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PC Games (Games) Role Playing (Games)

First Wave of Project Massive Study Complete 71

Posted by Zonk from the survey-says-LFG-or-SOW dept.
Project Massive, a Carnegie Mellon University study into the habits and tendencies of Massively Multiplayer Gamers, has completed research into their first wave of questions. The results are available on their site, and include some interesting observations (nearly 30% of players spend time in a MMOG to interact with real-life friends). If you're interested in participating, their second wave of questions is available. Similar projects include Nick Yee's The Daedalus Project, the TerraNova Blog, and Constance Steinkuehler's Selected Papers. Thanks to clampe for the submission.
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First Wave of Project Massive Study Complete More

First Wave of Project Massive Study Complete

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  • Friends? (Score:4, Funny)

    by balaam's ass ( 678743 ) on Sunday September 19, 2004 @09:36AM (#10290517) Journal
    I don't have any friends, you insensitive clod! (Unless you count the robots...)

  • Sunday Morning (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I wish the percentages (the actual number value) had been printed somewhere on the graphs.

    • Skewed Results? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ageofm ( 811877 ) on Sunday September 19, 2004 @10:28AM (#10290763)
      Based on the questionnaire results, it looks like the survey primarily attracted hardcore MMORPG fans, which may skew the results.

      For example, Question 6 asks how long you have played your MMORPG game. The results show somewhere around 65% to 70% (the exact numbers are not given in the article) have been playing a single game for more than a year. It should be no surprise that question 7 shows that approximately 95% find enjoy MMORPG's - if you played a game for over a year without enjoying it, then you have some issues you need to work out!

      I believe that questions like "are MMORPG's enjoyable?" would have different results if the survey attracted more casual gamers, or gamers who quit playing after a few months due to their bad experience. But, those types of individuals are less likely to fill out a questionnaire about MMORPG's.

  • Slashdot as a multiplayer game (Score:5, Funny)

    by pikine ( 771084 ) on Sunday September 19, 2004 @09:38AM (#10290528) Journal

    Someone should conduct a survey on why people keep coming back to Slashdot for mod points, doing meta moderating to get mod points, and post comments that earn mod points. This is beginning to look like a reward system where a success is reflected in the number of mod points you get from your comments.

    • This is beginning to look like a reward system where a success is reflected in the number of mod points you get from your comments.

      Gee, you think?
    • Beginning to look? You must be new here. Ever since I stopped lurking and started posting on slashdot I have said that it's one of my favorite roleplaying games. Everything2 is the other. Of course, the crap that gets you modded up here would get you flushed down the commode over there - clearly this game is much easier. Consequently I play it more, but when I really want to be rewarded, I go play E2.

      • Re:Slashdot as a multiplayer game (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Yeah, E2 was fun until the moderaters went nazi on anything discussion-oriented except for the retarded daylogs & co.
      • While I still come around E2 some, I decided that if I was going to play a text-based game, I'd really play a text-based game, and found myself playing over on Achaea [achaea.com], where at least they admit it's a game.

        And the level powers on Achaea are a lot more fun.
        • When there's an experience ladder that grants you "powers" I don't think any formal admission of intent is necessary. Of course you don't have to treat it as a game, but I like to. Besides, the game is not only its own reward, but everyone wins whether you treat it as a game or not, since the game's purpose is to write things that other people want to read.
    • Someone should conduct a survey on why people keep coming back to Slashdot for mod points, doing meta moderating to get mod points, and post comments that earn mod points.

      For me, it's because I'm working long hours being the IT version of the Maytag repairman. It's just one thing to keep me occupied while I ensure systems stay up. Before I worked this job, I couldn't have cared less about getting an account here.

    • I agree. But once you hit the level cap (excellent karma) there's not enough high level content to keep the slashdot game interesting.

  • 156 hours a week? (Score:5, Funny)

    by mestar ( 121800 ) on Sunday September 19, 2004 @09:40AM (#10290536)

    I wander about that poor guy that plays 156 hours per week. Poor guy. When does he have time to read slashdot?

