Social interaction in MMORPGs

Did You Know?

• Nick Yee classifies avatars into two categories: a projection or idealization of one's identity, or an experiment with a new identity.
• The avatar, as a representation of the self, creates the first impression and is the first means of communicating with other players.
• Communication between players typically takes the form of typed chat and the animated gestures and expressions of the avatar.

Collaboration and social networking

In MMORPGs, group battles of four to eight players against complex AI require careful coordination. Players type out strategies, but individual choices based on personality can put teammates at risk. Unlike offline life, players can pick their own groups and connect with people who share their interests. Someone who feels like an outcast in reality can adopt a new identity and find similar souls in these worlds. A survey showed that 39.4% of male and 53.3% of female players considered their in-game friends as good as or better than real-life ones. While people crave both emotional bonds and physical company, MMORPGs can teach skills useful outside the game. However, heavy internet use may lead to real-world social isolation.

Virtual relationships in MMORPGs

In a study, 39.4% of male respondents and 53.3% of female respondents rated their MMORPG friends as comparable or better than material-world friends. Several theories explain why strong relationships form in virtual worlds. Players often already share common interests; for example, 36% of respondents work in the IT industry and 68% have experience with table-top role-playing games, and they may also share common personality traits. High-stress crisis scenarios in combat-oriented play, combined with emotional investment, can build trust among players. MMORPGs rely on fantastic metaphors and cultural myths, such as chivalric romance, that encourage idealization of persons and relationships. The restricted nature of communication allows senders to carefully craft self-presentation, and receivers may inflate limited communication into an idealized picture. Because avatars can only perform a subset of human gestures and expressions, miscommunication or coordination slippages occur. Despite inaccuracies in perception, the lack of cues and increased control over self-presentation sometimes facilitate romantic relationships. In-game marriage ceremonies express affection, though they may also represent strategic alliances or storytelling mechanisms. Some relationships carry over to the material world: 15.7% of male and 5.1% of female players physically dated someone they met in an MMORPG.

Anonymity

Players in MMORPGs can choose their character type and design their appearance, which can make stereotyping difficult since all players have equal ability to design themselves regardless of initial appearance. This allows for identity tourism, such as a black female player enacting a light-skinned male elf without being rejected by the community. Anonymity may encourage deviance from game objectives and group decisions, as most players feel safe from material-world repercussions. Many players of both genders engage in gender-switching when creating an avatar, allowing more freedom of expression than real life. Studies show that players tend to adhere to the gender roles of their avatar's gender and may choose that gender because of how it changes treatment. Some players gender-switch to experiment with looks and behaviors they would not experience in real life. Gender-switching has occurred since the early days of online interaction, and players often claim it has helped change their outlook on gameplay.

Dangers

MMORPGs function as communication platforms similar to social media, and the CIA expressed concerns about their potential use as secret communications channels for terrorists. On February 15, 2008, the office of the Director of National Intelligence provided Congress with the Data Mining Report, which disclosed the Reynard Project. This seedling effort aimed to study the emerging phenomenon of social dynamics in virtual worlds and large-scale online games, particularly terrorist dynamics, and their implications for the Intelligence Community. The project sought to identify emerging social, behavioral, and cultural norms in these environments and determine the feasibility of automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in virtual worlds.