Skill-Based MMOs Good For Your Health?

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It is interesting that James just posted at Is it Skill Based Blog an article about his opinions and theories regarding skill-based MMOs. Just after I read it I saw a news clip pop up on the Yahoo! front page called Video game playing may fulfill innate human need. It is quite an interesting read, with studies showing that gaming can have a positive impact on a person in the short term. The study showed that players can boost their self esteem by gaining feelings of accomplishment by completing game challenges. The sentence that stuck out to me the most was “Players’ enjoyment of games depended on whether the games made them feel competent and independent, and, in the case of multiplayer games, connected to other players.” I purposely bolded two terms in that sentence because I believe that those firmly describe a skill-based MMO.

Sure, they can also describe level based MMOs, but the more independence the person has in the game, the better the effects on his or her overall well being will be. Veterans of MMOs may relate to this. We see this effect happening right now with World of Warcraft. The launch of The Burning Crusade expansion has put a queue back on my server. I haven’t seen a queue in over a year. Players who were previously burned out or just bored with WoW have come back. I’m one of those players. How many of you can vouch that by the time you completed your set of BWL armor you were just tired of the game, and didn’t feel as happy and fulfilled as you did when you first started playing?

The last skill-based MMO I played was Star Wars Galaxies. I can say I played for a year before getting a burned out feeling from Galaxies. However, the freedom I was allowed in a skill-based MMO to do as I pleased made that feeling go away pretty quickly. I switched professions, explored planets I didn’t visit too often, went on treasure hunts, made new friends, and even turned to politics. Each time I began to feel burned out, I was able to do something completely different and help bring my emotions back up. Up until the NGE that is, but that’s a different story.

Anyway, this study was published in the December 2006 issue of Motivation and Emotion, a worldwide psychological publication. The title of the study was “The Motivational Pull of Video Games: A Self-Determination Theory Approach” and I believe you can download the full text or pdf of that article here. I may be wrong, as I got it through my university’s academic resources. I’m planning on reading it tomorrow on the train as I head to class. I’ll post a follow up if I read anything else of interest in that study.

  • James

    I read the study this morning, had to log in to my Athens account.

    Its rather interesting, buy basic in performance. I know legeally they cannot test active players of WoW, but it would be more intreaguing.

  • Merlyn Gabriel

    Interesting article.

    I miss SWG, but not enough to go back. I miss the community and the friends I had there more than the actual game playing and since I hate being buggered about by companies SOE/LA blew it with me as a customer.

    Am very curious about firefly / Stargate mmorpgs due out sometime…

    For me such games are about socializing in a world where in real life I don’t get to do a lot of that for real, at the moment the forums have taken the game’s place.

    I think it would be very interesting to do some sort of a study on the communities the games create rather than just what the game is.

    Just look at Wanderhomies… that’s a home for many of us.

  • A Army Of (Cl)One

    I haven’t played many online games, except America’s Army (in the beginning it was hard to cheat, team PK were bumped and it is free), but after a while got tired of the 14 year olds trash talk. It is amazing how quickly you can figure someone age.

    As for the online gaming communities helping people feel connected, I am sure that happens. Just as blog communities form and you can feel connected. That is why many people join them. But over all I have to believe that the connectivity and community in gaming and online groups is the same as getting exercise from playing a Wii.

    As for our other conversation. I am in the trifecta of geekdom, SW, ST and LOTR. Also a PC gamer and would fall into your first category of Star Wars fans.