https://massivelyop.com MMORPG news and opinions Tue, 11 Apr 2023 14:43:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/10/raph-koster-predicts-the-future-of-the-metaverse-is-a-virtual-machu-picchu-that-you-can-leave/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/10/raph-koster-predicts-the-future-of-the-metaverse-is-a-virtual-machu-picchu-that-you-can-leave/#comments Mon, 10 Apr 2023 15:00:50 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=434843 If you’re not exhausted of seeing the word “metaverse” just yet, MMORPG developer Raph Koster has published a blessedly brief whitepaper on the evolution of online spaces like MMOs into metaverses – and by extension why we don’t have one yet in spite of billions of dollars wasted and endless babble from tech companies. In […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/10/raph-koster-predicts-the-future-of-the-metaverse-is-a-virtual-machu-picchu-that-you-can-leave/feed/ 60 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/23/for-science-crit-rate-is-another-survey-driven-attempt-to-match-gamer-personalities-to-games/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/23/for-science-crit-rate-is-another-survey-driven-attempt-to-match-gamer-personalities-to-games/#comments Thu, 23 Mar 2023 15:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=432202 I have to admit I almost deleted the press release for this story without reading it, but my finger twitched, and let me tell you why: One of the most common Reddit threads I see and one of the most common emails we get here at MOP can be boiled down to “what MMO should […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/23/for-science-crit-rate-is-another-survey-driven-attempt-to-match-gamer-personalities-to-games/feed/ 16 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/07/the-daily-grind-do-you-experience-mmo-expansion-endorphins/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/07/the-daily-grind-do-you-experience-mmo-expansion-endorphins/#comments Tue, 07 Mar 2023 13:00:04 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=426592 Back in December, MOP’s Justin wrote an article about being excited to play World of Warcraft Dragonflight, and in that piece, he wondered whether he was merely experiencing the effects of “expansion endorphins,” a phrase he says he’s heard before – but I never have, so you know we gotta talk about this. Endorphins, I’m […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/07/the-daily-grind-do-you-experience-mmo-expansion-endorphins/feed/ 18 https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/17/leaderboard-do-you-prefer-first-person-or-third-person-perspective-while-gaming/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/17/leaderboard-do-you-prefer-first-person-or-third-person-perspective-while-gaming/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2023 17:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=426900 Quantic Foundry, the team behind the Gamer Motivation Model and the modern gamer profiling test, put out a dev blog at the end of January homing in on first- vs. third-person perspective. According to the model, which is based on thousands of surveys of gamers, our preference for camera perspective is somewhat predictable, and it […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/17/leaderboard-do-you-prefer-first-person-or-third-person-perspective-while-gaming/feed/ 34 https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/20/gdcs-state-of-the-games-industry-survey-once-again-demonstrates-dev-skepticism-for-metaverse-and-blockchain-hokum/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/20/gdcs-state-of-the-games-industry-survey-once-again-demonstrates-dev-skepticism-for-metaverse-and-blockchain-hokum/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2023 15:00:43 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=423150 This year’s State of the Game Industry from GDC – its 11th since beginning the project – delivers a range of insights from the 2300 game devs surveyed. Let’s dig into the highlights, shall we? Developers are “wary” about the metaverse; in the question about companies and platforms that are “best placed to deliver on […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/20/gdcs-state-of-the-games-industry-survey-once-again-demonstrates-dev-skepticism-for-metaverse-and-blockchain-hokum/feed/ 9 https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/04/for-science-new-research-tries-to-link-game-choices-soft-skills-and-career-paths/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/04/for-science-new-research-tries-to-link-game-choices-soft-skills-and-career-paths/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2023 01:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=416754 I suspect most long-time MMORPG gamers can point to a useful skill, contact, or experience in gaming that helped them in their careers or lives at some point, or maybe it even influenced our choice in job, but we might be tempted to dismiss that as anecdotal or insignificant. Maybe we shouldn’t: New research published […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/04/for-science-new-research-tries-to-link-game-choices-soft-skills-and-career-paths/feed/ 6 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/28/a-look-back-at-the-mmo-and-gaming-science-topics-of-2022/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/28/a-look-back-at-the-mmo-and-gaming-science-topics-of-2022/#respond Wed, 28 Dec 2022 21:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=415755 It’s hard to believe, but 2022 is actually the eighth year in a row we’ve been tracking science stories relevant to the MMO genre. It’s one of my favorite topics, frankly, and this year was an odd one for it – the shortest yet. Perhaps the most interesting science-related thread we picked up this year […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/28/a-look-back-at-the-mmo-and-gaming-science-topics-of-2022/feed/ 0 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/07/activision-blizzard-releases-its-year-to-date-diversity-statistics-showing-an-increase-in-underrepresented-groups/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/07/activision-blizzard-releases-its-year-to-date-diversity-statistics-showing-an-increase-in-underrepresented-groups/#comments Wed, 07 Dec 2022 20:00:55 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=418029 Activision-Blizzard’s general issues with diversity and representation have prompted a number of changes within its corporate structure, and one of those is the company’s ongoing reports and dispatches about corporate diversity. The company has just released its 2022 YTD report, which shows that compared to the company’s 2021 data the number of women and nonbinary […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/07/activision-blizzard-releases-its-year-to-date-diversity-statistics-showing-an-increase-in-underrepresented-groups/feed/ 19 https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/11/for-science-new-study-finds-positive-association-between-excessive-gaming-and-kids-cognition/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/11/for-science-new-study-finds-positive-association-between-excessive-gaming-and-kids-cognition/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=411376 Academics offered up another good reason to play video games this past October: A new study of around 2000 kids found that video game play was positively associated with performance in cognitive tests of impulse control and working memory. The University of Vermont researchers on this paper analyzed a subset of 9- and 10-year-olds participating […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/11/for-science-new-study-finds-positive-association-between-excessive-gaming-and-kids-cognition/feed/ 4 https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/28/lawful-neutral-how-extremism-and-terrorism-slither-into-online-gaming/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/28/lawful-neutral-how-extremism-and-terrorism-slither-into-online-gaming/#comments Fri, 28 Oct 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=411442 Back in 2014, something happened in the gaming space, something whose impact was so damaging that even almost 10 years later, I realize that I still hesitate to use its name in print. It’s still a bit like playing Bloody Mary in the mirror, except you type this word out and you get a deluge […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/28/lawful-neutral-how-extremism-and-terrorism-slither-into-online-gaming/feed/ 61 https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/06/riot-games-sponsors-design-challenge-centered-on-making-online-spaces-safer/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/06/riot-games-sponsors-design-challenge-centered-on-making-online-spaces-safer/#comments Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:30:09 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=408512 Riot Games is not a gaming company most folks in our industry would consider a paragon of community in or off the court. The fact that the company has fostered demonstrably toxic gaming communities as well as egregiously awful studio culture over its lifetime – replete with lawsuits, sexual discrimination, and labor scandals that went […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/06/riot-games-sponsors-design-challenge-centered-on-making-online-spaces-safer/feed/ 8 https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/24/us-department-of-homeland-security-issues-a-nearly-700k-grant-to-research-extremism-in-gaming/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/24/us-department-of-homeland-security-issues-a-nearly-700k-grant-to-research-extremism-in-gaming/#comments Sat, 24 Sep 2022 22:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=406586 There are toxic people in games chat, and then there are people who use video gaming platforms as a ways to encourage extremism and domestic terrorism. That latter problem is one that’s prompting the US Department of Homeland Security to issue a grant of nearly $700K to a research group that’s looking to study the […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/24/us-department-of-homeland-security-issues-a-nearly-700k-grant-to-research-extremism-in-gaming/feed/ 