Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games are socio-technical phenomena that are both complex technological systems and complex societies. They are also highly lucrative businesses. In this paper we present initial findings from a case study of the MMORPG TIBIA which explores the business and social relationships generated by cheating practices. We characterize the economy of cheating as a ...

This study explores the social process governing the nature, emergence, application, and consequences of labeling the ‘white-eyed’ or grief players in massively multiplayer online role playing games in Taiwan. We found that two types of ‘white-eyed’ players exist in MMORPGs. The explicit type, who come out and organize themselves into griefer pledges, can be understood as players who rebel agai...

EVE Online, released in 2003 by CCP Games, is a space-themed Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG). This sandbox style MMOG has a reputation for being a difficult game with a punishing learning curve that is fairly impenetrable to new players. This has led to the widely held belief among the larger MMOG community that “EVE players are different”, as only a very particular type of player woul...

In this paper, we discuss motivations for studying interactive narrative in shared, persistent worlds using the established conventions of quest-based MMORPGs. We present a framework for categorizing the various techniques used in these games according to the interaction between the world model and the quest model. Using this framework we generalize recent games to present a more dynamic world ...

In this report we obtain explicit string-like solutions of equations of motion of massive heterotic supergravity recently obtained by Bergshoeff, Roo and Eyras. We also find consistent string source which can be embedded in these backgrounds when space-time dimension is greater than or equal to six. 1 This work is supported by INFN fellowship e-mail: [email protected]

Today millions of players interact with one another in online games, especially massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). These games promote interaction among players by offering interdependency features, but to date few studies have asked what interdependency design factors of MMORPGs make them fun for players, produce experiences of flow, or enhance player performance. In th...

Typology and Sociodemographic Characteristics of Massively Multiplayer Online Game Players Katalin Nagygyörgy a , Róbert Urbán a , Judit Farkas a , Mark D. Griffiths b , Dalma Zilahy a , Gyöngyi Kökönyei a , Barbara Mervó a , Antónia Reindl a , Csilla Ágoston a , Andrea Kertész a , Eszter Harmath a , Attila Oláh a & Zsolt Demetrovics a a Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary b Nottingham ...

Online game addiction has a negative image and is becoming a public concern in Taiwan. We look at this phenomenon from another perspective, through interviews with gamers who were addicted to a MMORPG but have quit playing, we believe that the multiple reasons causing gamers to leave their game can reflect some more aspects of online game addiction. We then map out how a gamer’s attachment to a...

Online games construct a virtual world where gamers can explore and experience various exciting environments. However, studies on gamer behavior rarely investigated the relationships between motivations and spending for online games. Understanding these relationships helps online game service providers manage gamers’ motivations and develop better revenue models. This study investigated the rel...