Effects of Mmorpg on Students Essay Example

Effects of Mmorpg on Students Essay 2006 By Neils L. Clark Thesis Committee: Ruth Duran Huard, Chairperson Dan Wedemeyer Jonathan Lillie Pete Britos Aknowledgements Harry Partika and Meryl Martin, without whom there would be no data, and Aaron Delwiche, without whom there would be no aspiration. ii Abstract This work begins by providing a comprehensive review of videogame-related literature in fields as diverse as communications, psychology, sociology, and neuroscience; this reading suggested that behaviors noted as detrimental in psychology and neuroscience were being observed in studies of Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) gamers. The current research provides data which suggests that a player’s perceived use of varied structural characteristics within a game is related to differing addiction and engagement levels. In particular, the constructs of negative valence, side activities, and interaction with real life friends within MMO games had distinct relationships with each addiction and engagement levels. When structural characteristics were controlled for, PvP advancement and guild preference appeared to be significant predictors of addiction or engagement. While the primary aim was to offer preliminary data comparing structural characteristics and addiction, this work also discusses the benefits and limitations of sampling respondents within MMO game worlds. iii We will write a custom essay sample on Effects of Mmorpg on Students specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Effects of Mmorpg on Students specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Effects of Mmorpg on Students specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer nbsp; Researchers in fields as diverse as psychology, neurobiology, and communication are all trying to answer this question. So far, all we can assume is that some people play too much, in a pattern that is very similar to many behavioral addictions recognized today. If addiction is operant among gamers, does this then suggest that other media forms might be probed for addictive qualities? Very few scholars have actually investigated addiction to games, however many directions for research can be inferred by comparing studies of games against addiction research. Addiction work in psychology and neuroscience provides criteria on addiction, even as it applies to Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game players (Brown, 1997, Depue Collins, 1999, Charlton Danforth, 2004). Meanwhile Wood, Griffiths, Chappell and Davies (2004) have examined the â€Å"structural characteristics† of single player games, looking particularly at which of these elements were most important to videogame players. Researchers in more humanities-centered approaches, specifically communications, have isolated the major motivations driving players of MMO games (Yee, 2006). These motivations are connected to what may be called structural characteristics of MMO games; in other words, gamers may be motivated to play specific parts of a game. The varied literature does seem to suggest that comparing addiction fundamentals in psychology and neuroscience against studies of game player populations and/or structural characteristics will show certain viii connections. The hope is that by taking a preliminary look at game structures in relation to addiction criteria, it may become clear whether or not game structures have any relationship to addicted players. MMO games are massive graphical game worlds, wherein thousands of players continuously interact with one another in real-time. Gamers slay dragons, attract followers, and gather resources in worlds with complex politics, economies, and physics. MMO games attract millions of players worldwide. Although MMOs are a very new type of game, they already garner billions of dollars for the gaming industry. At least 28 new MMOs are scheduled for release in the next two years (Woodcock, 2005). Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft is currently the most popular, boasting over 6 million subscribers worldwide (Jenkins, 2006). While Warcraft commands a huge market share compared to other MMOs, there is an increasingly steep incline in growth of total active players (Woodcock, 2005). Some people play MMO games for 40, 60, even near 90 hours straight, and then die (Kim, 2006). Still, these may be anecdotal cases. It is speculated that most people can use computers for long periods of time without ill effect, while only a small few cannot remain â€Å"healthy† while doing so (Charlton, 2002). Nonetheless, if games appeal to a broad demographic (Yee, 2005, Griffiths, 2003), then this problem has the potential to affect an expansive demographic. Understanding the potential for addiction in games requires that researchers use better materials and sampling methodologies. Defining populations as â€Å"addicted† is problematic, as most studies fail to describe even their basic criteria. The current work attempts to describe criteria on some key studies in Internet and computer addiction, as they form the ix foundation underlying many studies of video game addiction. A previously tested and used definition of MMO addiction is then selected (Charlton Danforth, 2004). In the theory used, players begin with stages of â€Å"high engagement;† they enjoy play yet experience only lower order negative effects associated with these games: cognitive salience, euphoria, and heightened tolerance. At a point, some gamers enter a stage of