Prof. Dr. W. Broll
Gutachten zum Einfluss von Bots auf Spielspaß und Ökonomie in MMORPGS
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Popular and commercially successful games are normally designed for several thousand or more players who can be online simultaneously (Chan & Vorderer 2006). The currently
most successful MMORPG, at times with more than 12 million subscribers worldwide (Blizzard 2010), is World of Warcraft (abbreviated here to WoW,
see Blizzard Entertainment 2012).
Complex MMORPGs are mostly installed on the computers used for playing and have a persistent gaming world with high-quality graphic design (see Yee 2006a); this means that players register for the game and log in to use it. The gaming world continues to exist even if a certain player does not take any active part in it at a certain point in time as it is populated at this particular point in time by other players. The game can therefore be used for a long time – theoretically for an infinite period of time – without the gaming world ceasing to exist. In the gaming world, which is supposedly based on the real world in terms of its physical (e.g. flora, fauna,
physical laws such as gravity, etc., see Chan &
Vorderer 2006) and economic (see Castronova 2006) properties, players interact and collaborate by means of avatars (gaming figures, see Yee 2006b, Chan & Vorderer 2006).
An avatar represents a player in the game by means of a virtual character. This can be controlled by the player in various ways predetermined by the game provider (walking, flying,
swimming, etc.).
In many cases, the use of MMORPGs involves paying a fee. One-off payments to buy the game are just as much a possibility as subscriptions and combinations of both revenue models. In the case
of the main MMORPG examined, Blizzard Entertainment’s World-of-
Warcraft, a monthly subscription is required for online access to the gaming world in most countries.
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