World of MMO Craft

“World of MMO Craft”

The line between the real world and the virtual world has blurred. Perhaps once upon a time we could easily demarcate between fact and fiction, life and games, but online games now challenge the barriers that might have once been solid. The virtual world, though intangible, is now quite real and gaining importance in mainstream techno-culture. The median age of online gamers ranges from mid-twenties to early thirties; these games are not just for kids! The abbreviation MMOG stands for Massively Multiplayer Online ( Game ) and one of the most played and established of the kind for the 21st century is World of Warcraft created by Blizzard Entertainment. Focusing on the history, development and process of the creation of several blockbusters which form the ground rules of the genre, we are exploring the artificial realm for virtual gamers. Through analysing the experience and the purpose that a user finds in these virtual worlds, I will explain what makes one MMORPG good in terms of what users would come to expect from an MMO game in the current technological stage.

The very first computer games, before the home computer revolution took place, were created on expensive computer systems called mainframes; most of those early games were created in universities as programming projects. These mainframe systems were perfect for generating statistical information, but unfortunately they had very limited graphical output and in many cases they would only display text-based characters. The initial games were text-based adventure games and it wasn’t long before they were given a basic level of multiplayer functionality. Many of these adventure games were based on fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons. These computer games were named MUD, which is an abbreviation of multi-user dungeon. The multiplayer aspect of these games was basic by today’s standards and was limited by the internet speed to sending email messages and chatting within the game.

The main factor that requires users to play MMOs is constant internet connection and the process of communicating with other machines over a telephone line was still problematic. It was expensive and unreliable. After the introduction of the World Wide Web and the graphical bowser, the speeds of modems began to increase allowing for a much better online experience. These advances led to a technology and services boom. A number of telephone and computer-based companies began offering easy access to the Internet, one of which was a company called America Online (AOL). Most of AOL’s competitors provided a simple dial-up connection whereby the user would then use a browser to search the Internet for content. AOL provided it all within the same program which contained items such as websites, forum boards, chat rooms, and most importantly games. There was something special included together with all the single player games; it released the first graphical MMO called Neverwinter Nights in 1991.

“Neverwinter Nights” (AOL) screenshot: (Source: mmohuts.com, 2009)

There were still some serious issues with MMO-based games and the general technology available resulted in graphically limited content. Moreover, the dial-up modem connection was slow and Internet access bills were steep.

Ultima Online is considered the MMO game that started it all in terms of what users would come to expect from an MMO to date. The game was released in 1997 and is still running today with thousands of users, who all pay a monthly subscription.

 “Ultima Online” screenshot: (Source: mine-control.com, 2002)

The MMO is a 2D fantasy game based in the lands of Britannia in the medieval-based world, which is ruled by Lord British. The game also contained new gameplay mechanics that ensured that it would become the first MMO to gain large subscriber numbers and set the ground rules for the surely upcoming competitors. Some of the innovative features that the game introduced were later on improved and taken as example.

Not long after the release of Ultima Online, the popularity of the Internet and the growing competition in the online gaming industry forced changes in the pricing model, moving from per minute charges to a flat fee rate. This made for more users to spend more time on the Internet without worrying about the charges. The speeds were still extremely slow by today’s standards, but computer technology and graphics cards had been advancing rapidly. This lead to the release of the next major MMO called EverQuest, following the same fantasy wizards and knights type game.

“EverQuest” screenshot: (Source: Wikipedia.org, 2012)

The game used 3D graphics which ensured its success over the previous MMO titles. The game also introduced a large set of character classes within the game which players could choose from. These classes provided the players with the basic attributes that determined how the characters reacted within the world. These character classes have been reused by many other games such as World of Warcraft. Selecting certain classes makes the player better in some ways like supporting other players, defending the weaker or bringing the deadly force.

One of the biggest changes that benefited the world of MMOs is the speed at which computers connect to the Internet. The advent of ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) changed the gaming landscape, followed by ADSL+ which provided speeds up to 24Mbps, and the current fibre technology allowing speed up to 100Mbps.

Amongst all those titles formed from various different types of styles and types, there was one which stood out, out coming all other ones. The MMO that took the EverQuest title for the largest number of subscribers was a game called WOW (World of Warcraft). The game is based on another game called Warcraft, which was a real time stategy game. The game was originally released in 2004/2005. Currently it has over 10 million subscribers who each pay around $14 per month. The success of WOW and the income it generates has caused a lot of other MMO games to be released.