â€Å"addiction†, experiencing more severe negative effects: behavioral salience, intra and interpersonal conflict, withdrawal, and relapse/reinstatement. That play degrades in this manner among certain players seems clear (Brown, 1997; Charlton, 2002). Less clear is what factors may prompt the move from enjoyable â€Å"engagement† to deleterious â€Å"addiction†. To this end, Wood and Griffiths et. al (2004) have suggested the importance of the structural characteristics of videogames. While their work does not explore MMO addiction, the notion of a game having inherent structures, even to the degree that different MMOs games may share certain structural traits, is central to this work. Structural characteristics in this paper are, then, meant to measure the perceived amounts of time spent at, frequency of interactions with, and perceived importance a game player puts on interaction with major generalizeable structures of the game world. For instance, whether they prefer adventuring with people they have met online, how much they value a certain type of player organization (guild), if they like to manipulate other players, or whether they want to sew pretty dresses. Within the literature, a number of structural characteristics are readily apparent, these being amount of time spent at different in-game activities (Wood, Griffiths, et. al, 2004), guild characteristics (Seay, Jerome et al. , 2004; Jakobsson and Taylor, 2003), performance of socially unacceptable behaviors (Yee, 2006), level of interaction with real life friends versus online friends (Jakobsson and Taylor, 2003), level of immersion (Yee, 2006), and level of individualism (Yee, 2006). Again, at present no study has examined the relationship, if any, between addiction and the structural characteristics inherent to videogames. A number of oversights highlight the need for interdisciplinary research. Gameplay types and motivations that have been cited in psy chological literature as destructively addictive are currently being observed in actual gaming populations within the fields of computer science, informatics, and communications. For example Nicholas Yee, studying MMO player behavior within the field of Communications, had determined â€Å"escapism† and â€Å"manipulation† (i. e. of other players) to be two major reasons to play (Yee, 2006). Meanwhile, in the field of psychology, at least one measure of Charlton’s addiction scale deals with gaming as an â€Å"escape from socialization† (Charlton, 2002). Additionally â€Å"negative valence†, or use of videogames to undergo nonsocially acceptable behavior, relates strongly to addiction, and is very similar to Yee’s measure of â€Å"manipulation† (Charlton Danforth, 2004). Overlap does exist between addiction literature and reported behavior. No empirical data, however, yet explores links between addiction, and preferences towards, performance of, or frequency of performance of general structures within games. While the gaming industry itself has given some treatment to the issue of addiction (Clark, 2006), it is unclear as to whether even game developers take the notion seriously (Adams, 2002). The gaming industry is nonetheless populated with a true melange of development houses, publishers, independent contractors, and other actors. As is evidenced by the major industry publications, they place value on academic work. Gamasutra. com, for instance, lends theses, books, and other academic works valuable web real estate. Industry xi leaders attend a wide variety of conferences on games. At the most recent game developer’s conference (GDC), all manner of game creators flooded a talk given by three major academics discussing upcoming gaming research. While some game developers will certainly protest to discussions of game addiction, many more realize the necessity for understanding the intersect between videogames and addiction. By comparing Charlton and Danforth’s model of MMO addiction (2004), against structural characteristics identified in this research, it may be possible to determine which elements of play, if any, relate to addiction. If any relation exists, it would provide early data on which parts of a game relate most strongly to the preferences of addicted players. It is important to note here that a relationship between structural characteristics and addiction may suggest a number of things. A robust set of relationships between structural characteristics and addiction likely does not imply that games themselves are addictive, nor would it be able to imply that only game players with addictive personalities will have problems. An utter lack of any relationship may indicate that games themselves have no link to addiction. Nonetheless if relationships do exist, the hope would then be that the academy, the gaming industry or others will verify these results for themselves so as to understand why certain structural characteristics may be linked to harmful behaviors. xii Chapter 1: Relevant Literature The â€Å"newness† of games, relative to established media forms, makes analysis of structural elements quite recent. DFC Intelligence estimated that the top 17 video game companies collectively made 24. 5$ billion USD in 2004, (Maragos, 2005) compared to the often cited six or seven billion overall value. MMO games represent a major force in the videogame industry. In China alone, MMO business was forecasted to grow from 580$ million USD in 2005, to 1. 