16 https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/22/bloombergs-twitch-report-exposes-a-platform-rife-with-children-and-predators/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/22/bloombergs-twitch-report-exposes-a-platform-rife-with-children-and-predators/#comments Thu, 22 Sep 2022 15:30:10 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=406506 Bloomberg has a deeply disturbing exposé this week on Twitch that demonstrates how the streaming platform intended for video games is being used by child predators to “find and exploit kids in real-time.” It should go without saying that the article is deeply upsetting, so don’t go clicking on it unprepared. Author Cecilia D’Anastasio shows […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/22/bloombergs-twitch-report-exposes-a-platform-rife-with-children-and-predators/feed/ 8 https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/25/star-stable-launches-new-charity-initiative-to-counter-negative-horse-girl-stereotypes/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/25/star-stable-launches-new-charity-initiative-to-counter-negative-horse-girl-stereotypes/#comments Thu, 25 Aug 2022 18:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=402553 A few weeks back I joked on the MOP podcast that I’m a secret horse girl, and it’s true in real life and in video games. But there’s no shame in it, nor should there be, and kid-friendly equestrian MMO Star Stable is making that point with its new #YesImAHorseGirl initiative, which seeks to “redefine […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/25/star-stable-launches-new-charity-initiative-to-counter-negative-horse-girl-stereotypes/feed/ 5 https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/16/eve-echoes-launches-a-project-discovery-science-initiative-eve-online-preps-for-next-alliance-tournament/ Tue, 16 Aug 2022 20:30:05 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=401282 Regular players of EVE Online are likely very familiar with the game’s Project Discovery “citizen science” initiatives that let players help out scientific research, but now players of the mobile MMO EVE Echoes will get to help out the needs of science with the launch of the game’s first Project Discovery event. Players who want […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/29/axie-infinity-ceo-caught-shuffling-3m-in-the-games-crypto-tokens-before-announcing-its-620m-hack/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/29/axie-infinity-ceo-caught-shuffling-3m-in-the-games-crypto-tokens-before-announcing-its-620m-hack/#comments Fri, 29 Jul 2022 19:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=398751 No matter how decentralized cryptocurrencies claim to be, there’s always going to be a paper trail to follow, and one such trail was left behind by Axie Infinity CEO and co-founder Trung Nguyen, who had apparently moved $3M worth of the game’s AXS cryptocurrency from its ecosystem to Binance just hours before announcing it was […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/29/axie-infinity-ceo-caught-shuffling-3m-in-the-games-crypto-tokens-before-announcing-its-620m-hack/feed/ 15 https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/27/eve-onlines-fanfest-data-dump-shows-a-surprisingly-wide-range-of-player-types/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/27/eve-onlines-fanfest-data-dump-shows-a-surprisingly-wide-range-of-player-types/#comments Wed, 27 Jul 2022 19:30:30 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=398447 EVE Online is going full science fair mode with the release of a whole suite of fancy graphs and data collected and presented during Fanfest 2022. The presentation is full of player data trivia in visual form, including number of alliances, number of hours a character has been in-game since its creation, a highlight of five […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/27/eve-onlines-fanfest-data-dump-shows-a-surprisingly-wide-range-of-player-types/feed/ 1 https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/17/for-science-new-research-affirms-online-friends-provide-emotional-and-informational-support/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/17/for-science-new-research-affirms-online-friends-provide-emotional-and-informational-support/#comments Fri, 17 Jun 2022 19:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=391933 You’ve probably seen the declaration that “online friends are real friends” somewhere on the internet a few times, and while that can seem pretty obvious to most, there’s now a new scientific research to back up the claim. A new paper in the Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds asserts that online social groups do […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/17/for-science-new-research-affirms-online-friends-provide-emotional-and-informational-support/feed/ 2 https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/17/the-daily-grind-should-mmo-pvp-matchmaking-focus-on-challenge-or-engagement/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/17/the-daily-grind-should-mmo-pvp-matchmaking-focus-on-challenge-or-engagement/#comments