There are many MMOs available today for the game player to choose from, including those based on TV, movies, and comics as well as the traditional fantasy-based games. The most common styles being categorized by Darby (2011:25) are as follows:

·         Fantasy:  The most popular setting for an MMO is in a fantasy world. Mainly because it gives much more artistic license than most other game types. Also it brings style which is familiar to us from medieval times or fairy tales.

·         Historical: Historically-based games are very rare in MMOs, mostly because it is harder to create an immersive story in a true historical setting. The type of historical event or timeframe that is being referenced determines how close the game has to be to the original material.

·         Mythology: Many MMOs use mythology for a background history or story. The background story is very important to MMOs as it brings depth to the story and makes the player feel like a part of evolving world.

·         Modern Day: There are very few modern-day MMOs, because it is difficult to create a complex story in a modern-day setting.

·         Science Fiction: Science fiction is a popular area for MMOs, and is probably the second most popular genre in MMO games. Science fiction-based games bring ideas such as amazing inventions, robots, space or any other futuristic concepts.

In most cases the virtual user is introduced to a persistent world with established theme and setup. The theme of the surrounding of the game determines how the game will progress, amount of possibilities around the world and most importantly, setting the purpose. In most MMOs users must overcome challenges, gain new levels, and acquire new and more powerful items if they wish to advance in the main story or take part in different cooperative events. In other ones, the most famous being Second Life (SL).SL is not a game of acquisition or advancement, it is a game where only the user’s creative energies determine the user’s interaction with the rest of the online community.

MMO worlds can be of epic proportions, so characters are able to explore the dangerous world in many different ways. They can be trains/trams, animals, boats and ships or magical vessels. It is all decided by the global style of the MMO. MMO games should be taking place in evolving worlds, where the player feels that the game is a living entity. In order to do so the game studios have to release patches and upgrades to the game, making sure everything is working and customer suggestions and reports were dealt with.

Millions of players have bought massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) such as Ultima Online ,  EverQuest , and  World of Warcraft , which usually involves purchasing the CD-ROM and then paying a monthly subscription fee. These MMOs  are all set in fantasy worlds where players choose to be warriors, wizards, priests, etc., and go on quests to find treasure, slay monsters, and rescue those in need. Other MMORPGs exist but in all of these games, questing lures players into a main story or historical period, whose result is collectively experienced by all of its users. According to Geraci (2010:73)  the participatory nature of MMORPGs is one of their defining characteristics and a primary part of their allure. The known stereotype of a gamer is of a solitary soul caring of nothing other than his or her console or computer. But this is far from true, the Internet allows gamers to communicate and cooperate with each other; it creates communities. The focus of most of the games they play is, in fact, deeply social.

“Virtual worlds allow access to our true selves and to meaningful practices and communities.” Geraci (2010:95)

Players who enter the artificial realm of the game, have absolute full control over their avatars. This allows users to act, behave and develop their characters in any way. Geraci (2010:95) says that users of virtual worlds can be categorized as “augmentationists” and “immersionists”.  Augmentationistst use the world as a platform for augmenting their conventional personalities. For them the persistent world is like a telephone; it is an opportunity to extend their consciousness into this realm of communication. “Immersionists” are users who separate their cyber personalities with their conventional lives. The idea of a technological self was one of the first centres of interest of socials scientists’ examination of virtual environments. Wright (2010:170) explains that in a seminar work, Sherry Turkle proposes that new psychological identity-work could be performed in cyberspace because it was a space between the real and the unreal. She implied that our virtual experiences may be less real than our physical one. This makes the construction of self more complicated because the user is unable to take the role of his avatar like in the physical world but as demanded by role-playing in symbolic interactionism. Using this logic, we need a physical reference in order to communicate and therefore realise our self. But if physical bodies are also social bodies and reality is socially constructed, it is the mental reference we require in communication not a physical one. Virtual embodiments are that mental reference. Virtual embodiment takes this idea even further. Virtual embodiment allows the mind to create the body, and together they construct the virtual environment. According to James (2007), the influence between the mind and the body is unconscious.

Another difference between physical and virtual embodiment is the information we receive from the body of the physical world. The cyber world informs us with visual technology, not body senses, which make us aware of the surrounding world. However, many scholars have found that the level of cognitive control over virtual embodiment is the exact reason for our emotional attachment to them. Our emotions and mental senses are linked to the self.