7$ billion in 2010 (Jenkins, 2005). A recent report by the IDC estimates South Korea’s MMO revenues at 551$ million USD in 2004 (Reuters, 2005). Each successive MMO is essentially different. For instance, Star Wars Galaxies occurs within George Lucas’ famous Star Wars Galaxy, whereas Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XI occurs within the established Final Fantasy universe. Each has their own different rules that dictate the play environment. Each are, however, very similar in certain structural characteristics, the theoretical pieces which make up the game world. That these games, and this line of inquiry is so new, studies of gaming populations could be compared to that of movie going, at a time when only a dozen or so major movies had been made. A number of authors, in conducting demographies, ethnographies, and other exploratory studies of MMO populations have examined what could be called structural characteristics (Wood, 2004; Ducheneaut, 2004; Jakobsson and Taylor, 2003; Seay, 2004; Delwiche, 2003). Building on the MMO structural characteristics pulled from their work and explained below, this study seeks to find whether videogame structural characteristics are related to concepts of addiction. 1 Figure 1. Sony Online Entertainment’s Star Wars Galaxies brings to life elements from Lucas’ proprietary world, such as Jedi and rancor beasts It is also important to note that I, as the author, am connected to these videogames in such a way that this work is necessarily ethnographic in many respects. I am part of a generation that has grown up immersed in games, MMO games becoming a part of that for me upon joining some online friends in playing Star Wars Galaxies. Most recently I have been playing World of Warcraft. While this thesis centers on quantitative data, qualitative data is inseparable from this. While the ethnographically inclined researcher will no doubt want more in the way of direct quotes and nuanced situations, this thesis does center on quantitative data. My background will primarily show itself in discussions of MMO games. These discussions are intended for the audience of academics who may otherwise have had little experience with these worlds. 2 Addiction Literature Much of the game addiction research being performed today owes its methods to the foundation laid by early work done in Internet addiction. Ivan Goldberg’s joking 1995 inception of the â€Å"Internet Addiction Support Group† is generally credited with coining the phrase â€Å"Internet Addiction Disorder† (IAD) (Charlton Danforth, 2004), and highlights the tone of the early dialogue on addiction. In the same year, a study of problematic videogame use among first year psychology students (Griffiths and Dancaster, 1995) was conducted using the DSM-III criteria for pathological gambling (American Psychiatric Association, 1987). The following year, â€Å"Internet Addiction† was introduced at the 1996 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association (Young, 2004). Numerous studies followed suit. Most of these studies used no more than ten items in diagnosing what they referred to as computer and Internet addictions. At most, affirmative answers on only 50% of these items were needed to fit operational definitions of addiction (Griffiths, 1999; Griffiths Hunt, 1998; Scherer, 1997; Young, 1998). While Internet and computer addiction should be seen as entities distinct from videogame addiction, the former two are discussed as part of a genealogical progression of research. For better or for worse, a great deal of the research into videogames takes its measures and methodologies directly from these earlier works. In some ways this helped to bring the notion of videogame addiction to light, yet in thers it introduced detrimental misconceptions. While it is possible that addiction to a game may be similar to Internet or computer addictions, should either actually exist, games are distinct from computer applications and the Internet. The goal of this addiction section is to trace the literature regarding non-substance addiction, examining its roots in Brown’s model, 3 addiction’s initial applications by Young in Internet dependence/addiction, then finally to Charlton’s conceptions of engagement and addiction. Despite the serious dearth of academic information regarding the relationship between games and addiction, gamers throw the term â€Å"addiction† about quite readily. Among game players it is colloquial to regard casual play as â€Å"addiction,† regardless of whether a person’s play is healthy or not. Prominent advertisements and reviews for games use the word â€Å"addiction† synonymously with â€Å"quality. † Highlighting the pervasive use of the term as well as gamers’ perceptions of addiction, one player asked to participate in this study noted that it was their first time playing in months. Later they stated, â€Å"but I was addicted like all the rest. † Contacting another player inside the game provoked a strong negative reaction, at first. However, after the researcher apologized and left that player alone for a time, the same player began spontaneously talking about their play, to make this short I no longer work and I play this game almost all day every day for over a year now. The sustained misuse of perceptions and stereotypes on the part of marketers will likely have an increasingly devastating impact on game players that do have problems. Understanding the intersect between addiction and videogames is a necessary precursor toward first, understanding what to regard as addiction, and second, search for clues as to how we might begin to help the people whose play is having a