Fri, 17 Jun 2022 12:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=390248 MOP’s Sam recently stumbled across an MSM article that quotes multiple streamers and esports players essentially complaining about matchmaking systems in competitive games. The streamers, of course, want to win for their viewers, while the esports pros were upset because the matchmaking algorithm was so good it was pairing them against genuinely good opponents and […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/17/the-daily-grind-should-mmo-pvp-matchmaking-focus-on-challenge-or-engagement/feed/ 17 https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/17/the-daily-grind-are-you-playing-a-morally-disengaged-murder-hobo-in-mmos/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/17/the-daily-grind-are-you-playing-a-morally-disengaged-murder-hobo-in-mmos/#comments Tue, 17 May 2022 12:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=386322 The Psychology of Video Games podcast recently did a bit on “murder hobos,” and yes, Dr Jamie Madigan does point out that the term is insensitive, but it’s also shorthand for the type of players who allow their characters to kinda just roam the world and do whatever they want without much of a moral […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/17/the-daily-grind-are-you-playing-a-morally-disengaged-murder-hobo-in-mmos/feed/ 36 https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/14/activision-blizzard-creeps-out-the-internet-with-its-diversity-space-tool-as-union-busting-continues/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/14/activision-blizzard-creeps-out-the-internet-with-its-diversity-space-tool-as-union-busting-continues/#comments Sat, 14 May 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=388087 Friday afternoon, Activision-Blizzard proudly trotted out a dev blog talking up the creation of a “Diversity Space Tool” that the company has apparently been developing since 2016, described by King Globalization Project Manager Jacqueline Chomatas as “a measurement device, to help identify how diverse a set of character traits are and in turn how diverse […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/14/activision-blizzard-creeps-out-the-internet-with-its-diversity-space-tool-as-union-busting-continues/feed/ 84 https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/28/troves-new-player-survey-nods-to-quantic-foundrys-gamer-motivation-model/ Thu, 28 Apr 2022 22:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=385845 Gamigo did more than just update Glyph this week; it also posted a survey for Trove players to “share [their] thoughts and help shape the future” of the popular blocky voxelbox game, which has now survived both the implosion of Trion Worlds and Gamigo’s gamepocalypse. Make sure you set aside a bit of time to […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/31/gdc-2022-control-revenue-scarcity-ethics-and-the-human-challenges-of-the-gaming-metaverse/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/31/gdc-2022-control-revenue-scarcity-ethics-and-the-human-challenges-of-the-gaming-metaverse/#comments Thu, 31 Mar 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=381099 While some panels at GDC 2022 have been deeply disappointing, the panel titled “A Brave New (Virtual) World: Ethics and Governance of XR and the Metaverse” was most definitely not among them. While it was a bit heavy at times and a few speakers occasionally sounded like they might wear tinfoil hats in their free […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/31/gdc-2022-control-revenue-scarcity-ethics-and-the-human-challenges-of-the-gaming-metaverse/feed/ 3 https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/30/gdc-2022-how-game-stressors-mix-and-match-for-repeatable-content-development-in-mmos/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/30/gdc-2022-how-game-stressors-mix-and-match-for-repeatable-content-development-in-mmos/#comments Wed, 30 Mar 2022 17:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=380929 Continuing our GDC 2022 coverage of Bungie Principal Technical Game Designer Alan Blaine’s talk on building challenges and reusable content in Destiny 2, we’re going to take the stressors he defined, modified for MMOs, and consider how developers can use them for tuning content and making repeatable content. While most of our readers are not devs, having […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/30/gdc-2022-how-game-stressors-mix-and-match-for-repeatable-content-development-in-mmos/feed/ 4 https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/29/gdc-2022-learning-from-the-seven-game-stressors-in-destiny-2/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/29/gdc-2022-learning-from-the-seven-game-stressors-in-destiny-2/#comments Tue, 29 Mar 2022 18:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=380716 GDC 2022 coverage has a bit slow this year thanks to virtual tickets being kind of a misnomer (if the panel isn’t live and interactive, it’s just a recording, folks!), but there are still some