Page 561 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

0 | V deo Games

MassiVely MultiPlayer online role Playing
gaMes (MMorPgs)

One of the biggest gaming phenomena of recent years has been the rapid growth of
MMORPGs, such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, and Lineage. These games allow the
player to create characters (“avatars”) that they control, and to play out adventures in an
online world inhabited by other players from all over the (real) world. Games often allow
characters to develop careers, not just as warriors or wizards but also professions such as
dancers, miners, or doctors; some games also allow players to own vehicles, pets, and prop-
erty (such as houses and shops) and even get married. These games have proved hugely
popular with many players, with EverQuest frequently referred to by gamers as “EverCrack,”
due to its “addictive” qualities. Nick Yee, who runs a research Web site (the Daedalus Proj-
ect) on MMORPGs, suggests that nearly 19 percent of over 2,900 gamers who completed his
online survey stated that they play MMORPGs over 30 hours per week and over 40 percent
in excess of 20 hours per week, and the current (in March 2006) number of players of World
of Warcraft now exceeds 6 million—greater than the population of Libya.

performance and can be a very sociable activity—with gamers playing each other
online, meeting up at conventions, and more commonly, playing with friends or
family members. In particular, research undertaken for the Interactive Software
Federation of Europe suggests that 55 percent of gamers play with others.
Likewise, the argument that playing video games can negatively affect lev-
els of sport participation has been challenged by several authors. For instance,
Fromme’s study of German schoolchildren found no evidence to support the as-
sertion that playing video games reduces a child’s participation in sport. On the
contrary, he suggested that his survey had produced some evidence to suggest
that “daily use” of digital games was positively associated with increased levels
of sport participation. Similarly, a study of U.K. undergraduate students found
no evidence to suggest that playing video games could have a negative affect on
patterns of sport participation, but rather that sport-related video games could
actually inform and increase both the interest and knowledge of sport of some
game players (Crawford 2005).

gaming ThEory
Video games have also grabbed the attention of researchers eager to understand
the interaction between gamers and the games they play. However, different re-
searchers and authors have adopted different approaches to studying video games.
In particular, it is possible to identify a divide between theorists (such as Murray)
who have sought to understand video games by drawing on and developing a film
and media studies approach, and those (such as Frasca) who adopt a more psycho-
logically influenced focus upon patterns of play (a perspective called “ludology”).
Adopting a media/film studies approach to video games does not simply mean
that video games are viewed as “interactive” films, but it provides certain “tools”