|
Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
|
Games and Culture, Vol. 1, No. 4,
281-317 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1555412006292613
Building an MMO With Mass Appeal
A Look at Gameplay in World of Warcraft
Nicolas Ducheneaut
Nick Yee
Eric Nickell
Robert J. Moore
Palo Alto Research Center
World of Warcraft (WoW) is one of the most popular massively multiplayer games (MMOs) to date, with more than 6 million subscribers worldwide. This article uses data collected over 8 months with automated "bots" to explore how WoW functions as a game. The focus is on metrics reflecting a player’s gaming experience: how long they play, the classes and races they prefer, and so on. The authors then discuss why and how players remain committed to this game, how WoW’s design partitions players into groups with varying backgrounds and aspirations, and finally how players "consume" the game’s content, with a particular focus on the endgame at Level 60 and the impact of player-versus-player-combat. The data illustrate how WoW refined a formula inherited from preceding MMOs. In several places, it also raises questions about WoW’s future growth and more generally about the ability of MMOs to evolve beyond their familiar template.
Key Words: multiplayer online games • player behavior • automated data collection • game design
References
- Bartle, R. (2004). Designing virtual worlds. Indianapolis, IN: New Riders Publishing.
- Blizzard. (2006). Customer base reaches 6 million players worldwide as Blizzard Entertainment® prepares its award-winning MMORPG for continued growth in Europe. Retrieved July 27, 2006, from http://www.blizzard.com/press/060228.shtml
- Brown, B., & Bell, M. (2004). CSCW at play: "There" as a collaborative virtual environment. In Proceedings of CSCW’04 (pp. 350-359). New York: ACM.
- Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: HarperCollins.
- Ducheneaut, N., & Moore, R. J. (2004). The social side of gaming: A study of interaction patterns in a massively multiplayer online game. In Proceedings of the ACM conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW2004) (pp. 360-369). New York: ACM.
- Ducheneaut, N., & Moore, R. J. (2005). More than just "XP": Learning social skills in massively multiplayer online games. Interactive Technology and Smart Education,2, 89-100.
- Ducheneaut, N., Yee, N., Nickell, E., & Moore, R. J. (2006). "Alone together?" Exploring the social dynamics of massively multiplayer online games. In Proceedings of the ACM conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2006) (pp. 407-416). New York: ACM.
- Fine, G. A. (1983). Shared fantasy: Role-playing games as social worlds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Kasavin, G. (2004). World of Warcraft. Retrieved August 8, 2005, from http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/worldofwarcraft/review.html
- Kim, A. J. (2000). Community building on the Web. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press.
- Koster, R. (2005). A theory of fun for game design. Scottsdale, AZ: Paraglyph Press.
- Lee, J. (2005). Wage slaves [Electronic version]. 1UP.com. Retrieved July 27, 2006, from http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3141815
- Mulligan, J., & Patrovsky, B. (2003). Developing online games: An insider’s guide. Indianapolis, IN: New Riders Publishing.
- Nakamura, L. (2000). Race in/for cyberspace: Identity tourism on the Internet. In D. Bell (Ed.),The cybercultures reader(pp. 226-235). New York: Routledge.
- Schubert, D. (2005, October). What Vegas can teach MMO designers (and how to take a design lesson from almost anywhere). Speech presented at Austin Games Conference, Austin, TX.
- Seay, A. F., Jerome, W. J., Lee, K. S., & Kraut, R. E. (2004). Project Massive: A study of online gaming communities. In Proceedings of CHI 2004 (pp. 1421-1424). New York: ACM.
- Skinner, B. F. (1938). The behavior of organisms. Norwalk, CT: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
- Taylor, T. L. (2003). Power gamers just want to have fun? Instrumental play in a MMOG. In Proceedings of the 1st Digra conference: Level Up (pp. 300-311). Utrecht, the Netherlands: University of Utrecht, the Netherlands.
- Taylor, T. L., & Jakobsson, M. (in press). The Sopranos meets EverQuest: Socialization processes in massively multiuser games. In E. Hayot & T. Wesp (Eds.),The EverQuest reader. London: Wallflower Press.
- Turkle, S. (1997). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet. New York: Touchstone Books.
- Wikipedia. (2006). Gold farming [Electronic version]. Retrieved March 31, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_farming
- Williams, D., Ducheneaut, N., Xiong, L., Zhang, Y., Yee, N., & Nickell, E. (2006). From tree house to barracks: The social life of guilds in World of Warcraft. Games and Culture, 1 (4), 338-361.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Woodcock, B. (2005). An analysis of MMOG subscription growth—Version 18.0. Retrieved July 12,2005, from http://pw1.netcom.com/%7Esirbruce/Subscriptions.html
- Yee, N. (2001). The Norrathian Scrolls: A study of EverQuest (Version 2.5). Retrieved October 7, 2003, from http://www.nickyee.com/eqt/report.html
- Yee, N. (2005). The Daedalus Gateway. Retrieved August 17, 2005, from http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus
- Yee, N. (2006). The demographics, motivations and derived experiences of users of massively-multiuser online graphical environments. PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments,15, 309-329.[CrossRef]
 CiteULike  Connotea  Del.icio.us  Digg  Reddit  Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
|
|
 
D. W. Simkins and C. Steinkuehler
Critical Ethical Reasoning and Role-Play
Games and Culture,
July 1, 2008;
3(3-4):
333 - 355.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
D. Williams, N. Ducheneaut, L. Xiong, Y. Zhang, N. Yee, and E. Nickell
From Tree House to Barracks: The Social Life of Guilds in World of Warcraft
Games and Culture,
October 1, 2006;
1(4):
338 - 361.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
