Elements of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games Encourage Excessive Gaming - Literature review Example

Title Focus on whether elements of MMOPRGs (Massively Multiplayer Online role-playing games) encourage excessive gaming Executive summary The paper aims at identifying whether the massively multiplayer online role-playing games contain features that encourage and can contribute to excessive gaming. The research is essential as excessive gaming present a legal and health challenge that need to be addressed urgently. As more people are accessing the MMOPRGs, they are under the danger of being addicted to the modern form of gaming (Billieux et al. 2013). The paper uses data from previous research to identify various similarities between modern online video games and gambling. The first feature to be discussed is how the endless nature of MMOPRGs has contributed to excessive gaming. The second issue is how award and punishment can influence the time spent on gaming and lastly the role played by the integration of social features. The implications that these findings have on the legal and institutional framework will be discussed. Various recommendations will also be given on how the findings can be used to improve the nation's wellbeing. Introduction As the industry of video gaming continues to develop rapidly, game developers and publishers have been faced with the challenge of stiff competition from others thus a reduction of market share. They have therefore resulted in various strategies to not only ensure they retain their market share but also attract new customers. Such a strategy has been the advancement in technology that has enabled the broadening of video games with the developers aiming at retaining and growing their customer base (Stetina et al., 2011; Billieux et al. 2013). Such development has been enabled by incorporation of social features into these video games to make the massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMOPRGs). The paper focuses on investigating whether the contents of massively multiplayer online role-playing games to identify whether they contain elements that may be addictiveness to the users thus encouraging excessive gaming (Stetina et al., 2011; Billieux et al. 2013). Excessive gaming is a real issue that faces not only the youths but also a large percentage of the adults in the modern society. The huge amount of time spent on these games is detrimental psychologically since a lot of time is wasted on unproductive activities unlike if the time was spent on activities that would enhance the boosting and lifting of one's lifestyle. Addiction in gaming present ethical issues Similar to gambling that need to be immediately addressed. Other features that are shared between MMORPGs and several gambling games also need to be considered (Stetina et al., 2011; Karlsen 2010). Although the MMORPGs are different from the gambling mainly due to the goals of playing, where gambling is mainly due to prospects of making financial gains, modern online video games are known to apply various aspects to enable them to be addictive to the regular users (Stetina et al., 2011; Karlsen 2010). MMORPGSs tend to be endless The game publishers tend to achieve addiction to gaming by making the games endless. The users are provided with several tasks to handle and the toughness changes depending with the level being played. Normally, as the user advances in the level, the harder it becomes to play the higher levels thus making these types of modern video game addictive. According to Stetina (2001) and Karlsen (2010), a research targeting 30 online games originating from Germany and 468 participants revealed that a high percentage spend at least 6 hours continuously playing these online games. The endlessness of the games is also enhanced by providing such features as setting unattainable goals, setting valuable collections to be aimed at the participants. The games are set in a manner that as the players get at a higher level, the challenges and obstacles in the game get tougher. It, therefore, helps in creating some form of excitement, unlike traditional games that would become boring as the game advances (King, Delfabbro, and Griffiths, 2009; Karlsen, 2010). A research by Karlsen (2010) and Billieux (2013) reveals that developers set collections and personal goals so that the character in use, such as Avatar in the World of Warcraft, can enable the exploration of further goals within the context of the game. By spreading the goals, awards and other personal achievements, the game is designed in a manner that the player is emotionally attached to the game. Such attachments may be in form of sympathy where the player has to win more and advance to the next level, failure to which the character in the game that may be projected to be an animal or human, may collapse, be attacked or die (Billieux et al., 2013; Lee and Tsai, 2010). Just like gambling games, especially those availed by electronic gambling machine, MMORPGs tend to be continuous by providing repetitive activities for the gamer where they are supposed to decide between a few possible actions (King, Delfabbro, and Griffiths, 2009). Success in the modern online video games is heavily reliant on pure chances thus keeping the probability of completing the game at a minimum hence making the game endless. Just like gamblers rely on chances to win or recover the losses incurred by continuing to gamble, MMORPGs encourages gamers to continue playing by creating the phenomenon of gamer's fallacy (Stetina et al., 