“Emotion in its entirety is a mode of behaviour which is purposive, or has an intellectual content, and which also reflects itself into feeling or affects, as the subjective valuation of that which is objectively expressed in the idea or purpose.” Dewey (1990: 172)

These emotional attachments are just as real as those of our physical bodies.

“In interactive video games, there is no parasocial interaction with a fictitious character, no felt connection per se, but an actual, tangible connection between the gamer and a fully functional, completely controllable avatar.”  (Lewis et al. 2008:515)

In the recorded instances of violent virtual crime, there is actual psychological harm done to those the avatar was embodying, therefore the reality that is constructed is real in its consequences.

The Internet gives the opportunity for gamers to experience and participate in events which created communities. When a lot of people share the same goal it unites them. Even in the earliest forms of Internet communication, using limited data transfer over phone lines via modems, email and message boards created “societies” with subscribers and followers.

The main social factor comes from quests. A quest or mission is one of the ways a player can achieve experience within an MMO, or it can set a particular task for them to accomplish. The player is given a quest by non-playable character but sometimes it can be a part of an on-going story connected with the history of the virtual world.

Quests can also be used to give more information about the environment around them, including learning about interactions with other characters, objects, events, native inhabitants or other any other possibilities introduced by the game developers. Quests are one of the most important things in MMOs, because based on the difficulty of the quest; the player should receive a satisfying reward. Also it is important to insure that the quests are varied, but still themed by the main story. This creates an immersive and interactive storyline, filled with various social or solitary emotional experiences which truly connect the character with the one the avatar is embodying.

Virtual worlds are potential spaces of total surveillance. To insure optimal gameplay is achieved, in theory, every single move or action, behavioural patterns or individual time of the player can be monitored, saved and inspected by the publisher. World of Warcraft uses and dictates the same method, but with even stricter nature. This has become a field of growing interest in scientific disciplines like robotics, Apocalyptic AI and Artificial Consciousness. Accordig to Geraci (2010:8) Apocalyptic AI brings promise that in the very near future technological progress will allow us to build supremely intelligent machines and to copy our own minds into machines so that we can live forever in a virtual realm of cyberspace.

Furthermore, the main goal of World of Warcraft, is war. You can go outside of it and never get into combat but beneath the surface of WOW, Nordlinger and Cuddy (2009:196) state that behind the facade of a romantic, competitive, and honour-based concept of war there lies a very modern concept of tactical Information Warfare (“Infowar”). Information warfare can be understood as the use of information in order to get a competitive advantage over an enemy and is one of the main topics in today’s military research.

There is a growing number of MMOs now appearing, and while some current MMOs may be closed down, it does seem that in the future there will be even more growth within the MMO sector. In the early days of MMOs the expectations that gamers had were far from different than the current player has on their wish list. The possibilities of what online social gaming might become, considering the step of humanity’s technological advancement, are bordering infinity. With players now ranging from their mid-twenties to their late thirties, even more investment is being made into the sector. Gamers believe that independent minds will soon occupy the virtual world, either as native life-forms or as uploaded consciousnesses. By looking into the history and development of MMOs in the past 20 years, there can pretty soon be an alternative for the visual cognition of games, would you subscribe then?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

James, (2007) What is an Emotion?. Radford: Wilder Publications. 197–98.

Darby, James (2011) Wizards and Warriors: Massively Multiplayer Online Game Creation. Boston: Course Technology, a part of Cengage Learning.

Geraci, Robert (2010) Apocalyptic AI. New York: Oxford University Press Inc.

Wright, J. Talmadge (2010) Utopic Dreams and Apocalyptic Fantasies. Playmoth: Lexington Books.

Nordlinger, J., Cuddy, L. (2009) World of Warcraft and Philosophy. USA: Carus Publishing Company.

Dewey, John (1990) “The Significance of Emotions” The Early Works of John Dewey. vol.4, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

Lewis, M., Weber, R., Bowman, N. (2008 ) ‘They May be Pixels, but They’re MY Pixels’: Developing a Metric of Character Attachment in Role-Playing Video Games.

Illustrations:

Mine-control.com (2002) Ultima Online screenshot. [Online image] Available at http://www.mine-control.com/zack/uoecon/uoecon.html [April 20 2012]

Mmohuts.com (2009) Neverwinter Nights screenshot. [Online image] Available at http://mmohuts.com/editorials/the-first-mmorpg [Aptril 20 2012]

Wikipedia.org (2012) EverQuest screenshot. [Online image] Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sand_Giant_-_EverQuest_-_1999.jpg [Aptril 21 2012]