‘Everything Is True’: Urban Gothic Meets the Chthulucene in Multiplayer Online Game, The Secret World

In this chapter, the authors extend Warnick’s (2007) appropriation of Toulmin’s (1958) “field-dependency” as applied through an ecological lens to examine credibility and ethos in the virtual world of a massive multiplayer online game. The authors theorize that ethos in such virtual environments is context-dependent—that it is in the interaction between designed game and user action/communication that ethos is engineered in a process that is fundamentally different from both websites (which are static) and other social media (where the environment is not nearly as much of an actor in the development of ethos/credibility). To better understand how players (as inhabitants of the game ecology) view the establishment of ethos, the authors collected in-game chat and near-game forum posts that included responses to requests for assistance or invitations to join a guild, and we asked our participants to evaluate these texts. The chapter uses the data collected about the perception of ethos to identify three key elements for successful demonstration of credibility in multiplayer games: specificity, demonstrated expertise, and experience.

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The Relationship between Avatar-Based Customization, Player Identification, and Motivation

Advances in Multimedia and Interactive Technologies - Transforming Gaming and Computer Simulation Technologies across Industries ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-1817-4.ch003 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 48-79 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Selen Turkay ◽

Charles K. Kinzer

Keyword(s):

Virtual Worlds ◽

Mixed Method ◽

Mixed Method Study ◽

Perceived Similarity ◽

Online Game ◽

Lord Of The Rings ◽

Massively Multiplayer Online Game ◽

Multiplayer Online Game ◽

Self Discrepancy ◽

The Relationship

Player identification is an outcome of gameplay experiences in virtual worlds and has been shown to affect enjoyment and reduce self-discrepancy. Avatar customization has potential to impact player identification by shaping the relationship between the player and the character. This mixed method study examines the effects of avatar-based customization on players' identification with their characters, and the effects of identification dimensions (i.e., perceived similarity, wishful identification, embodied presence) on their motivation in a massively multiplayer online game, Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO). Participants (N = 66) played LotRO either in customization or in no-customization group for ten hours in four sessions in a lab setting. Data were collected through interviews and surveys. Results showed both time and avatar customization positively impacted player identification with their characters. Player motivation was predicted in different sessions by different identification dimensions, which shows the dynamic and situational impact of identification on motivation.

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