panels that certainly turned out to be worth the wait. Bungie Principal Technical Game Designer Alan Blaine came to talk about […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/29/gdc-2022-learning-from-the-seven-game-stressors-in-destiny-2/feed/ 4 https://massivelyop.com/2022/02/24/massively-on-the-go-how-pokedex-building-could-be-used-for-server-wide-science-questing/ Thu, 24 Feb 2022 18:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=373348 Well, I’m sorry to report to multiplayer gamers that despite having online features like New Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Legends: Arceus is very much a solo game, aside from trading and (oddly) corpse runs, which only other players can do for you. It’s disappointing, as the open-world gameplay of Sword and Shield motivated even my friends who tend to […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/02/22/how-video-game-player-data-collection-processes-have-expanded-outside-of-gaming/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/02/22/how-video-game-player-data-collection-processes-have-expanded-outside-of-gaming/#comments Tue, 22 Feb 2022 22:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=376003 The EULA – aka the wall o’ text that we all blitz past in order to get to play the MMORPG or multiplayer title we just bought – will very often mention that user data is being collected for analytics. But just what is that data being used for? According to a recent article from […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/02/22/how-video-game-player-data-collection-processes-have-expanded-outside-of-gaming/feed/ 6 https://massivelyop.com/2022/01/20/gdcs-state-of-the-game-industry-nfts-the-metaverse-and-more-than-half-of-game-devs-want-to-unionize/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/01/20/gdcs-state-of-the-game-industry-nfts-the-metaverse-and-more-than-half-of-game-devs-want-to-unionize/#comments Thu, 20 Jan 2022 20:00:22 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=371545 Ahead of the annual Game Developers Conference, GDC organizers poll industry workers and release it all in a state-of-the-industry wrapper, which has landed in our inboxes today. A few notable stats we’ve pulled out of the doc: More respondents are working on games for PC than for any other platform – twice as many as […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/01/20/gdcs-state-of-the-game-industry-nfts-the-metaverse-and-more-than-half-of-game-devs-want-to-unionize/feed/ 16 https://massivelyop.com/2022/01/07/a-look-back-at-the-mmo-and-gaming-science-topics-of-2021/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/01/07/a-look-back-at-the-mmo-and-gaming-science-topics-of-2021/#comments Fri, 07 Jan 2022 20:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=364609 It’s now become a long-running tradition on Massively OP to track science stories that track with online gaming and MMOs – this is our seventh year, in fact! Last year, we noted that our pile of such stories was smaller than usual thanks to COVID, and I fear 2021 wasn’t any better. Perhaps the best […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/01/07/a-look-back-at-the-mmo-and-gaming-science-topics-of-2021/feed/ 2 https://massivelyop.com/2022/01/07/richard-bartles-new-book-seeks-to-intersect-theological-thought-and-mmorpg-design/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/01/07/richard-bartles-new-book-seeks-to-intersect-theological-thought-and-mmorpg-design/#comments Fri, 07 Jan 2022 18:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=369850 If you’re new to our genre, first of all welcome, and second of all you should be familiar with Dr. Richard A. Bartle, a pioneer who helped develop MUD1, inspired a gamer type test that bears his name, and has written about the design and creation of MMOs on several occasions, the most important of […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/01/07/richard-bartles-new-book-seeks-to-intersect-theological-thought-and-mmorpg-design/feed/ 11 https://massivelyop.com/2021/11/16/playable-worlds-raph-koster-explains-how-feedback-loops-can-create-unexpected-results/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/11/16/playable-worlds-raph-koster-explains-how-feedback-loops-can-create-unexpected-results/#comments Tue, 16 Nov 2021 23:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=362665 What’s a feedback loop? And, more importantly, why should MMO players care about them? According to Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster, this part of game systems is more influential in how titles are developed than you might think. Speaking with Game Thinking TV, Koster explained how feedback loops affect ways we interact with technology and computers. […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/11/16/playable-worlds-raph-koster-explains-how-feedback-loops-can-create-unexpected-results/feed/ 18 https://massivelyop.com/2021/10/22/lawful-neutral-managing-toxicity-in-the-mmo-industry/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/10/22/lawful-neutral-managing-toxicity-in-the-mmo-industry/#comments Fri, 22 Oct 2021 