2011). A gamer's fallacy is the thought held by heavy gamers that once a gaming event is completed, the chances of achieving similar results are at a minimum. The school of thought is familiar among gamblers who view that if they have already incurred financial losses, the chances of succeeding in the next try is higher thus not only continue to gamble but gamble heavily than they did the previous time. There is a huge familiar among the gamers to understand that each event is different from the previous one or even the future one. The game designer intentionally set the system to complicate the level of randomness involved thus making it challenging for the player to predict the next move or pattern. MMORPGs create scenarios of entrapment and near miss The MMORPGs borrow the concept of gambling machines with the goal of making them addictive to the regular players by providing situations of entrapment and near miss. According to a research done by Karlsen (2010) and Lee (2010) involving 12 heavy users of a globally popular online game known as World of Warcraft, game designer intentionally places a situation where gamers will be entrapped. Entrapment is familiar in such gambling games as Lotto, where despite gamblers incurring heavy losses, they feel that they have already invested a lot of money and time into the game to give up now and are therefore obligated to continue playing till they win (King, Delfabbro, and Griffiths, 2009; Karlsen 2010). Many gamblers fear that the numbers they have been betting on will be selected as the winner once they stop gambling. In the World of Warcraft and several other examples of MMORPGs, there are several cases of entrapment. The game is designed in a manner that there are targets that are set to be achieved and collected by the gamers enabling them to overcome the evil monsters through the avatars (Billieux et al., 2013; King, Delfabbro, and Griffiths, 2010). The developers place valuable points that have to be collected by the gamers to enable them to conquer the bosses and monsters. The game, therefore, provide a situation of entrapment as the gamers feel that failure to play the game today will make them miss the valuable points thus making it difficult for them to conquer the evil forces. Such instances of entrapment create some form of distress among the gamers if they fail to participate in the game. The World of Warcraft thus uses the concept of entrapment to demand some form of dedication from gamers so they can play continuously (Billieux et al., 2013; Karlsen 2010; Lee and Tsai, 2010). Another manner that online games tend to be addictive to the users is by creating conditions of near miss. Such a scenario is often a losing situation but interpreted by the gamer or player to be close to winning and they, therefore, tend to give it another try. In gambling, a near miss situation is created when a gambler gets two results or symbols similar to the ones in the winning format but misses on the third one thus missing out on the price (Karlsen, 2010; Lee and Tsai, 2010). Lotto also applies the concept by creating a consolation program, for instance, the gambler gets three out of the five correct answers, they are awarded a smaller prize (Karlsen, 2010). The winner of the smaller prize views such a scenario as a near miss on the bigger share rather than a consolation for losing. MMORPGs apply the concept in various games contributing to gamers working in excessive hours to try and achieve the target or mission. In the World of Warcraft, failing to kill a boss may be viewed by the gamers as a near miss. Lee and Tsai (2010) and Karlsen (2010) in the research on the addictiveness of online games described how participants in the World of Warcraft view a failure to kill the boss as normal and would exceed the normal time till late into the night to achieve the target (Billieux et al., 2013; Lee and Tsai, 2010). By using the concept of near miss, the MMOROGS result to excessive participation as the gamers view such instances as something they should accomplish or are close to accomplishing thus addiction (King, Delfabbro, and Griffiths, 2009). Instances of entrapment also demand some form of dedication from the gamers who play continuously to get out of the situation or achieve their mission thus create an addictive appeal. MMORPGs contain social features that encourage interaction with other players. Another element adopted by MMORPGs that aims at making these modern online video games addictive is through encouraging social interaction with other players. The games contain various social features that encourage online and offline communication between users thus either encouraging cooperation between the different players or competition between these players (Karlsen, 2010; Lee and Tsai, 2010). The MMORPGs contain computer-mediated communication features that enhance social interaction between the various players thus enabling either cooperation or competition. According to a research done by Karlsen (2010) and Karlsen (2010) on World of Warcraft, some aspects of the game such as grinding require working in groups rather than individually. Such group may either be small or large with the maximum number of individual players being 10 and 25 respectively. Each member is supposed to be available during the stages as the group aims to take down some targets. Failure may lead to the group achieving the targets in your exclusion thus the missing party will not share the success. The example represents an example where social features are used in gaming to encourage