clearly negative affect on their lives. Brown’s Hedonic Management Model of Addiction Iain Brown (1993; 1997) wrote a number of articles regarding his â€Å"hedonic management model of addiction,† a model created to apply to non-substance addiction generally. In the most basic sense, Brown argues that all people use certain activities to 4 ake themselves feel good. Some people, whether through gradual development, or the sudden discovery of a very powerful stimulus, learn to use this one stimulus to keep themselves feeling good all the time, increasingly at the cost of their long term goals. Recovery is a matter of regaining a normal repertoire of activities and realization of an improved long-term rate of reward. Brown additionally di stinguishes addiction as value-free, which means that though an activity has acquired a â€Å"motivational monopoly† (Hodge, p. 4) within an individual, it is rarely without benefit. Two obvious examples would be addiction to jogging or to computer games, possible benefits being physical health and technical knowledge, respectively. Neuroscience Without belaboring Neuroscience, it remains important to give at least a sideways glance toward the established role of dopamine in the brain, and how neurological veins of research may lend greater understanding to MMO addiction. Where Brown’s psychological studies suggested that â€Å"non-substance ingesting †¦activities† could create behaviors very similar to those found in substance-addicts (Brown, 1991), meaning that a strongly psychological concept likely underlies both substance, and non-substance addiction. Goaloriented motivation is based on two major factors, â€Å"the availability of reward, and the effort required to obtain it†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Depue and Collins, 1999). Brown reflects this, in saying: â€Å"An addiction develops its maximum power and momentum through the prolonged action of several positive feedback loops. These positive feedback loops begin with a series of cognitive failures which lead to the strengthening of an acquired drive for particular feeling states as a goal associated with the performance of the addictive activity. As the acquired 5 drive strengthens, so the single activity becomes more and more salient as almost the sole source of reward. † (Brown, in Hodge, 1997, P. 29) Considering that MMO games contain nearly pervasive reward, with such rewards immensely easier to obtain relative to RL (The most common abbreviation for â€Å"real life† within a MMO game) goals and rewards, it is then not entirely nreasonable to expect many players to experience greater apathy toward RL goals, as they are not only overshadowed by much more transparent and apparently efficant goals (i. e. slaying a dragon, or crafting a weapon yet unseen on a particular server), but that in-game goals themselves take such an amount of time as to make RL goals all the more difficult to obtain. Here the â€Å"availability of reward† and â€Å"effort required to obtain it† reflect Brown’s concept of â€Å"hedonic gap†, the difference between the strength of a goal, and personal susceptibility. Depue and Collins state that individual differences in dopamine processing can predetermine certain individuals as more likely to develop addictive behaviors. In this way, hard science and Brown’s model both seem to be pieces of a larger puzzle. Internet Addiction As recently as 1996, Internet addiction was brought up as a potential disorder among mental health professionals. Criteria for â€Å"Internet Dependence† was made to be based off of the DSM-IV, the American Diagnostics and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders’ criteria for problematic gambling (American Psychological Association, 1994; Young, 1996), provided as Appendix D. As seen in Appendix E, the â€Å"Diagnostic Questionnaire† forwarded by Young used eight criteria, rather than ten, yet maintains a cutoff of five affirmative responses in order to define â€Å"dependents† as Internet-addicted. While she defends five of 6 eight as a â€Å"rigorous cutoff,† she does state that â€Å"It should be noted that while this scale provides a workable measure of Internet addiction, further study is needed to determine its construct validity and clinical utility. † (Young, 1996). More recent versions of her diagnostic questionnaire for Internet addiction are larger, and scaling. For instance currently, her website offers a 20 item questionnaire, scaling from 20-100 points. It segregates Internet use into three categories, causing: no real problems, some problems, or significant problems. Charlton (2002) has suggested that checklist-type questionnaires are likely to overestimate the number of people addicted, and has otherwise questioned her work. That she provides no real theoretical framework is troubling, especially considering that so many studies, be they for Internet, computer, or even gaming addiction, have imported her framework verbatim into their studies. Engagement and Addiction Though this conception of Internet addiction is likely to overestimate the number of individuals who require clinical help (Charlton Danforth, 2004), it was the first attempt at forging criteria for over-use. Brown’s six criteria, covered later, have been used by Mark Griffiths, another psychologist active in the field of computer, Internet, and even video game effects. But what of claims that videogame playing lends itself to learning skills which can prove beneficial in the contemporary marketplace? John Charlton makes an attempt at determining whether his concept of â€Å"high computer engagement†, merely enjoying a large amount of computing, relates to Brown’s framework of addiction. More specifically, do any of Brown’s six criteria relate to a non-pathological enjoyment, while others relate to a more deleterious addiction? 