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=349239 When I’m playing games, I make a lot of use of the reporting function. If I see a moonkin zerg farming a spot in World of Warcraft, I’ll stop and report as many as I can. If I see toxic chat in an MMO or things I think would be offensive to me or others, […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/10/22/lawful-neutral-managing-toxicity-in-the-mmo-industry/feed/ 15 https://massivelyop.com/2021/10/18/playable-worlds-raph-koster-on-gamings-social-design-problems-masquerading-as-technical-challenges/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/10/18/playable-worlds-raph-koster-on-gamings-social-design-problems-masquerading-as-technical-challenges/#comments Mon, 18 Oct 2021 14:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=358230 In case you hadn’t noticed, Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster is basically handing out a free 101 course in how video games work in his string of essays and blogs on virtual worlds, though we’re sure it works just as well as a promotional preamble to the MMORPG sandbox and metaverse his new studio is building. […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/10/18/playable-worlds-raph-koster-on-gamings-social-design-problems-masquerading-as-technical-challenges/feed/ 11 https://massivelyop.com/2021/10/08/playable-worlds-raph-koster-on-the-stuff-inside-your-virtual-worlds/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/10/08/playable-worlds-raph-koster-on-the-stuff-inside-your-virtual-worlds/#comments Fri, 08 Oct 2021 17:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=357097 Raph Koster has been penning blogs about the metaverse and how virtual worlds work for several weeks now; his new company, Playable Worlds, has ambitions to build not only a metaverse platform but a sandbox MMORPG on top of it. The latest article has now arrived for your Friday enjoyment and confusion, and he’s talking […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/10/08/playable-worlds-raph-koster-on-the-stuff-inside-your-virtual-worlds/feed/ 6 https://massivelyop.com/2021/09/24/playable-worlds-raph-koster-on-why-avatars-traipsing-across-the-metaverse-is-a-major-tech-challenge/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/09/24/playable-worlds-raph-koster-on-why-avatars-traipsing-across-the-metaverse-is-a-major-tech-challenge/#comments Fri, 24 Sep 2021 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=355062 Virtual worlds… how the eff do they work? Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster has an idea or two, and he’s dishing them out in a new blog series. The first focuses on the technical hurdles for building MMOs and the “metaverse,” and as usual, Koster emphasizes looking back into the history of game development for the […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/09/24/playable-worlds-raph-koster-on-why-avatars-traipsing-across-the-metaverse-is-a-major-tech-challenge/feed/ 23 https://massivelyop.com/2021/08/06/for-science-men-roll-more-female-characters-than-women-roll-male-toons-new-survey-shows/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/08/06/for-science-men-roll-more-female-characters-than-women-roll-male-toons-new-survey-shows/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2021 15:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=348658 Do you play MMO characters who reflect your gender in real life? Apparently, the answer depends a bit on which gender and how old you actually are. That’s according to a new report out of Quantic Foundry, whose Gamer Motivation Profile we’ve covered extensively over the last few years. Nick Yee and his fellow academics […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/08/06/for-science-men-roll-more-female-characters-than-women-roll-male-toons-new-survey-shows/feed/ 113 https://massivelyop.com/2021/08/05/the-daily-grind-do-you-engage-in-parallel-play-in-mmorpgs/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/08/05/the-daily-grind-do-you-engage-in-parallel-play-in-mmorpgs/#comments Thu, 05 Aug 2021 12:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=343740 Thanks to a random Tweet in my timeline a while back, the term “parallel play” has been rattling around in my brain lately. According to Wikipedia, “Parallel play is a form of play in which children play adjacent to each other, but do not try to influence one another’s behavior. Children usually play alone during […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/08/05/the-daily-grind-do-you-engage-in-parallel-play-in-mmorpgs/feed/ 29 https://massivelyop.com/2021/07/21/gdc-2021-navigating-player-behaviors-and-cheating-in-online-video-games/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/07/21/gdc-2021-navigating-player-behaviors-and-cheating-in-online-video-games/#comments Wed, 21 Jul 2021 18:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=345909 GDC 2021 has now offered several panels on player behavior and cheating that are aimed at devs but still provide some good information for regular players. Riot Games specifically was out in force, and Head of Player Dynamics, Weszt