The Psychology of MMORPGs

Whether it’s building our dream island in Animal Crossing or exercising indoors using Ring Fit Adventure, many of us are using video games for companionship and improvement during these difficult times. A particular genre that is seeing a boost due to players staying at home is the Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) genre. World of Warcraft players received an apology due to long wait times to get into servers, and Square Enix have encouraged players to both try out and return to Final Fantasy XIV for free.

The success and popularity of the MMORPG genre has always fascinated me, so it’s time to take a dive into why people enjoy them so much and what keeps people coming back for more. Before we get started, I’d just like to reiterate that I am not paid to endorse or promote any video game or any video game personalities; any examples I provide are purely for contextualising information.

As usual, there will be a summary at the bottom if you do not wish to read everything. Now, let’s begin!

Contents

1. The Appeal (and Seal) of MMORPGs
2. Massive Multiplayer Online…
3. …Role-Playing Game
4. The Ironforge Effect
5. A Word of Warning
6. Summary
7. References

The Appeal (and Seal) of MMORPGs

An amusing aspect of MMORPGs is that, on paper, we shouldn’t actually like them. While there are MMORPGs such as Guild Wars that do not require a subscription fee, popular MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV require a monthly subscription fee in order to play them. When you combine these costs with the base game and subsequent expansions, playing your favourite MMORPG can get pretty costly.

Economists and psychologists alike have explored how we prefer to pay for things. While different payment plans have their pros and cons, research commonly finds that paying a lump sum for something and getting that payment out of the way is more psychologically comfortable than paying incrementally for something (Lambrecht & Skiera, 2006).

When it comes to MMORPGs, we technically have the worst of both worlds. We pay a lump sum to buy the game and its available expansions. We often then need to budget our subscription fee for the game and buy new expansions when they come out. This mental accounting and seeing direct debits come out for a game we’ve already purchased can be psychologically uncomfortable (Heath & Soll, 1996), so why are MMORPGs so popular in spite of this discomfort?

In research by Ryan, Rigby and Przybylski (2006), the appeal of MMORPGs was researched in the context of a theory known as Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985). SDT argues that human behaviour and motivation is influenced by three main needs:

• Autonomy: We need to feel in control of our actions and interested in what we are doing. If we’re railroaded into something we don’t want to do, we’re not going to want to do it (Deci et al., 1999).
• Competence: What we’re doing needs to provide us with a challenge and feelings of achievement and accomplishment (Ryan & Brown, 2005).
• Relatedness: We need to feel some sort of connection to the task. In the context of games, this could relate to factors such as relatable and interesting characters.

Their research found that motivation to play MMORPGs and the enjoyment associated with them are indeed related to these three domains. So let’s break them down:

• Autonomy: I can’t think of two people who play an MMORPG in the same way. Some people are completionists and do every quest, while others do the bare minimum. Some players are devout crafters and gatherers, while others ignore these aspects to focus on combat. Some people level up multiple characters and/or combat classes, while others just focus on one character or class. There are so many ways for you to craft your own individual experience in an MMORPG.
• Competence: MMORPGs offer players a sense of accomplishment by levelling up their characters, completing dungeons, and beating raid content. MMORPGs also often come with achievement and completion logs that players can work to complete for rewards and personal satisfaction.
• Relatedness: The fantasy worlds of MMORPGs are often fleshed out with character and world building that can sell novels. Not only are you emerged in a fantasy world, but you share this journey with other people. The game grants you a platform to make new friends and stay connected with them in the game – more on this soon.

The desire to explore fantasy worlds at our own pace, level up our characters, and meet new people can motivate us to try out an MMORPG. So what encourages us to keep subscribing when it can be psychologically painful for us?

There are two theories that can be used to explain why people keep subscribing. The first example is what we call ‘loss aversion’ (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979). Whether it’s our time, money or other resources, the idea of losing something is painful to us and we do everything in our power to minimise losses.

It is difficult for a player to reach the maximum level of their chosen combat class using the initial subscription they are provided (around 30 days). Let’s say the level cap is 80 and you reached level 35 before you have to pay for a subscription. You only got the chance to unlock and play with a fraction of your cool combat abilities. The story’s hinting at ramping up, but hasn’t come close to reaching its peak yet. Compare this to buying a single-player game and being forced to stop at a certain point. Not continuing and seeing things through to the end would feel like a waste of your time, so you subscribe and continue with your journey.

The person continues with their journey and reaches the level cap. By that time, they’ve found a cool group of people to play the game with and they start to play end-game content with them. They’re lucky and get some rare gear and items. They decide to level up some crafting abilities to provide helpful items to their friends while also levelling up other combat classes with them. Before they realise it, they’ve spent hundreds of hours playing the game.

