say the exact reverse most MMO deve outfits need more psychologists. Just look at WAR it could have greatly benefited from someone more schooled in social trends. A lot of the psychology of MMORPG is kind of simplistic and leaves out a lot of things or assumes stuff that is just not true. I think decent psychologists could have predicted many of the problems raiding has caused.
I don't believe there are any and I really think you are reading too much into this.
Yes there arerewards for certain behavior.
However All behaviour systems and indeed all goals whether they be for childrens studying behaviour or a company trying to increase productiviity use rewards, and small manageable steps to give feelings of competance and success.
Small manageable steps with rewards that are desired by the person trying to perform those steps is the easiest and most successfull method known of acheiving a desired goal.
MMO's are using the same formula.
Venge Sunsoar
edit: I don't believe there are any yet. If anyone has ever read shadowfun you know about BTL's and simsense. I fully believe there are people capable of doing this (well not BTL's yet but you know what I mean, and it will probably happen in the future that a person develops a game made specifically to addict people.
Maybe they can hook up a device to your usb port, and then the other end is a needle that hooks into your veins, and game monitors your play, and decides when to give you some heroin.
Like, when you level, you don't just get a "ding" you get some heroin. And when beat a boss mob, you don't just get a phat lewt drop, you get some heroin.
I think I'm on to something, this is going to be the best game ever! Subscription retention will be huge.
Damn! South Park already did it.
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/155898/
I don't know of any that work directly for a gaming company, but I do know that it's common practice for the gaming companies to use external companies that employ psychologists.
I used to design AI for a company that would be contracted to provide support for game developers. I had to do a 6 month course on psychology for this. This was a long time ago though.
Nowadays, I'm involved in AI research and work with psychologists on a constant basis. I'm hoping to study for a BSc in psychology in the new academic year because it fascinates me more than IT nowadays. Call it a mid life crisis
It's very common practice nowadays for every company to employ some kind of marketing strategy. This may be an in-house department, or they may outsource it to one of the many advertising agencies. Who comes up with these strategies? Psychologists, or at least people that have studied human thought process.
No idea, but the MMOG communities are 60% lawyers and 39% market analysis specialists.
I always thought that a great MMO would use Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as it's guideing principal in development.
LOL
You're not wrong
One can say they already do:
Physiological: client software, account access, connection
Safety: hack and exploits team, in-game support to police players, database backups
Love/belonging: guilds, friends lists, team play system, forums
Esteem: levelling, crafting, new equipment, character development, theory-crafting
Self-actualization: guild leadership, forum veteranship, volunteer programs, game suggestions and discussions
Edit to answer the original question seriously: I don't think MMOG companies employ a single psychologist or related professional to have input on game development. If anything, the companies should employ them to help their staff cope with having to deal with claims of being evil manipulators instead of just wanting to make games people like to play.
I know Maslow is a cornerstone of training for Army officers.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Once a denizen of Ahazi
Having worked in Marketing Analysis in the UK for almost 20 years, in my experience many companies don't have a clue. Things often get made up by luvvies on the spur of the moment & the opinions of people with real experience are ignored until the inevitable chorus of 'I told you so' when the results come in. They rarely learn from their mistakes either, so often products do well in spite of the Marketing not because of it.
'Douglas Adams' had it right when he described the Marketing Dept of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.
I haven't done that much analysis of data from gaming companies, but the only psychologists I have come across were distinctly of the amateur variety. I doubt that companies employ professional psychologists to make their games addictive as they are too busy copying of one another & trying to maximise profits. Once a game has launched they are then too busy back pedalling & creating highly spun press releases.
Just my opinion though.
If you can't "Have your cake & eat it too", then how can "The proof of the pudding be in the eating"?
Take the Hecatomb? TCG What Is Your Doom? quiz.
One can say they already do:
Physiological: client software, account access, connection
Safety: hack and exploits team, in-game support to police players, database backups
Love/belonging: guilds, friends lists, team play system, forums
Esteem: levelling, crafting, new equipment, character development, theory-crafting
Self-actualization: guild leadership, forum veteranship, volunteer programs, game suggestions and discussions
Edit to answer the original question seriously: I don't think MMOG companies employ a single psychologist or related professional to have input on game development. If anything, the companies should employ them to help their staff cope with having to deal with claims of being evil manipulators instead of just wanting to make games people like to play.
I hear what you're saying and agree, but can a game be better if developed specifically with this in mind (assuming for a sec they don't already). Would this open up new areas of thinking for a dev team to explore?
Then again, perhaps the OP is on to something
The next great MMO will be 'Pavlov Online'
>Your skill in salivating has increased (102)
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
Thankfully, my other half has had a very different experience, or we'd have a nightmare trying to live on my research grants! lol
lol (not at you op) people well try anything, anyway to get away with something. Like get enough people to say the sky is falling we have "SkyFalling syndrome". "Addicted"? na some dont want to take responsibility for them selfs and blame it on something, someone else. So no I dont they have any thing like that.
You asked the wrong question.
Its how many Public Relations officials are working for MMO companies.
People are woefully ignorant on the influence PR has on them.
I certainly recognize the work of some of my colleagues in some of the dynamics designed to lure, hook, and keep people paying money into specific games, offered by specific companies. I think, frankly, that it's a waste and an abuse of a valuable skill-set. Psychology is supposed to promote human understanding and growth. To see it used for exploitation and short-term monetary gain actually disgusts me.
I think it's unlikely, however, that these are actual psychologists. More likely it's marketting staff with some psychological training related to shaping spending behaviour.
Many companies seem to intentionally stay away from this behaviour. These tend to be the more successful btw (e.g. Blizz, CCP, Turbine). Good on 'em. They deserve their success, and the others have earned their failure.
Thankfully, my other half has had a very different experience, or we'd have a nightmare trying to live on my research grants! lol
LOL, I must have been working for the wrong companies, but then again a lot of my work is related to analysis of Direct Mail campaigns so that might explain it.
If you can't "Have your cake & eat it too", then how can "The proof of the pudding be in the eating"?
Take the Hecatomb? TCG What Is Your Doom? quiz.
Gaute Godoger or whatever his name was, the guy in charge AoC, is a fully qualified psychologist.
It's quite obvious that these games are designed to be addictive. I don't think that it was the intention of the original mmorpgs to operate in the fashion, they just hit on it by chance. I would imagine that at least some games these days are specifically designed to include features that exploit this aspect of human nature. I think that there is one very popular game that has made this blatantly obvious.
There is an element that this what people want in an mmorpg coming into play though, so from the developers point of view they are just giving people what they want, crack dealers do that as well though hehe.
I doubt any have full time psychologists on staff, but their market research features psychology heavily and through that influences game design and so on.
Most gaming company staff psychologists are far to busy dealing with "The Developer's" ego and have no time left to deal with game issues (Brad McQuade, Derek Smart, Richard Garriott, Guate, etc).
If that's true, they must be doing a horrible job. Most people on this forum are bored and want something good to play. I can't enjoy any MMO out at the moment. Anyway, why hire a team of psychologists? It just seems like one big conspiracy theory to me. People get addicted to games because they enjoy playing them. People are addicted to many things besides MMOs, so why the hate? This is what happens when anything becomes mainstream. You end up getting the people that don't really belong.
More likely to be game developers teaching the psychologists than the other way around.
There are milions of dolars at stake, I'm sure they have a team of psychologists to maximize the adiction (and enjoyment too) to the game.