cooperation between individuals and at the same time ensuring that the play is continuous (Lee and Tsai, 2010; Karlsen 2010). The social interaction feature also targets at expressing the various emotions that the gamers may experience in the course of the play. Such emotions may include encouraging each other to continue playing despite the obstacle in the achievement of the target and expressing excitement or even frustration regarding various aspects of the game (King, Delfabbro, and Griffiths, 2010). As gamers encourage each other to continue pressing on with the game despite the set obstacles, a repetitive feature is likely to occur thus gamers will spend a lot of time engaging in these games. Apart from encouraging competition and cooperation, the social features enable the creation of a support network. Through the network, the passage of information is made a lot easier thus encouraging the addition of new customers whereas the experienced ones are now capable of passing their knowledge to inexperienced gamers (King, Delfabbro, and Griffiths, 2010; Lee and Tsai, 2010). Such information may include sharing of tips and strategies on how to advance to the next level in the game. Since various individuals have a need to belong to a social group, the developers and publishers have taken advantage of these needs. Several MMORPGs have used the social features to create a social institution where gamers can be associated with a given social group for the main purpose of cooperating in playing these games. A research on the social group identified that an estimated 66 percent of all the World of Warcraft players belong to a social group, also identified as a guild (Billieux et al., 2013). The members of a guild agree on the time to play the games. However, being a member of a social group is followed by a sense of obligation that may lead to members going beyond their comfort zones to meet the obligations. Such may include spending excessive time in playing till an agreed upon the target is achieved failure to which a member may be removed from the guild or punished. The social features also enable the highly rated players to gain social recognition thus creating some form of social reward. By providing a platform to compete and reward the achievers, gamers will derive a form of enjoyment from MMORPGs and may lead to excessive gaming as one tries to achieve a higher social recognition status (King, Delfabbro, and Griffiths, 2010; Lee and Tsai, 2010) Conclusion The Massively Multiplayer online role- playing games represent a new kind of traditional video games facilitated by the advancement in technology. The paper aimed at identifying similarities between the MMORPGs and the gambling games to identify whether they contain features that can lead to excessive games. The research identified the features contained by MMORPGs that can lead to addiction or excessive gaming. First, the modern online video games tend to be endless by containing unattainable goals and valuable collection thus providing repetitive activities (Lee and Tsai, 2010; King, Delfabbro, and Griffiths, 2010). The games are also heavily dependent on pure chances thus making the gamers spend excessive time gambling. The other feature is through the provision of rewards and punishment through creating scenarios of entrapment and near miss. Entrapment and near miss situation encourage the gamer to spend more time playing. Entrapment may be in the form of providing a difficult situation that demand dedication from the gamers whereas near miss may be aimed at encouraging the gamers to play more by showing them how close they were to achieving the main price by rewarding them with smaller prizes although they lost (Lee and Tsai, 2010). Lastly, social features are employed in these games to enable social interaction through competition or cooperation. The interactions make the games more exciting thus encouraging excessive gaming. The various stakeholders including the lawmakers, psychologists, video game players and the game developers and publishers can use this information to ensure the negative impacts of online games are kept a minimum. References Billieux, J., Van der Linden, M., Achab, S., Khazaal, Y., Paraskevopoulos, L., Zullino, D. and Thorens, G. (2013). Why do you play World of Warcraft? An in-depth exploration of self-reported motivations to play online and in-game behaviours in the virtual world of Azeroth. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(1), pp.103-109. Karlsen, F. (2010). Entrapment and Near Miss: A Comparative Analysis of Psycho-Structural Elements in Gambling Games and Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 9(2), pp.193-207. King, D., Delfabbro, P. and Griffiths, M. (2010). The Role of Structural Characteristics in Problematic Video Game Play: An Empirical Study. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 9(3), pp.320-333. King, D., Delfabbro, P. and Griffiths, M. (2009). Video Game Structural Characteristics: A New Psychological Taxonomy. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 8(1), pp.90-106. Lee, M. and Tsai, T. (2010). What Drives People to Continue to Play Online Games? An Extension of Technology Model and Theory of Planned Behavior. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 26(6), pp.601-620. Stetina, B., Kothgassner, O., Lehenbauer, M. and Kryspin-Exner, I. (2011). Beyond the fascination of online-games: Probing addictive behavior and depression in the world of online-gaming. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(1), pp.473-479. Read More