At this point, the second theory might kick in – the sunk-cost fallacy. The sunk-cost fallacy argues that we continue to do things based on our previous investments, be it time, money or resources (Arkes & Blumer, 1985). This person has already spent a lot of time and money on the game, so they may continue to subscribe based on this. The sunk-cost fallacy and loss aversion may also work together here: the person may not want to give up playing with their friends and all of the cool loot they worked hard to achieve.

MMORPGs are appealing to us as they give us the freedom to play how we want, to achieve things, and to make friends. However, we may be ‘sealed’ into an MMORPG due to the length of time it takes for us to feel that we have received the most from the game. By this time, we may have made great friends and achieved wonderful loot due to our hard work, and giving all of this up can be uncomfortable to us.

Massive Multiplayer Online…

As the name suggests, MMORPGs can act as social hubs. Every time you play a dungeon or a trial or a raid with other people, you have the potential to make a new friend. People can sign up to guilds where you have easy access to a group of people to talk to and play with. Hell, people have just randomly said hi to me in MMORPGs and we’ve developed friendships from that.

How we meet our friends and our significant others is rapidly changing thanks to technology. When it comes to MMORPGs, the impact they can have on our social life was explored in a study conducted by Cole and Griffiths (2007). Out of 912 participants, around 75% had made good friends by playing MMORPGs; the average number of good friends made was seven. 43% of participants went on to meet their MMORPG buddies offline, and 30% of participants said that they had met a significant other playing an MMORPG.

While this study has exciting implications for the social power of video games, it also has important findings regarding mental health. In this study, 39% of participants said that they had discussed personal issues and issues surrounding their mental health with their MMORPG friends that they would not discuss with offline friends. Talking openly about our mental health can unfortunately be challenging, and typing out our thoughts and feelings to our MMORPG friends or sitting in a voice chat with them can be a method of seeking help and support.

So it is common for MMORPG players to emerge with new friends and even romantic partners. However, this leads to an interesting question – do MMORPGs by design facilitate these friendships? Evidence would suggest so.

Let’s take the example of a guild. In MMORPGs, guilds are small communities that players can sign up to be a part of. Guilds are commonly put into two categories – ‘casual’ or ‘hardcore’. Casual guilds exist to be social hubs where players can meet each other, talk, and help each other with tasks such as levelling up and crafting. In hardcore guilds, members aim to complete the more extreme content of the game with hard work and preparation. It’s easy to see how people can make friends through a casual guild, but what about hardcore guilds? Surely the focus is on completion rather than friendship, and this focus is a recipe for friction if another player isn’t as good as the others?

Well, yes and no. I’m not going to pretend that ‘guild drama’ stories are uncommon for MMORPG players, but for each person I know with a guild drama story, they also have lifelong friends that they still talk to and go on road trips to visit. So how does this happen?

New content releases in an MMORPG and a hardcore guild works together to complete it. Evidence suggests that in order to be successful, two things need to happen: they need to have a shared understanding of how to complete the content, and they need to work together as a team to complete it (Tindale et al., 2008). This is the point where some guild drama might happen as someone might not be pulling their weight or listening to instructions.

According to Tuckman’s (1965) theory of group development, this conflict is fairly common in group settings and has been referred to as the storming phase. When conflict arises in the storming phase, the norming phase is kickstarted as the group works together to put an end to the conflict. How they decide to deal with the conflict establishes the norms for how future difficulties are dealt with as a group. This group problem-solving not only teaches you valuable conflict resolution skills that can be used outside of the game, but strengthens the bonds you share with others in the group (Tuckman & Jensen, 1977). This then leads to the performing stage, which in the current context would involve successfully beating the difficult content.

Working well with others to complete content not only brings you closer to these people (Dion, 2000), but also improves both your individual self-esteem and the collective self-esteem of the group (Crocker & Luhtanen, 1990; Crocker & Major, 1989). Regarding collective self-esteem, you are a group of people who can rise to the occasion and defeat difficult challenges through teamwork. I have seen hardcore guilds set up websites where potential members need to complete an application form. You are so good at the game that people are willing to fill out application forms to get to play with you – and that feels good.

…Role-Playing Game

When we play an MMORPG, we take control of a character of our own creation. While communities have a plethora of names for these characters (e.g. ‘toon’), I’ll just call them avatars. We can exercise a great amount of control creating our avatars, choosing factors such as their fantasy race, their gender and their appearance. These avatars are our vehicle for progressing the game and serve as our outward appearance when interacting with others.

While I try to present myself as competent and educated online, the reality is that I’m a bit of a small, bumbling idiot. One time I bumped into a mirror and apologised to my reflection. You can find me in supermarkets on my tiptoes desperately reaching for the top shelf. While moving home last year, I discovered that my bicep was the same circumference as a roll of Sellotape.

