Analysis of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) is an avenue that has attracted quite a large number of people with the current subscription having approximately 23 million paid subscribers worldwide where the monthly payment is $15. The research gives a detailed analysis of how these games and the community tools formed promote and foster group play in different fields and stratifications.

A massively multiplayer online game commonly abbreviated as MMO or MMOG is a type of computer game that is integrated in a way to allow very many players to access the same game even in different geographical locations. Local Area Networking allows the play to take place both in single player mode and the multiplayer mode. There are several computer games that can be played online and it depends on the player(s) preferences. The use of the LAN to play these games has encouraged companies to come up with games and also put in the slot of online gaming so that they can attract most people to play. These games are also important as they bring people from very many areas all over the world, therefore, creating a certain kind of cohesion. That way people interact and reduce the idea of discrimination either on the basis of race, language or even the skin tone which is a good thing in ensuring that there is a cordial relationship between various people across the world.

Brief History of MMOs

Initially, computer games were never complex are they are nowadays. The early types of games can be traced way back when the first writers of sci-fi writers came up with virtual realities but they did not have a clear idea of how they could use them. Some of the pioneer MMOs that had a great impact on the world include Neverwinter Nights (1991), which was the earliest game, Meridian 59, The Realm Online, Ultima Online and the Everquest. Modification of the Ultima online game read to the introduction of another type of MMO the Everquest in 1999.According to a recent study, World of Warcraft (WoW) is the leading game in the number of subscriptions made. It has 7.7 million subscribers Kain (2013). Fantasy XI (2002) is also one of the most common MMOs attracting a large number of people.

Analyzed Modern MMOs

Fantastic XI game has a unique job system with the likes of Dark Knights, Dragons making it a perfect match for online role-playing. Each player is expected to pick both primary and secondary jobs. A brief summary of MMO games (Messner 2017) shows that by doing that, the player gets access to theory crafting around which he or she can know what combos to use. In a scenario where, one finds out that he has chosen an unfavorable task, he is allowed to change it and pick another task.

Final Fantasy XI has two major components. The first one is the mission. The mission has a clear description of the game on how one advances to different ranks on completion of one mission. There are normally rewards once one successfully achieves one mission and the rewards will help the player to upgrade either the tools that he is using or the interface of the items being used.

The game has various activities where the players can engage in such as the Dynamics and Nyzul Isle which uses 6-64 users in the case of multiplayer.

Community tools and game designs promote and foster group play. Fantastic XI has been picked as a case study of a game that is played by a large number of people to show the effect it has on our lives today. Since it attracts so many people of different age classifications, it is a good platform for people to interact and exchange various ideas on several fields depending on the people forming the different guilds and their preferences. Through the game, there is a slot for people to interact, Reinders (2012), discuss various ideas and also exchange ideas. It is therefore a very nice game that achieves one of the main targets of the objectives of the MMOs.

Player Expectation from Communities through Player Interaction and Culture.

The surrounding community has a great impact on the manner in which the MMOs are practiced in different countries around the world. Players of these games have certain expectations that they expect the community to offer in order to conduct their play effectively. The surrounding community normally has certain rules or norms that should be put in place in the course of playing the online games. A certain country has a certain code of discipline under which the games should be carried out failure to which the services would not be rendered to them. For instance, in several countries, the players are expected to maintain a high level of discipline in terms of texts or the conversation that they have. In this regard, US and Malaysia are good examples whereby players expect that the community of the opponent community to set such rules so that the avenue will be used for the intended purpose and also maintain a positive relationship with the players. In some cases, there are designated areas where the players are expected to have some kind of character before they can engage in any form of online games and particularly that which involves many players.

 For all these games to work, it is necessary that for the person or the pc having the game to have very fast and smooth internet services. It is, therefore, the task of the surrounding community to ensure that the servers are in order and also make sure that the internet offered allows the gaming to occur smoothly so that there will not bias in the type of results produced. An illustration is through the use of communication tools while playing the Never winter Nights game which consequently led to a perfect gaming through the use of instant messaging, web forums, IP Networks, and the voice recognition.

