Games Boom Despite Food & Fuel Costs

Today is the release date for the fourth installment in the Grand Theft Auto titles, otherwise known as GTA IV. This highly popular, sex and violence saturated series has generated plenty of publicity (mostly negative) for its publisher, Rockstar Games. Some interesting factoids can be gleaned from an article in the New York Times by Matt Richtel.

Richtel focuses on several college students and twenty-somethings who profess to barely have enough money to eat each month, but are more than willing to shell out $60 for GTA IV (or $90 for the collectors’ edition). Sales of five million copies are expected in coming days.

The so-called addictive nature of games is also brought up, with quotes from the only academic in the article:

“When gamers are in it, it’s like a druglike state. It feels so good,” said Jennifer Aaker, a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. She said players face constant challenges and receive instant feedback, a superstimulating artificial environment.

Not only is the play experience emotional, but the purchase is emotional, too, Professor Aaker said. Players want to be the first to buy the game and master it, sweeping aside the matter of affordability.

“The last thing that comes to mind is: ‘Can I afford it?’ That question isn’t even on the radar,” Professor Aaker said. “The question is: How fast can I buy it?”

Not mentioned, but clearly related to the popularity of the series is its wide-open world approach, wherein players are not required to follow any set rules or instructions. Instead, players can simply do what they want in the environment. Such approaches are also popular in MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft.

Another interesting tidbit Richtel referenced in the article is the fact the gaming industry is booming despite hardships felt elsewhere such as rising food and fuel costs. Sales of consoles and titles are up across the board; GameStop excels while other retailers suffer.

References:
Richtel, M. (2008, April 29). For gamers, the craving won’t quit. New York Times. [Online.] Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/technology/29game.html?

Researching World of Warcraft

Climbing the scales at Digg this week is a story on How Stuff Works about World of Warcraft. Most intriguing was Section 2 of the article, entitled, “World of Warcraft Players.” Here, author Tracy V. Wilson lists a variety of research efforts focused on WoW, currently the most popular MMORPG.

First up is Stanford grad student extraordinaire Nick Yee:

According to one of Yee’s 2005 studies, 84 percent of “World of Warcraft” players are male, and 16 percent are female. The average player’s age is 28, and female players tend to be a few years older than male players. Regardless of their gender, players spend an average of 21 to 22 hours a week playing the game … Of course, these statistics may have shifted since Yee collected his data.

Yee continues to document his work at The Daedalus Project.

Next up is information on a report from the legendary Palo Alto Research Center:

According to research conducted at the Palo Alto Research Center in 2005, players tend to put in an extra burst of playing time when a character is about to reach a milestone level. The most dramatic spike occurs when approaching level 40, the level at which characters gain access to a mount, such as a horse or a tiger, and lots of new abilities and skills. The spike in play time leading up to level 40 is even greater than the spike leading to level 60, which was the highest possible level when the study was conducted. However, once people reach the highest levels, they generally spend more time playing than they did at lower levels

Finally, academic gaming luminary Richard Bartle is mentioned. Besides helping to invent text MUDs (multi-user dungeons/domains), Bartle was key in framing research questions surrounding online interactive environments. His four categories of players: achievers, socializers, explorers and killers, provide a taxonomy that remains relevant in today’s graphical MMORPGs. Bartle remains active in ongoing discussions, and is a regular over at Terra Nova, the Wonderland Blog, and elsewhere.

As the hunger for solid research on educational gaming, MMORPGs, and related popular phenomena shows no signs of abating, resources such as Wilson’s article in How Things Work will provide road signs on the Web to the research out there. Let’s hope folks find what they’re looking for.