When I log into Final Fantasy XIV, I’m not quite as small and bumbling. The avatar I decided to create was a female Roegadyn with the height and muscle sliders cranked up. Female Roegadyn are giant hulking women by nature, and are the least popular gender-race combination amongst active players according to XIVCensus. I don’t care, she’s perfect to me.

When creating my avatar, I created who I want to be rather than who I am. This begs the question – does our behaviour change when we play as the avatars of our heart’s desire?

After centuries of fairy tales and media with beautiful heroes and wart-ridden villains, we may fall victim to the physical attractiveness stereotype. This stereotype argues that we assume that physically attractive people are kind and moral beings (Schacter, 2012; Dion et al., 1972; Wheeler & Kim, 1997). If we are automatically judged to be kind and good people, this can boost our self-confidence (Hamermesh & Biddle, 1993).

Researchers have explored the role of the physical attractiveness stereotype in games with customisable avatars. Research by Yee and Bailenson (2007) explored how both attractiveness and height in digital avatars can influence our behaviour. When using an avatar deemed to be attractive, participants were more social and confident compared to those with avatars deemed as unattractive. When playing as tall avatars, we also become more confident and assertive. When interacting with new people and doing things outside of my comfort zone (more on that soon), playing what I feel to be a taller, more confident version of myself certainly helps.

It is also interesting to note that while our avatars can influence our behaviour in MMORPGs, it may also be influenced by small factors surrounding our avatars. In Final Fantasy XIV, skilled and experienced players can sign up for mentor programmes to help other players. Successful mentors will have icons placed at their names to denote their expertise and willingness to help others. I’ve witnessed players say that it is their first time through a dungeon and a mentor will type out a list of things to help them. This is a scenario where everyone wins: the new person gets information and feels welcome, and the mentor is rewarded with bursts of the neurochemicals serotonin and dopamine that make them feel happy and good about themselves (Breuning, 2015).

I would like to conclude this section by talking about how we can ‘role-play’ as aspects of ourselves that can lead to positive real-life outcomes. For those unfamiliar with MMORPGs, combat classes primarily fit into three roles. DPS (damage per second) classes focus on dealing damage to enemies and healers focus on keeping everyone alive. Tanks are responsible for keeping enemies focused on them to minimise damage to the DPS and healers. You can think of tanks as informal leaders as they can dictate the pace of the dungeon and charge first into enemies.

On the latest episode of the Coffee with Clemps podcast, a term was used that made me laugh out loud – tankxiety. Tankxiety refers to the anxiety tanks feel when signing themselves up for dungeons and duties as the informal leaders. To quote the host directly, “I don’t want to disappoint people”.

I found this so amusing because it directly mirrored my own experiences. As someone who typically stays in the background and isn’t very assertive, I signed up to play Final Fantasy XIV as a tank as I wanted to try something new. This led to me dropping the game for around 16 months because my tankxiety was so bad that it was giving me stomach pains. The lure of playing with friends brought me back to the game and I’m actively working to build my confidence and assertiveness.

Evidence suggests that the people who say things like “I don’t want to disappoint people” actually make really good tanks. In the field of occupational psychology, researchers try to figure out how best to keep employees happy and motivated; part of this involves exploring different types of leadership. If we are led by people who don’t care about us and demand the world from us while goofing off themselves, we’re less likely to work hard and more likely to be toxic ourselves (Tavanti, 2011). Moving away from the idea of cutthroat leaders who rule with an iron fist, a type of leader that is gaining increased research attention is the compassionate leader (Tehan & Robinson, 2009). If we are led by someone who genuinely cares about us and leads by example, we feel more valued and motivated as a person (Bass, 1999).

When I tank with friends on voice chat, I’m constantly checking how they are, whether I should speed up or slow down the pace, asking if it’s okay to challenge myself etc. The same conscientiousness that gives me tankxiety for fear of letting people down also means that when I do tank, I’m always checking to make sure everyone’s okay. Leadership is a scary prospect for many people, but when I take myself out of my comfort zone and take the lead, it’s good practice for being a compassionate leader that could be helpful later in my career.

The Ironforge Effect

In August 2019, Blizzard Entertainment released World of Warcraft Classic (WoW Classic). WoW Classic is a re-release of the base game for World of Warcraft, providing significantly less content and greater levelling challenge than the current retail version of WoW.

WoW Classic was so successful that it led to the game’s largest quarterly subscription increase in history. But why?

I don’t think it would be unfair to attribute this to nostalgia. For many people, the base version of WoW and early expansions such as The Burning Crusade hearken us back to a simpler time. A time when The Black Parade was on our 128MB MP3 player, our favourite Newgrounds animations took forever to load, and when our biggest concern in life was finishing a school report.