7 Brown and Charlton Though Brown does present his model in layers, meaning that certain activities are by nature more destructive, Charlton’s factor analysis allows us to see which layers are in actuality most destructive in terms of computer use (Charlton, 2002). This is especially relevant when computers act as an almost necessary gateway to jobs, communication, and regular leisure for many people. Charlton found moderately high use to relate to the less harmful of Brown’s elements, which he calls â€Å"engaging† qualities. These include tolerance, euphoria, and cognitive salience (thinking about an activity a lot). The â€Å"addictive† qualities are behavioral salience (engaging in the activity a lot), conflict (arguments within yourself and with others over the extent of your usage), withdrawal, and relapse/reinstatement. Engagement and Addiction in MMO Play Charlton’s method has been applied to Massively Multiplayer Online games, with additional factors having been found to relate to the concept of â€Å"addiction† (Charlton Danforth, 2004). The three additional factors are â€Å"negative valence† (a respondent’s indulgence in societally unvalued activities), â€Å"attractiveness† (whether a respondent perceives themselves as attractive), and â€Å"emotional stability†. The specific questions used to survey MMO gamers are provided in Appendix B, Part Two: Personality/Gaming Behavior. Player Populations and Structural Characteristics of MMO games While we may not know a great deal about addiction as it relates to these games, there has nonetheless been a great deal of work exploring these worlds. The methods of these studies may not be perfect, yet they nonetheless give strong hints as to who is playing and why. Even if many demographic variables have yet to be sampled scientifically, what 8 exists can be compared against information on addiction in order to garner information regarding these worlds. Figure 2. Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft Each MMO, for instance EverQuest or World of Warcraft, is a different game, with different mechanics. Within games there can be large differences as well, as each game will, on average run one, 20, or even 100+ servers, depending on the popularity. Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, currently the real world’s largest MMO, runs at least 108 servers, which they call â€Å"realms. † This number increases as World of Warcraft gains popularity, yet may collapse if newer games grow in favor. A server is a single copy of the game world, with its own internal mechanics; likely variations between servers are community, economy, or nationality. To be more specific, after purchasing an MMO and creating a billing account, one will have to choose which particular â€Å"server† of this game world they would like to play in. The bulk of player population studies do not explicitly explain how they treat sampling 9 with regard to servers or games, though this is not the major downfall to such studies so far. A major sampling downfall is that the bulk of studies looking at player populations have been elicited through outside websites, particularly â€Å"community websites† for particular games. Two major concerns with this are (1) the sheer volume of such popular community websites, and (2) the low likelihood that those seeking community outside the game will be representative of those playing within (especially those pathologically addicted). Structural Characteristics as a Theoretical Concept Though literature pertaining to videogames is growing rapidly, few have stopped to actually define videogames or analyze their structure (Wood, Griffiths, et al. , 2004). In a study of more traditional single-player games, Wood et al. et out to assess video game structure by way of asking which structural characteristics were most salient among game players (Wood et al. , 2004). Many of his structural characteristics were not entirely applicable to MMO play, for instance ‘duration of game’ and ‘mapping’ (creating custom levels for a single player game). Other characteristics apply to MMO games, such as interface options, use of humor, and brand assurance, ye t were omitted from this study in order to restrict its size. 10 Figure 3. Structural characteristics map the structures available for interaction within these games, and include exploring new areas. Yee’s MMO Motivations Nicholas Yee, one of the more recognizable names in the study of MMO effects, in a 3 year period surveyed over 30,000 players from the MMO games Ultima Online, EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, and Star Wars Galaxies. In a paper set to be published in 2006, he explores positive and negative effects of MMO playing. Qualitatively, Yee identified five factors of MMO motivation: achievement, relationship, immersion, escapism, and manipulation. It is important to differentiate motivations for play from structural characteristics, the actual structure within the game that is being manipulated. This distinction notwithstanding, the criteria used by Yee can be modified and clarified so that these motivations may be measured as if they were structural characteristics. For instance, Yee’s concept of 11 manipulation includes the questions, â€Å"I scam other