Abstract Trouble in River City: The Social Life of video games by

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Online Gaming Demographics

National adult sample, respondents who answered yes to “ever play a game online?”
All users	37%
Men	37%
Women	38%
Whites	34%
Blacks	48%
Hispanics	54%
18-29	52%
30-49	34%
50-64	28%
65+	38%
Note. Data were collected by the Pew Internet and American Life Project in June and July, 2002.

What we do know about MMRPG players comes from a handful of available self-selected surveys. What is clear is that the typical MMRPG player is older than the average gamer, and that while general online gaming has no gender gap, MMRPG players are overwhelmingly male. In an ongoing series of surveys, Yee (2001; 2002) has found that MMRPG players are roughly 85% male. The mean male player is in his mid 20s, while the mean female player is 30. Griffiths et al (2003) and Kline & Arlidge (2002) found similar numbers in their investigation of EverQuest players, but the firm PCData has estimated that one quarter of MMRPG players are women (Laber, 2001). Yee also found that female players were far more likely to be married and have children, and played with a romantic partner at a rate four times greater than men. Within the games, men are more likely to favor weapons and technology and competitiveness than women (Kline & Arlidge, 2002). The average number of hours played for the three most popular MMRPGs is about 20 per week (N. Yee, 2002). Due to the fairly complex nature of m ost MMRPGs’ interfaces, it can be inferred that players are relatively expert and comfortable with PCs. This further suggests that the demographic profile skews t
Figure C. Players interact with Sandpeople in Star Wars Galaxies. Image from www.starwarsgalaxies.com.
o the wealthier and more educated, so it is not surprising that approximately 50% of players have an undergraduate degree (M. D. Griffiths et al., 2003).

Analysts and developers agree that the long-term profitability of the MMRPG industry rests on moving the games from this relatively small, hardcore audience to the more mainstream one captured by the rest of the game industry (P. Loftus, 2003). But based on the culture of the industry described earlier in this work, there are significant barriers in place, starting with designers who make games for designers and not the general public. This, and other basic organizational and management flaws continue to plague the industry (Mulligan & Petrovsky, 2003). Cases in point were the much-hyped release of two games thought to bring MMRPGs to the masses, The Sims Online and Star Wars Galaxies, both of which fell short of expectations. Each title built on a well-established brand, but failed in some other key aspect. The Sims Online featured repetitive tasks as its main game play element, leading to this kind of review: a “one-word take on ‘The Sims Online’: boring. ‘My screen-saver is more entertaining’” (Pham, 2003b)(p. C1). And despite the tremendous excitement and potential user base of Star Wars fans (J. C. Herz, 2002a; Nguyen, 2002), Galaxies also featured repetitive tasks and significant software bugs. As Au put it, “What if they gave a world and nobody came?” (Au, 2002)

The flaws point out major challenges facing the genre. Without compelling interactions with other players, will people stay in the game? And with no clear end-game, i.e. no way to “win,” will people still play (Herold, 2003)? Since most MMRPG titles have little in the way of a motivating dramatic structure (Klug, 2002), the content and social life of the game must be compelling enough to make it worth playing, regardless of the bells and whistles and setting (Kim, 2000). As one gamer said, “[meeting new people is] the most interesting aspect of the game. This gives it a social dimension. There’s another person behind every character” (Pham, 2003b)(p. C1).

Research shows that social interactions are the main draw for MMRPGs (M. D. Griffiths et al., 2003; Kline & Arlidge, 2002) and it follows that games that have compelling content and vibrant social communities, such as EverQuest and Dark Ages of Camelot, have grown their subscriber bases and been profitable. Given that previous generations of games with no explicit social function have become popular sites of social interaction, it should not be surprising that games with built-in sociability should be more appealing still. A literature scholar described MMRPGs as a “highly social form of collaborative fiction” (Pearce, 2001)(p. 3). In South Korea, where broadband access is cheaper and more common than in the U.S., MMRPGs are a social and mainstream entertainment medium (Belson & Richtel, 2003; Stewart & Choi, 2002). The most popular title has three million players, and gaming is a highly public activity (J. C. Herz, 2002b).

Whether mainstream U.S. titles will acquire these features remains to be seen. What can be said with certainty is that there is a spectrum of game content within the MMRPG market. On one end are highly entertaining, more social and successful games, and on the other end are mundane, asocial and unsuccessful games. The vibrant and successful games have the potential for positive social effects, while the others may well bring null results or even negative effects.

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