The science and psychology behind nostalgia spans far beyond a section of an article, so I’ll keep this simple. Nostalgia and feelings of “Boy, life was sweet back then” are produced by the collaboration of both the memory and reward systems of our brain (Oba et al., 2016). Thinking back to these simple times are useful for making us feel positive, happy, and good about ourselves (Sedikides et al., 2008). The positive memories elicited by playing WoW Classic can counteract feelings of frustration and negativity experienced in our current lives.

To be contrarian, you could argue that any game you played a lot when you were younger could elicit the same feelings. If you played The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion a lot growing up, you could just go back and play that instead of paying WoW’s subscription fee. So why do people pay up for WoW Classic? For the purposes of this article, I’d relate this to something called ‘The Ironforge Effect’.

Think about chilling with your friends in Ironforge in a Ventrilo server. This memory not only reminds you of a simpler time, but it reminds you of the fun you had with your friends. It is common for nostalgia-eliciting memories to be social in nature, reminding us of the good times we spent with others (Routledge, 2013). The downside of this is that it may not always be possible or feasible to relive social memories – your friends might not want to return to the skate park you used to hang out at 15 years ago.

WoW Classic might be an enticing opportunity to get the old band back together and relive the simple times together. If you’re sadly no longer in contact with your old friends, the evidence outlined above suggests that you’ll still come out of WoW Classic with some new friends. While remembering the old times spent in Ironforge on a Ventrilo server, you can forge some new memories chilling out with friends on a Discord server.

A Word of Warning

In this article, I’ve discussed factors such as how we enjoy escaping to fantasy worlds, the social power of MMORPGs, and how they can help us to improve and be our best selves. While I enjoy sharing knowledge with you all, I also have a moral and ethical obligation not to pretend that everything is sunshine and kittens.

Throughout the past few years, I’ve probably read around 100 research papers on the topic of video game addiction. A common theme that emerges from these papers is the potential addictive properties of MMORPGs (Stetina et al., 2011). The unfortunate news is that the aspects of MMORPGs that make them enjoyable (e.g. diving into a fantasy world) can lead to excessive playing to the point of losing jobs and rarely leaving home (Kuss et al., 2012; Kwon et al., 2011).

If you feel that you are spending too much time playing MMORPGs or have lost out on opportunities due to playing, it is important for you to examine why you may be playing to this degree and whether there is anything healthier that you can be doing. For example, using MMORPGs for escapism can be reduced in players who invest in themselves by exercising more (Liew et al., 2018). If you play MMORPGs for social contact due to social difficulties, you can use these friends outside of the game to practice your social skills. For example, you could encourage your fantasy-loving MMORPG friends to play Dungeons and Dragons online via Roll20, allowing you to practice your social skills and improvising speech (Helbig, 2019).

Please enjoy MMORPGs safely and in moderation.

Summary

• People may be encouraged to play MMORPGs as they fulfil three psychological needs: the desire to craft our own adventures at our own pace; the desire for achievements and success; and the desire to be connected to both fictional worlds and real people. We continue to pay for a subscription (if required) as we become invested in the game and don’t wish for our previous investment to go to waste (e.g. paying for the game and yet only experiencing a small percentage of it in the 30 days provided). By the time we’ve purchased several subscriptions, made friends, and played for many hours, we are reluctant to abandon our investment – this is known as the sunk-cost fallacy.
• Research suggests that it is common for people to make an average of seven good friends through MMORPGs. These friends can later have offline meetups and can even become romantic partners. MMORPG friends can have additional mental health benefits as we may feel more comfortable speaking to them about our mental health than our offline friends.
• While working together as a group to beat challenging content, some conflict and ‘guild drama’ might arise. Managing this conflict can teach valuable conflict resolution skills and can bring you closer to the people in your guild. When you are successful in beating this content, it provides a self-esteem boost to you and your guild.
• We may be biased towards thinking that attractive people are good and kind. People often craft beautiful avatars to play as in MMORPGs, and being perceived as beautiful helps us to be more social and confident in the game. In-game markers of kindness such as mentor programmes also encourage us to be good and helpful people, and we are rewarded with mood-improving neurochemicals such as serotonin and dopamine.
• MMORPGs allow us to practice and ‘role-play’ aspects of ourselves that we would shy away from in real life. For example, I use MMORPGs to practice my leadership and management skills. Timid, overly conscientious players practicing leadership roles in MMORPGs can have benefits: evidence suggests that we work hard for and feel inspired by compassionate leaders.
• The recent success of WoW Classic indicates that players feel nostalgia towards their old MMORPG memories. When we recall these fond memories, they elicit feelings of happiness. To rekindle these fond social memories, players may return to WoW Classic in an attempt to get the old band back together or for the desire to make new friends and forge new happy memories.
• It is important to note that MMORPGs can be addictive. Please enjoy them responsibly and in moderation, and please seek help or support if you feel that you are playing them to an uncontrollable degree.

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