Community Structures

The MMO community uses various types of programs to enhance social interaction between its members who are the players. Such programs will accomplish interaction through completion of certain tasks by the use of several virtual representations. Interaction normally takes place within guilds which provide MMO users the necessary with programs necessary that will facilitate CMC interaction with the main aim being to achieve goals in MMO programs such as to enhance cohesion among its members. MMO programs facilitate guild organization. The game dynamics store resources that have been collected by its members or design guild markers that show other MMO users what guild a person’s avatar belongs to. Social Role of players in MMORPG Guilds Siang and Zaphiris (2010).

Community building techniques utilized in the MMOGs design.

Use of internet all over the world has led to the formation of the groups of people who share an informal relationship through the mediums such as email, message boards and also conducting charts. It is normally not easy to have a relationship with people who have met online but with time it can develop to be a very strong relationship. The Internet is used in playing these games when dealing in both single player mode and multiplayer mode. One of aim objective of playing such kinds of games is to ensure that one forms part of a certain online community.

Formation of the online communities has certain benefits to its members. It creates an opportunity for people to exchange their ideas on different topics of interests and specifically to those who have common interests. Through the online relationship, people can meet up and conduct various businesses or tasks together as they had been having a prior relationship with the charts or in any other way. Several techniques enhance the growth and development of communities consequently leading to more success in various fields.

Techniques Utilized in the Game

1. Encourage new organizations that have been formed.

Several people or groups of people are brought together with the main idea being to participate in online games. With time, there also those who come up with certain guilds while others just remain without involving themselves in any sort of group. Those that form groups get a chance of socializing and relate to other players either from their locality or from other parts of the globe. It has been clearly described in the previous descriptions the importance of coming up with the group and the results that are achieved as a result of coming up with such groups. It is, therefore, necessary to emphasize the importance of coming up with different fields related –groups to enjoy the favors that one might find himself in by relating to people who have same interests. Several systems can be formed to enhance the group members find those other members who have different skills so that they would give complementary ideas and show skills that they have. They also get to acquire skills that they don’t have from those others who have them.

2. Encourage competition among the players.

Competition is brought about when players get to interact and form a certain kind of friendship. The single player system has less of competition as compared to the multi-player system because the multi-player applies the Player vs Player competition (PvP) and the furthest the single player can go is to upload their scores in a website but will not get the chance of having a direct contact with the other players. Competitive PVP in destiny 2 David (2017) tells that normally there are certain rewards when dealing with the case of multi-player type of competition and if the new players are not protected then they might not get the rewards as other people might take them. It is, therefore, necessary to ensure that there is a fair competition as that would result in more growth and developments to the members of the group and even on an individual level.

3. Come up with a system that brings together matching personnel.

A single player normally gives the details of his preferences to the website so that if the interests match of another person, then he might be in a better chance of coming up with a guild. Several people with similar interests and are willing to form a community are grouped together by a certain system. It is therefore important to come up with client such as Game Spy to provide matching so that people with the same pattern of goals are grouped together. Such a system is very crucial because it is impossible for one to group people manually particularly where there is large population.

4. Have several player-to-player communications.

Members of a certain group have various methods in which they can exchange information. The more the methods of communication we have, the more the people who are accommodated. Most of the games bring in the aspect of texts within the group and also between individuals but it is normally limited to players within the group or guild (SiitonenM.,2007).

Expansion of the internet broadband ensures increment of the IP-feasible in games to allow more communication mostly to people at different geographical locations. Another form of communication is the asynchronous communication which allows one to leave a message to other people who are not in the game period so that they will see the information once they get in the game. It is an advancement because, in the communication method, one can leave advertisements and other forms of messages to people of the same guild either business oriented or in any kind of field. The different forms of communication will be able to favor very many people depending on whatever form of communication they might choose to go for. Online community building techniques used by video game developers Ruggles et al (2005).