Hart, helped curb expectations, while Andrew Hogan, CMO and Co-Founder of Intorqa, drove home how rampant […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/07/21/gdc-2021-navigating-player-behaviors-and-cheating-in-online-video-games/feed/ 2 https://massivelyop.com/2021/07/20/gdc-2021-research-on-online-video-game-voice-chat-has-come-a-long-way/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/07/20/gdc-2021-research-on-online-video-game-voice-chat-has-come-a-long-way/#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2021 18:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=345643 Covering studies about video gamers often reveals a glaring problem with the science on the topic: Most of it looks has traditionally surveyed text chat rather than voice chat. But today we’ve got a story that could change that narrative, as Hank Howie, Director of Partnerships at Modulate, gave a quick overview of recent studies […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/07/20/gdc-2021-research-on-online-video-game-voice-chat-has-come-a-long-way/feed/ 15 https://massivelyop.com/2021/07/16/pax-east-2021-gaming-streamers-are-frontline-workers-not-mental-health-experts/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/07/16/pax-east-2021-gaming-streamers-are-frontline-workers-not-mental-health-experts/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2021 18:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=345215 Since PAX East 2021 is virtual again due to that little virus that’s been going around for over a year now, it should come to no surprise that it’s been prompting topics in gaming spheres. In fact, Take This’ Dr. Kelli Dunlap, mental health streamer Mxiety, and Games and Interactive Media MFA candidate Jocelyn Wagner […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/07/16/pax-east-2021-gaming-streamers-are-frontline-workers-not-mental-health-experts/feed/ 3 https://massivelyop.com/2021/07/09/lawful-neutral-defining-toxicity-in-the-mmo-industry/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/07/09/lawful-neutral-defining-toxicity-in-the-mmo-industry/#comments Fri, 09 Jul 2021 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=343797 One of my earliest memories from World of Warcraft isn’t really a positive one. It was in back in the Wrath days. My guild had just recruited a new member, who jumped into Ventrilo (heh) to hear us chat. One of my guildies was a woman. When this new member heard her speak over Vent, […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/07/09/lawful-neutral-defining-toxicity-in-the-mmo-industry/feed/ 58 https://massivelyop.com/2021/04/10/playable-worlds-raph-koster-shares-the-secret-of-good-social-design-in-mmos/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/04/10/playable-worlds-raph-koster-shares-the-secret-of-good-social-design-in-mmos/#comments Sat, 10 Apr 2021 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=331156 Raph Koster, the game designer behind Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, and Playable Worlds’ upcoming project, has posted yet another essay about MMORPG design, all meant as preamble for the new game. In this latest piece, he challenges MMO players to re-examine and understand what social design is in games — and why it’s so […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/04/10/playable-worlds-raph-koster-shares-the-secret-of-good-social-design-in-mmos/feed/ 26 https://massivelyop.com/2021/04/08/no-twitchs-move-to-investigate-off-platform-toxicity-is-not-novel-for-the-industry/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/04/08/no-twitchs-move-to-investigate-off-platform-toxicity-is-not-novel-for-the-industry/#comments Thu, 08 Apr 2021 13:30:51 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=330727 Twitch is changing its hateful conduct and harassment policy once again, this time to allow moderators to take into account problematic activity that occurs beyond the platform’s hallowed halls. “We will now enforce against serious offenses that pose a substantial safety risk to the Twitch community, even if these actions occur entirely off Twitch,” the […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/04/08/no-twitchs-move-to-investigate-off-platform-toxicity-is-not-novel-for-the-industry/feed/ 32 https://massivelyop.com/2021/04/05/new-uk-research-finds-opening-lootboxes-is-structurally-and-psychologically-akin-to-gambling/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/04/05/new-uk-research-finds-opening-lootboxes-is-structurally-and-psychologically-akin-to-gambling/#comments Mon, 05 Apr 2021 18:00:01 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=330181 The mountain of research-based evidence against lootboxes has had another leaflet added to the pile. A recent report from researchers at the universities of Plymouth and Wolverhampton in the UK has concluded that opening gaming lockboxes is “structurally and psychologically akin” to gambling. The research, commissioned by the GambleAware charity, analyzed 13 previous studies into […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/04/05/new-uk-research-finds-opening-lootboxes-is-structurally-and-psychologically-akin-to-gambling/feed/ 