Abstract
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.
Highlights
MMORPGs have become the most popular game genre, representing a revolution of social, cultural, and considerable financial impact
Participants recruited from the game Ghost II firstly completed an initial survey about value systems and the value profile was paired with their behavioral metrics within the game world
Through pairing players’ value systems from self-report data with their actual behaviors recorded by game metrics, we explore and explain the relationships between value systems and playing behavior in a MMORPG
Summary
MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) have become the most popular game genre, representing a revolution of social, cultural, and considerable financial impact. The diversity of player behaviors within game world offers unique opportunities to study the relationship between personality and game playing, and MMORPGs are “a gold mine of personality data” [2]. Most of the current gaming research tends to be based on self-reported data obtained from the players using interviews, surveys, or ethnographic observations. To address these limitations, we should pay more attention to longitudinal data collected directly from games, which provides us with a solid empirical foundation to better understand these complex virtual worlds [3]. Studies about China MMORPGs players are still scarce, and a better knowledge of them is to be hoped, given that China players are the largest MMORPGs user group in the world
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