  • People forget... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Silverlancer ( 786390 ) on Sunday September 19, 2004 @09:46AM (#10290558)
    that the majority of MMOG players play to socialize, not to mindlessly kill monsters. For that purpose there are macros. While in every game there are always a small 1% who simply sit alone and powerlevel, 99% join clans/guilds/corporations and/or socialiize.

    Like, for example, last night, I spent hours chatting with guys on the OOC channel in Anarchy Online. It turned a boring night of leveling into a seriously awesome night. Few non-MMOG-gamers realize how much socializing matters in these types of games. They simply focus on the mindless powergamer who's the first to hit max level.

    But then again, to be fair, plenty of the top level people socialize! I used to know the guy who held the record for a 3-day run to level 150 during the Earth and Beyond beta. He was an awesome guy, loved giving stuff to new players (his entire method of leveling involved this--get a massive amount of easy-to-mine gas from gas clouds, give it to a noob, get levels of trade experience, repeat 1000 times).
    • Actually the pc of people who play for fun is around 80% (see the results). Wave Two, which I just filled out, features a lot of questions of people's attitude towards 'power-levellers' as well as people who taunt or scam, and a LOT of personal stuff about how you feel in RL and your social life. The results should be really interesting.

    • Re:People forget... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by ajs ( 35943 )
      I've played EQ for about 4 years before stopping this spring. I can assure you that it's not 1% of folks who are there to PL and not socialize. I'd estimate (roughly) that the breakdown is something like this for EQ:

      1/3 -- Socializing with RL friends (as stated)
      1/3 -- Gamers first who have made friendships in-game and continue to play for that
      1/6 -- Obsessive gamers who seek to level/skill up/etc for the pure sake of it.
      1/6 -- misc. Includes people playing after friends quit, new people just exploring the
  • nearly 30% of players spend time in a MMOG to interact with real-life friends

    This also implies that 70% of MMOG players have no real-life friends... Didn't take a study to tell me that fact!

  • College = MMOG Heaven? (Score:4, Funny)

    by theluckyleper ( 758120 ) on Sunday September 19, 2004 @09:56AM (#10290610) Homepage
    I love the huge spike at "18 years old" on the "How old are you" graph.

    Looks like that's when people move away from home, get high-speed internet, and play games non-stop. No more mom around to tell you to go play outside!

  • 156 Hours?! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by th1ckasabr1ck ( 752151 ) on Sunday September 19, 2004 @09:57AM (#10290619)
    156 hours? Maybe someone should have tossed out that response, considering there are only 7 * 24 = 168 hours in a week. Seems impossible to me.

    • Sleeping = roleplaying? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by theluckyleper ( 758120 ) on Sunday September 19, 2004 @10:07AM (#10290667) Homepage
      But maybe the 156hour-player leaves the game on and tells his player to sleep while he sleeps (while dreaming nerdly dreams of shapely elves, no doubt).

      That would leave him 12hours/week of non-gaming time wherein he might:

      1. Use the facilities (and no, I'm not suggesting any bathing takes place)
      2. Answer the door to pay the delivery human ("Greetings noble courier! I commend thee on thy speed!")
      3. Participate in online MMOG surveys
    • Ah, but maybe he is playing 2 to 3 games at once? Then the total number of "game hours" could far exceed the total number of "real life hours."
    • Selling virtual junk online. It doesn't pay well, but it's probably at least as good as a fast food joint's wages.

  • Genesis: Netrek from CMU (Score:4, Informative)

    by reporter ( 666905 ) on Sunday September 19, 2004 @09:58AM (#10290626) Homepage
    CMU is the right university for conducting research into massive multiplayer online games. After all, CMU is the birthplace of the first such game: Netrek [netrek.org]. There was once a time when Netrek so permeated the online geek community that Netrek games were running 24x7, and a sort of Netrek olympiad was held annually.

    • Re:Genesis: Netrek from CMU (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Netrek was extremely fun.

