scholarly journals Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) Player Profiles: Exploring Player’s Motives Predicting Internet Addiction Disorder

Author(s):  
Roberta Biolcati ◽  
Virginia Pupi ◽  
Giacomo Mancini

Background: Due to the increasing spread of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) and their addictive potential, scholars assert that understanding the factors underpinning Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is crucial, considering the psychopathological classification. Objectives: This study aimed to explore the motives predicting IGD in MMORPG players with different personality risk profiles. Materials and Methods: An online survey was conducted among 202 MMORPG players (mean age = 27.85 years, SD = 6.49). A cluster analysis was performed to classify the samples, according to the substance use risk profile scale (SURPS), distinguishing a sensation seeking (SS) group from a group prone to negative emotions (PNE), including anxiety, hopelessness, and impulsivity. Also, the gaming motives, which were determined using the Motives for Online Gaming Questionnaire (MOGQ), were considered as independent variables in analyses. The regression analyses indicated different combinations of gaming motives, predisposing the two groups to IGD. Results: The escapism motive and male gender were the main risk factors for SS players, whereas the sociability motive predicted addiction tendencies in the PNE group. Also, the competition motive was a strong predictor of IGD in both groups; this motive was found to be associated with the male gender and the specific game genre. Moreover, the PNE players were significantly more addicted to MMORPGs and were less satisfied with their life, compared to the SS group. Conclusions: Based on the present results, clustering gamers in terms of personality traits allowed us to understand the mechanisms underlying IGD for overcoming a reductive approach, which considers MMORPG players as a uniform group.

Author(s):  
Nuttakritta Chotipaktanasook ◽  
Hayo Reinders

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) have been dramatically used in language education and identified in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) research as playing a central role in second language acquisition (SLA). This chapter addresses the integration of a commercially developed MMORPG Ragnarok Online into a language course as a basis for digital game-based language learning and reports on its effects on second language (L2) interaction. Thirty Thai learners of English who enrolled in a 15-week university language course were required to complete 18 face-to-face classroom lessons and six gameplay sessions. Learners' language use in both text and voice chats during gameplay was recorded and analysed to measure the effects of the game. The findings show that participating in MMORPG resulted in a significantly more considerable increase in L2 interaction that used a wider range of discourse functions compared with English interaction in the classroom. The authors discuss some of the theoretical and pedagogical implications of these findings.


2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  

Dit nummer van het Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap bevat vijf artikelen over uiteenlopende onderwerpen.Het eerste artikel gaat over de websites van topmerken. In De relatie tussen objectieve en gepercipieerde interactiviteit combineren Hilde Voorveld, Peter Neijens en Edith Smit twee methoden van dataverzameling. Door middel van een inhoudsanalyse analyseren ze de interactieve functies op websites van 65 topmerken en door middel van een survey gaan ze na hoe door hun respondenten de mate van interactiviteit van diezelfde websites gepercipieerd wordt. Uit de resultaten van het onderzoek blijkt dat er zeker geen positieve lineaire relatie bestaat tussen de mate van interactiviteit zoals vastgesteld door de inhoudsanalyse en de gepercipieerde interactiviteit die in de resultaten van het survey naar voren komt. Zij concluderen dat de uniekheid van interactieve functies weleens belangrijker zou kunnen zijn dan de kwantiteit aan interactieve functies op een website.Annelore Deprez, Karin Raeymaeckers en Sarah Van Leuven hebben de berichtgeving over de Eerste en de Tweede Intifada onderzocht. In het artikel Framing van de Eerste en Tweede Intifada in de Vlaamse en Nederlandse pers. Een casestudy van De Morgen en het NRC Handelsblad tonen zij aan dat in deze kranten verschillende frames domineren. Daarbij focussen ze op het ‘law and order’ en het ‘injustice and defiance’ frame. Het ‘law and order’ frame was in het NRC Handelsblad zowel tijdens de Eerste als de Tweede Intifada dominant, terwijl tijdens de Eerste Intifada in de berichtgeving in De Morgen het ‘injustice and defiance’ frame sterk naar voren kwam.Het artikel dat is geschreven door Melanie De Vocht, Jan van Looy, Cédric Courtois en Lieven De Marez gaat over het fenomeen ‘Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games’ (MMORPG). In Sociaal contact in een MMORPG. Een exploratief onderzoek naar de motivaties voor het spelen van World of Warcraft vanuit de uses & gratifications-benadering presenteren zij de resultaten van een online survey waaraan 1691 gamers hebben meegewerkt. In dit onderzoek zijn acht verschillende motieven om te gamen onderscheiden: escapisme, opwinding, immersie, zelfvoldoening, harde competitie, vaardigheden, sociale contacten in World of Warcraft en sociale contacten in het werkelijke leven. Deze motieven zijn in dit onderzoek ook gerelateerd aan de mate van betrokkenheid bij de online identiteiten van de gamer.In het artikel Een typologie van jonge nieuwsgebruikers in een multimediaal landschap maken Anna Van Cauwenberge, Leen d’Haenens en Hans Beentjes een indeling in nieuwsgebruikers. Zij hebben een survey uitgevoerd onder 1200 Vlaamse en Nederlandse jongeren en jongvolwassenen van 15 tot 35 jaar en op basis van hun tijdsbesteding aan combinaties van nieuwsplatformen identificeren zij verschillende typen. Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat Vlaamse en Nederlandse jongeren online en traditionele nieuwsbronnen combineren waarbij het televisienieuws nog steeds een prominente rol speelt.Het laatste artikel in dit nummer van het Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap is een literatuuronderzoek naar de relatie tussen mediagebruik en risicogedrag van jongeren in het verkeer. In deze studie staan twee theoretische zienswijzen centraal: de cultivatietheorie en de theorie van het gepland gedrag. Kathleen Beullens en Astrid Dirikx presenteren de resultaten van dit literatuuronderzoek in Mediagebruik en risicogedrag van jongeren in het verkeer: een literatuuroverzicht.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaoguang Wang ◽  
Gino Yu

