Long-term motivations to play MMOGs: A longitudinal study on motivations, experience and behavior

Daniel Schultheiss Department of Media Management University of Technology Ilmenau / Germany Am Eichicht 1, 98693 Ilmenau, Germany [email protected] ABSTRACT The upward trend in the sector of the digital games goes on. An evolution takes place, which is capable to go to many directions. On the one hand computer graphics become more realistic, games are more complex and the speed, as well as the distribution, of the internet increases steadily. On the other hand another trend appears: browser-games, also called MMOGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Games). Games, which are text-based or contain only few graphical content and are playable without local installation on the computer. Only an internet connection and a browser is needed to use them. These persistant online-worlds, in this special case a browser-game called "Space Merchant Realms", are the object of investigation in this work.