people out of their money or equipment†, and, â€Å"I like to taunt or annoy other players. † His questions do not have to be changed drastically for a successful query of MMO structures. The wording of some measures taken from Yee remain unchanged. In â€Å"immersion†, for example, creating a back-story for one’s character can be entirely in the mind of the game player, or it can be an integral part of the game. Eve Online and City of Heroes are two games where players are encouraged to enter information about their character’s history, in a structure that allows other players to then read that information and/or back-story. World of Warcraft has no structure for this, but it is not uncommon to hear a player talking about their created back-story on an RP, or role-playing server. The same structure is here operating in radically different ways, sometimes even within a single game. Demographics of MMO game players What we know about gaming comes primarily from Yee’s studies, particularly his Daedalus Project. While nearly all of the information collected by Yee came by way of selfselected respondents seeking out his surveys, the many thousands of people attracted for his studies have made his data likely the most widely cited in academic work on game player demographics. In terms of employment, 50. % of respondents were shown to work full time, 22. 2% were full-time students, and 13% of female players referred to themselves as â€Å"homemaker. † Additionally, the number of female MMO players seems to increase with age, surpassing the number of males in the 23-28 age range, and in each subsequent age range (Yee, 2006). Yee argues that this data dispels the notion that all gamer players are unemployed, male, and young; rather games have a universal appeal. 12 Other findings from Yee are that 60. % of respondents had played for at least 10 contiguous hours, this effect being roughly equivalent along age groups. 15. 8% of men and 59. 8% of women play MMOs with a romantic partner, while 25. 5% of men and 39. 5% of women play with a family member, suggesting that women are primarily being introduced to MMO games by a spouse or family member. Most importantly, Yee points out, â€Å"†¦the data demonstrate that MMORPGs appeal to a very wide demographic and that this appeal is strong and elicits high time investment from users. † (Yee, 2006). Comparing the Social Networks within MMOs with those of the Mafia â€Å"†¦the mafia initially grew out of an ancient honor system where elders were entrusted to negotiate in conflicts and pass judgments that the others were obliged to adhere to. The fact that Sicily historically has been targeted by outside interests such as the Spanish and fascists has also contributed to a need for organized resistance against outside oppression. The transition into a criminal organization came later, possibly more or less because the mafia realized that they could use their powerful organization to achieve fortune for themselves. This pattern is repeated in EQ [EverQuest]. The strong emphasis on reputation in the creation of social networks grows out of a need from the players to self-govern their gaming environment in order to secure a positive experience in the presence of potential disturbances and a simultaneous absence of an effective and reliable governing system. But ultimately these networks are also used to take shortcuts through, or trick, the formal rules of the system. † (Jakobsson Taylor, 2003) Comparing EverQuest’s prominent framework for social structure, the guild, to the social structure of the mafia should seem laughable at first. The above quote however illustrates and contextualizes ways in which play style shifts strongly within MMO games, 13 favoring these social networks as players approach the highest levels of in-game achievement. Put another way, where a player’s guild, online friends, and real-life connections at early stages of play provided the support required to succeed, at the end-game they become the connections that allow a player to dominate. Figure 4. The members of both social and goal-oriented guilds will occasionally line up for group photographs. Here it begins to become apparent that Yee’s (2006) conceptions that deal with interaction (how much a person talks, shares feelings, etc. ) and perhaps also individualism, a person’s preference toward playing on their own, may need to be expanded. In the mafia, family provides a strong foundation for commitment. You stick with your family, and they stick with you. Jakobsson and Taylor are here arguing that MMO games work similarly, where people who know each other outside of the game have a much higher commitment to each other than to friends that they know strictly through the game. The idea here was then 14 to split up communication between these two types of connections; real-life friend, and strictly online friend (individuals or guildmates), and then to rework these criteria in order to better reflect levels of interaction. Individualism was expanded from Yee’s group/solo criteria in part due to this emphasis on interaction. If some players prefer playing with reallife friends, and others with online friends, then perhaps those that prefer no interaction at all differ in equally significant ways. Project Massive and Guild Communication The self-effacingly named Project Massive sampled from five MMO games in order to â€Å"investigate how players play, communicate, and organize. † Tracking players via guilds, the study reinforced what many others have said: that the social