40 https://massivelyop.com/2021/04/02/playable-worlds-raph-koster-on-the-player-driven-economies-at-the-heart-of-virtual-worlds/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/04/02/playable-worlds-raph-koster-on-the-player-driven-economies-at-the-heart-of-virtual-worlds/#comments Fri, 02 Apr 2021 13:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=329736 Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster is back with another blog post that serves as a tip-off for what kind of MMORPG he and his team are building. And once again, if you’ve ever played a Koster MMO, you know what “E” word is going to be at the heart of it: economy. But Koster hammers over […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/04/02/playable-worlds-raph-koster-on-the-player-driven-economies-at-the-heart-of-virtual-worlds/feed/ 21 https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/21/massively-overthinking-retaking-quantics-survey-to-determine-our-gamer-type/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/21/massively-overthinking-retaking-quantics-survey-to-determine-our-gamer-type/#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=318565 Five years ago – yes, it’s been that long! – we did an Overthinking in which our staff all took Quantic’s survey to see our results about what type of gamer we are through the lens of the Gamer Motivation Model, a sort of a modern spin on the MMO-centric Bartle test by long-time gaming […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/21/massively-overthinking-retaking-quantics-survey-to-determine-our-gamer-type/feed/ 36 https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/21/world-of-warcraft-players-move-21b-gold-through-the-economy-every-day/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/21/world-of-warcraft-players-move-21b-gold-through-the-economy-every-day/#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2021 18:00:48 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=319351 IT-centric Splunk’s .conf is not generally an event we cover here on MOP, but the .conf20 edition held back in October had a presentation of note for us. Blizzard Senior Security Engineer Shawn Routhier gave a presentation on World of Warcraft’s economy – specifically, a data-minded look at trade and gold-making in the MMORPG, which happens […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/21/world-of-warcraft-players-move-21b-gold-through-the-economy-every-day/feed/ 12 https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/07/a-look-back-at-the-mmo-and-gaming-science-topics-of-2020/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/07/a-look-back-at-the-mmo-and-gaming-science-topics-of-2020/#comments Thu, 07 Jan 2021 20:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=306813 It’s now become a long-running tradition on Massively OP to track science-related and science-adjacent stories that touch on the MMORPG world, but this past year’s pile is smaller than usual, for reasons that will surprise no one: the global pandemic dampened research around the globe. Plus, many of the companies and agencies that love the […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/07/a-look-back-at-the-mmo-and-gaming-science-topics-of-2020/feed/ 1 https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/07/cooperating-in-violent-games-like-fortnite-is-good-for-children-actually/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/07/cooperating-in-violent-games-like-fortnite-is-good-for-children-actually/#comments Thu, 07 Jan 2021 17:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=317359 Here’s something that might bake your noodle: A new study suggests that children playing violent video games cooperatively such as Fortnite are actually more willing to engage in prosocial behavior. The paper, titled The Fortnite social paradox: The effects of violent-cooperative multi-player video games on children’s basic psychological needs and prosocial behavior by Anat Shoshani […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/07/cooperating-in-violent-games-like-fortnite-is-good-for-children-actually/feed/ 14 https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/04/ten-year-study-finds-no-link-between-game-violence-and-aggressive-behavior-from-adolescence-to-adulthood/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/04/ten-year-study-finds-no-link-between-game-violence-and-aggressive-behavior-from-adolescence-to-adulthood/#comments Mon, 04 Jan 2021 17:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=316869 We’ve got another leaflet of evidence on the already towering pile of research suggesting no link between video game violence and aggressive behavior. A ten year-long longitudinal study published in the Journal of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking has concluded that there is no connection between playing violent games and exhibiting violent tendencies in meatspace. […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/04/ten-year-study-finds-no-link-between-game-violence-and-aggressive-behavior-from-adolescence-to-adulthood/feed/ 24