This study examines the relationship between player’s value systems and their actions in playing a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Online survey data from 1,577 players were paired with their behavioral metrics within the game. A number of correlations were found between the scores of value system and the in-game metrics. Participants that scored high on the Red value system tend to spend more real money in the game, level up their character and ability as quickly as possible, and seek other achievements in the forms offered by game world. These characteristics for fun, power, and immediate gratification are also predicted by the Red value system. The finding provides valuable information on how to better design, evaluate, and understand enjoyment in games. The results also show the possibility of using the game as a platform in inferring players’ value systems and in training people to develop certain skills.


Author(s):  
Sonja Utz ◽  
Kai J. Jonas ◽  
Ellen Tonkens

Game research suffers from using a variety of concepts to predict the (often negative) effects of playing games. These concepts often overlap (e.g., addiction or pathological gaming), include negative consequences in their definition, or are very game-specific (e.g., collective play). We argue that the field would benefit from using concepts that are well-established in other domains. Extending earlier work to the interpersonal domain, we examined the effects of obsessive and harmonious passion for massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) on the number and quality of online and offline friendships. Obsessive passion describes an irrepressible urge to engage in an activity, whereas harmonious passion describes the voluntary engagement in an activity. In an online survey of 406 MMORPG players, we found differential relationships between obsessive and harmonious passion and the number and quality of online and offline friendships. The results confirmed the usefulness of the dualistic model of passion for consequences of online gaming.


2020 ◽  
pp. 424-446
Author(s):  
Nuttakritta Chotipaktanasook ◽  
Hayo Reinders

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) have been dramatically used in language education and identified in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) research as playing a central role in second language acquisition (SLA). This chapter addresses the integration of a commercially developed MMORPG Ragnarok Online into a language course as a basis for digital game-based language learning and reports on its effects on second language (L2) interaction. Thirty Thai learners of English who enrolled in a 15-week university language course were required to complete 18 face-to-face classroom lessons and six gameplay sessions. Learners' language use in both text and voice chats during gameplay was recorded and analysed to measure the effects of the game. The findings show that participating in MMORPG resulted in a significantly more considerable increase in L2 interaction that used a wider range of discourse functions compared with English interaction in the classroom. The authors discuss some of the theoretical and pedagogical implications of these findings.


2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 185-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Zanetta Dauriat ◽  
Ariane Zermatten ◽  
Joël Billieux ◽  
Gabriel Thorens ◽  
Guido Bondolfi ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Jayson Carmona ◽  
Jason Whiting

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to describe the experience of people who struggled with self-described addiction to World of Warcraft™ (WoW). WoW is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), and many players have shared their stories of compulsive use and recovery efforts on two different websites: www.wowdetox.com, and a Reddit forum called /r/noWoW. We analyzed 140 unique posts on these sites to develop a process model describing how posters experienced addiction and recovery from WoW. We used grounded theory methods to create a model with categories including, time sink, impairment in work and relationships, and realization of loss. The process of recovery from compulsive WoW use included a series of realizations and the gamer “coming to themselves.” Implications for clinicians and researchers who study internet gaming disorder and related issues are offered.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-33
Author(s):  
Iu. V. Amelina ◽  
R. V. Amelin

The article discusses the prospects of role-playing games in the educational process to increase students’ motivation and involvement, as well as the possibility of modern information technologies (primarily social networks) for constructing innovative forms of such games. The author’s format of the live-action role-playing game is presented. It was developed and tested at the Saratov State University. It involves the integration of numerous educational tasks into a single plot, within which each participant plays a role and communicates with other participants to complete tasks. The main interaction, plot development and group activities occur in dialogs, conversations and groups of social networks. This approach has shown its viability in teaching legal disciplines, and also has prospects for use in IT education.


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