      Too bad the players that remained playing it were all the assholes & drove all the newbies away. Now you can't even find more than a couple of players trying it out at any given time, when there used to be a dozen servers maxed out most of the time. :/
    • Netrek is a good game, but it hardly qualifies for "birthplace". Netrek is directly adapted from the Plato game Empire, which was written in the 1970s. Plato terminals had 512*512 graphics back then, the whole system was way ahead of its time. They also had graphic multi-user dungeon games before MUD was even written. Some people have put together a working version of the old Plato system, complete with Empire, Oubliette, and Moria, at: http://www.cyber1.org [cyber1.org] - probably worth a look if you're really int

  • Everquest is a good example. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Zordas ( 596510 ) on Sunday September 19, 2004 @10:00AM (#10290633)
    Being a former Evercrack addict, I know this all to well. I spent almost 6-8 hours a day playing this game. Then after 2 years of playing (And my Wizard acheiving lvl 63) I had to stop. Mostly because I never went outside, neglected my wife and basically became a drone. Now that's it's been 1 1/2 year since I played the game, I'm looking forward to World of Warcraft. (If my wife let's me play)
    • Make her interested in it, then she'll play with you. That's what I do to make my wife let me play my CRPG games.
    • Hmmm... well, considering my wife and I play FFXI together (Galfridus and Kodamakitty on the Valefor server), perhaps you should try getting your wife interested in the game, too.

      And, yes, that usually means two of everything: two gaming rigs, two accounts (that generate two monthly bills), purchasing two copies of the software, purchasing two copies of any expansion packs, etc.

      I will say this, though: we buy a helluva lot less other games now that we play FFXI. We are, oddly, saving money...

  • Wave 2 (Score:2, Insightful)

    by kjones692 ( 805101 )
    I wish there were a way to see the questions for Wave 2 without taking the survey... and if you click "no, i don't want to take it" it takes you to the last page of the survey... odd.

    Any hoo, I think this just confirms what most of us already knew. Simply killing monsters is only fun to a point... kill an orc, get a bigger sword, kill another orc, get an even bigger sword... there is a limit to the fun to be had from killing monsters, leveling up and getting phat l3wt. Especially because the rate at whic

  • Serious Problems (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Jameth ( 664111 ) on Sunday September 19, 2004 @12:21PM (#10291319)
    For those who don't yet realize it, MMORPGs represent a serious problem. As some evidence, I would point you to the response given to question 15 in that survey:

    15. What is your main reason for ongoing subscription to {game}?

    6% Participation in the Game
    20% To See My Character
    29% Fun
    14% Friendship/Social
    8% Relaxation
    9% Addictive Nature of Game
    9% Other

    In particular, 9% of the people ADMIT they are addicted to the game. We all know that most addicts refuse to be categorized as such, and 9% of these people openly admit it.

    Further, 20% of the PLAY TO SEE THEIR CHARACTERS. These are game characters, which they created and control. These characters are basically figments of their imagination. This is like saying 20% of them enjoy their imaginary friends.

    That's just not right!

    • Re:Serious Problems (Score:2, Interesting)

      by kjones692 ( 805101 )
      You're right and wrong. First of all, according to the Daedalus Project, linked to above, about 40% of users consider themselves addicted. ( http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/000818.p hp [nickyee.com]) The above number is the percentage of people whose primary reason for playing the game is addiction. So I would agree that addiction is a serious consideration for those who would play MMO's, and those who have little willpower (myself included) should strongly consider strictly restricting themselves, perhaps enlis
      • "However, I don't see anything wrong with a desire to experience what you've created. If you built a house, wouldn't you want to live in it? Same thing here. If you "build" a character, you're going to want to "live in" it. It's not narcissism, which is what you make it out to be."

        I'm not making it out to be narcissism, which would be wanting to see oneself. I'm making it out to be the same as having an imaginary friend. That's not narcissism.

        And, if I build a house, I want to do things in it, not merely
    • This is like saying 20% of them enjoy their imaginary friends.

      That's just not right!

      But my imaginary friends have sex with me.
    • As to the addiction - poll slashdot users (or even normal, healthy, working professionals, for that matter) asking how many think they are addicted to caffeine. I'd wager you get more than 9%. Addiction itself is not that bad. It's what you're addicted to, and the impact is has on your life, that is the problem. In that respect, there are far worse things to be addicted to than video games. Sure, I think these people would be better off if they weren't addicted to an MMORPG, but I wouldn't call it "a seriou
    • I don't know if the question is written differently in the already completed study, but I just took the survey (wave 2), and it says "to see my character grow," so.... maybe you missed the word, "grow." Now maybe this will make no difference in your judgement, but I chose that answer, and I'll explain why, as it's quite simple: the main reason I keep playing the game, is to keep playing the game, ie make my character more powerful/rich/etc. In any video game where such things are possible, people generally
    • Further, 20% of the PLAY TO SEE THEIR CHARACTERS. These are game characters, which they created and control. These characters are basically figments of their imagination. This is like saying 20% of them enjoy their imaginary friends.