5. A system that has player involvement

The MMOs games particularly the recent ones have an area set where the players can leave comments about the quality of gameplay offered or give a rating of the game normally on certain stars or percentages. The producers of the game then look at the comments and the stars awarded to the game and then evaluate them. They then come up with methods of modifying the game depending on the most customers’ complaint so that they are able to provide a utility to the esteemed customers and also steal other people who might be using a different game. It is impossible for the producers to access a large number of people across the world and it would also call for a lot of money to do the same. But integrating the small subsystem to the main game would be a cheaper and efficient mode of getting the information from the players. The process, however, has its own drawbacks. Just like the manual questionnaire where people might give unclear information, the player can either operate the game or underrate the game thereby affecting even those that have provided clear information.

These are the techniques that are used in the game. There are others that are practiced but outside the game. Some of them include:

Ø Provide a forum or an official website

The website allows every person to see what the game is about because there are people who like to see what kind of game it is before they play and also leave comments or enquire about something.

Ø Create a platform for interaction between the players and the developers.

The developers encourage players to join groups based on their common interests. Advanced gaming companies also come up with an avenue to bring together the two parties so that the players are able to interact with the developers and bring in any type of complaint, like or inquiry that they would like to make.

MMOG’s Strategies, Tools for Community Support and Community Management

The nature of CMC allows MMO users to interact with very different geographical locations involving various people hence making it easier for people to join the games again based on their preferences. The strategies ensure that community tools and game designs promote and foster group play. The various gamers come together since they share a common interest in a specified type of game. This makes it easier for people to choose to enter an MMO community based mainly on their interests.

CMC has brought people together in a faster and efficient manner that even other ways of communication have not. The use of MMOs can also be regarded as a fast way to see people come together and form a rapport rather than they would if they met on a different avenue.

An MMO guild is a group of players that engage in various kinds of online games and use the platform for social networking. There are various reasons as to why several people choose to enter guilds but the main reason for joining the guild is to game easily by cooperating with other players in the guild. There are weak and strong guilds. The weak guilds are the groups formed by people who have engaged in just a short period of time while a strong guild is that which players have had a longer period of interaction. The Social Structure of Massive Multiplayer Online Game Communities - Investigating the social network of a World of Warcraft guild Stensson (2009).

Conclusion

People have different perspectives on video games and the impact they have had to our culture and the surrounding environs. There are those who find that video games have come to erode our decency and consequently decrease the emotional awareness. For the past years, video games have tampered so much with the education of the students. That reduces their study time which could be used to lay a strong foundation to their career life.

 The MMO community uses various programs to help its members have a smooth interaction period and later on help the members to attract other members and that way the company gets to grow. The programs (Computer Mediated Communication), are designed in a way to allow the users have the ability of taking and completing tasks in virtual words via the use of virtual representations in various chat rooms. The guilds, groups formed in the game database, provide users with programs which act as tools that maximize the ability of users to achieve some of the objectives of the MMO programs. Development of these programs has facilitated social interactions over a short period of time and for a large geographical area. Normally there are various tools and techniques used by the guilds to achieve the various objectives that the MMOs have. The tools used normally differ according to the type of the game since not all games that have the same content. There are however common tools that are universal and applies to almost every MMO. The computer mediated communications keep on upgrading wit time and according to the technology present. The kind of communications used today are way too complex than those that were used during the start of the multiplayer games. They are complex in the content they handle, simplicity of use, easy accessibility and improved customer relations. The networking of the CMC however experiences problems thereby affecting the interaction of the MMO users.

One of the major positive impact that the video games have had to the culture is interaction. Video games accommodate people from various parts of the country, of different genders and also classified in different age groups. Initially, one joins as a single player gives personal details, preferences and goals and through the system integrated in the games, people bearing the same characterization are grouped into category. We have business-oriented people who use gaming as a way of spending their leisure time. They can also share links of their businesses and the kind of tasks they deal with and that way their businesses get to grow through community involvement.

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