Drift Reality > London, England > The Role of the Everyday User in the Evolution of MMORPGs - Part 3

Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (MMORPGs)

Although MUDs largely resisted commercialization, they certainly influenced commercial game developers. Throughout the 90s, a variety of software production companies began developing single-player fantasy role-playing games that were thematically similar to MUDs. The fundamental difference was the integration of graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The GUI may have been responsible for the widespread popularity of this new generation of role-playing games. Titles included notables like Final Fantasy, Ultima, and the Legend of Zelda. During this same time period, there were a number of commercial attempts to place role-playing games online. It was not until the mid to late-90s when the online role-playing game began to achieve a degree of popularity. Today, MMORPGs have become a tremendously lucrative, commercially dominated industry. According to some estimates (Dawson, 2006), the online gaming industry is expected to grow at an annual rate of 95% throughout the next five years, leading a videogame industry that is expected to be valued at over $65 billion by the year 2011. According to Edward Castronova, an economist at California State University Fullerton and one of the foremost academics focusing on online gaming, the sum of all virtual goods sold through Internet auctions in the MMORPG EverQuest would account for the 77th largest economy in the world.

If MMORPGs and MUDs are to be viewed as two manifestations of an encompassing technology, then Bakardjieva’s belief on the role of ordinary users might hold true. As MUDs evolved into MMORPG, it could be construed that the “invention of functions and meanings” did eventually fade in vibrancy as the reins of production moved from the ordinary user to the commercial world. In the initial world of MMORPGs, the ordinary user had transformed into a consumer. The commercial world had come to dictate the contours of the MMORPG worlds, as well as the terms of interaction within these spaces.

The sedentary role of the ordinary user in commercially manufactured games was short-lived. It was not long until ordinary users began figuring out ways to crack commercial software and begin “modding,” a process in which commercial software is redesigned to suit user preferences. Suddenly, a flurry of modded games, redesigned by users, began appearing throughout the Internet. Initially, commercial manufacturers attempted a variety of tactics to prevent users from modding their games, but eventually found it easier to embrace the practice. One example of this trend can be seen with the computer game Half-Life, which was recently re-released by the manufacturer with user-coded mods. Some manufacturers have even begun to release mod packs with software, which provide the user with mapping, scripting, and animation utilities (Brown & Oren, 2005).

With MMORPGs, the ability of the ordinary user to mod was more limited due to technological barriers. In many MMORPGs, the software driving the game resides on a centralized server. Cracking the software would first require finding a way to access the server, which is a much more difficult task. Yet the technological stumbling block did not deter ordinary users in MMORPGs from engaging in innovative practices.

Thematically similar to conventional MUDs, Diablo II is a MMORPG in which the user must navigate through various stages of a fantasy world, on their own or with other players. The game is played on a server called Battle.net, which allows players to create new games or join games in progress. The Battle.net platform additionally serves as a real-time chat room for players not actively involved in a game. The main interaction involves navigation through the virtual landscape and combat with non-player monsters. As the player defeated more monsters, they gain “experience points,” which can be used to develop various character skills. Additionally, acquisition of items plays a prominent role in the game: the better items a player has, the stronger their character will become. These activities are what Taylor et al. (2005) refers to as “playing in the box.” They are what has been projected by the game designers while “constructing the user” (Silverstone & Haddon, 1996) and consequently programmed into the game.

According to a critical examination by Taylor et al. (2005), the reality of game play in Diablo II reveals a dramatically different picture. Most players in Battle.net complete the various levels of the narrative in a relatively short amount of time. What sustains their game play over a course of months and even years involves the acquisition of items within the game; and trading and acquisition of items in the Battle.net chat room. Players are innovative in the manner in which they develop new practices in Diablo II, and establish new patterns of interaction (Haddon, 2005). Each user account is allotted a set number of virtual characters. Additionally, advanced characters are used primarily as a means to increase a player’s overall repository of weapons and equipment while low level characters are used primarily as “mules,” whose primary role is to carry valuable items. Additionally, the practice of “farming” involves the identification and repetitive defeat of certain enemies, who are known to drop high-grade weapons and equipment. Some veteran players with highly developed characters will spend the majority of their time farming for equipment and engaging in virtual commerce in the Battle.net chat room, and even real world commerce through online auction sites like eBay. Ultimately, “in the box” game play becomes an afterthought for most Diablo II veterans.

In 2003, a San Francisco-based software company, Linden Lab, launched a new MMORPG called Second Life. Unlike many of its predecessors, Second Life decided to embrace user innovation by providing its members with the ability to create and manipulate the contours of the virtual landscape. Furthermore, their policy provides “residents” with intellectual actual ownership of the lands they create (Linden Research, 2006). Second Life also provides a virtual “marketplace,” with a currency that can be converted to US dollars at numerous online currency exchanges.

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