      To take your argument to an extreme, it would invalidate fiction. Think of it ... why do you go to the movies? How about watch television? Most forms of entertainment follow the stories of unreal people. And I will even go on a limb to suggest, that some people's live are

  • Studying games? (Score:4, Funny)

    by null etc. ( 524767 ) on Sunday September 19, 2004 @01:06PM (#10291551)
    Analyzing gamers? This reminds me of when I analyzed the reader response of a typical /. story:
    • 08% interesting, adds a new perspective
    • 17% argues with above
    • 22% psuedo-scientific/legal anlaysis of the article
    • 11% asks question that are answered in the article
    • 19% answers question that have already been answered by other readers
    • 10% spin-off topic that establishes new thread
    • 42% follow ups to spin-off topics
    • 12% the subject being described sucks, here's why
    • 04% response only intelligible to poster
    • 06% this subject proves that Linux is better than Windows
    • 02% this subject proves that any browser is better than IE
    • 02% this subject proves that any language is better than Java
    • 01% spam
    • 01% first post humor
    These numbers exceed 100% because the percentages overlap.

    This is an attempt to be funny. Moderate as such.

  • I get the impression this survey had a self-selected sample. In any case, their results show that most of the players participating came from Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot, and that around 90% of the respondents are male. Online gamers as a whole (some 48% of Internet users play at least casual games, according to Gametrust [gametrust.com]) are around half female, and I'm sure even on more "hardcore" games a much higher percentage are female. On Furcadia [furcadia.com] more than half of the players are female. I also noticed a he
  • MMORPGs are boring as sin. That's because most make the basic gameplay automatic and scriptable so you can chat while you're doing it. If you're not chatting you're sitting there watching the kill foozle/mine fuzzle animation for hours on end. I'd like to see a gameplay driven MMORPG that made soloing fun for those first several hours I'm catching up with/making new friends. I guess it's just too tempting to bolt on a crappy dungeon crawler to a chat client and hire an art department to pretty it up.
    • MMORPGs are boring as sin. That's because most make the basic gameplay automatic and scriptable so you can chat while you're doing it.

      This is certainly true of some content, but not all by any means. It's very easy to tell the difference between somebody who is paying attention vs. concentrating mainly on chatting, and it's possible to pay attention and still get a certain amount of chatting done.

      For some levels, particularly lower levels, there is a certain amount of "just hit attack then go do somethi

  • I know the feeling. I've got friends who it is impossible to socialize with anymore unless you go onto DAoC.
  • 50% of players agree or strongly agree that they play MMORPG's to roleplay.

    49% of those players either lied on the survery, or are delusional.

    Apart from the fact questions, these are some of the most loaded questions I could imagine asking on a survery. Seems like a waste of time.

    Number 5a basically boils down to asking MMORPG players if they enjoy playing them.

    What are they going to say to that? no?

    cripes.

    • Agree, but I think alot of people have a misconception of what Role-Play means. People see a stand-alone RPG game and they start thinking that the way they played the game was role-playing. Then they move on to MMORPGS evetually and still think they are role-playing when 99% of every conversation is an OOC (out of character comment) whether it's on the OOC chat channel or not. I've met role-players and found that it's easier to role-play in some games more than others. But no one really has rules abou
      • That is one reason I will likely never bother with any of these mass-market graphical MMORPG games for any type of play that involves role-playing. Sure, I played Diablo II for quite a while, but never with any intention or expectation of RP, though I know that's not quite a MMORPG.

        I'm busy MUDding for that, where you can expect RP on a MUD that has no means for OOC chat because they don't want it at all. Where I have no real plans to get to know the person behind any of the characters because I want to

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