Expert opinion on the influences of bots on the economy and gaming enjoyment in mmorpgs Version dated 29 th March 2012 Compiled by Prof. Dr rer nat. Wolfgang Broll on behalf of Bossland GmbH
Use of bots to maintain and increase gaming enjoyment
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- 6.3. Use of bots to maintain social contacts
| 6.2. Use of bots to maintain and increase gaming enjoyment A large proportion of gaming for MMORPGs in general and for WoW in particular consists of performing repetitive tasks to increase the game avatar’s skills and finding and defeating software-controlled enemies. The objects are transferred into the possession of the player’s avatar by the virtual killing of these enemies. These objects typically include weapons, clothing, medicine and units of a virtual gaming currency. In the case of WoW, this currency is gold. These activities are extremely boring but necessary to achieve progress in the game in the form of increasing your own avatar’s skills on the one hand and the acquisition of virtual objects and virtual currency on the other. However, the repetitive performance of the same or similar tasks diminishes the gaming experience and gaming fun and is therefore not desirable from either the player’s or the developer’s point of view (see Bates 2008). Specifically, the ideal game flow is interrupted and the player becomes bored, i.e. the player’s motivation sinks rapidly (see also James, 2008) (see Fig. 2). Prof. Dr. W. Broll Gutachten zum Einfluss von Bots auf Spielspaß und Ökonomie in MMORPGS 17 Difficulty Frustration Game flow (1) (2) Boredom X Experience Fig. 2: Flow with recurring tasks without (1) and with (2) the use of a bot A bot can relieve the player of these tasks by continuously performing them – even if the player is not present. In this way, the software therefore takes over rather unattractive and boring tasks for the player whilst he can concentrate on more entertaining, interesting and challenging tasks during the time he has available. This means that although his virtual protagonist repeatedly leaves the ideal game flow, it appears to the player that he is constantly following the ideal game flow. 6.3. Use of bots to maintain social contacts As Lehdonvirta & Ernkvist in their report “Knowledge Map of the Virtual Economy by means of a case study on the topic of Purchasing virtual currency for World of Warcraft” impressively demonstrated in 2010, the motivation for players can, however, most definitely be of a different kind: in MMORPGs like WoW, many of the tasks/missions set cannot be solved by one player alone but require the co-operation of several players. Players join forces in more or less fixed groups, in WoW in so-called guilds. It can be assumed that for a player who is accepted into a guild, the other members and remaining in the guild as well as other group activities become important in the course of solving several tasks together. However, it is unavoidable that individual players cannot play to the usual extent for a certain period of time for professional or private reasons or because of illness. Their development in relation to experience and thus also the skills of their protagonist do not keep pace with those of other group members as a result. Since tasks/missions are typically designed so that players acting together all reach the same or at least a similar development level, a longer absence from the gaming world means that the player cannot take part in the group tasks/missions or only to a limited extent (see Prof. Dr. W. Broll Gutachten zum Einfluss von Bots auf Spielspaß und Ökonomie in MMORPGS 18 Fig. 3) 1 . Whilst such effects are by all means tolerated temporarily to a certain extent by a group, or the player is perhaps even actively helped by being given objects or virtual currency (Chen & Duh 2007), this is of course not an acceptable state of affairs in the long term. Rather it causes dissatisfaction for both sides and often leads to a Difficulty Frustration Game flow Return of the player X Group development level Boredom Experience player leaving or even being excluded from the respective group. It can be presumed that such players often leave the game completely due to the lack of gaming enjoyment and the loss of the other players. Fig. 3: Flow in player groups and discrepancies in experience on returning to the difficulty level of the other group members following an absence Difficulty Frustration Difficulty of the task Game flow X X Boredom Experience Fig. 4: Flow in player groups and discrepancies in experience when individual players have different amounts of time available to play 1 In WoW, for example, a certain experience level is a prerequisite for involvement in certain missions Prof. Dr. W. Broll Gutachten zum Einfluss von Bots auf Spielspaß und Ökonomie in MMORPGS 19 The alternative here is the acquisition of corresponding objects or virtual currency by using additional real money. As Heeks showed in 2009, the uncontrolled RMT market as it exists, for example, for WoW is definitely off-putting for many players due to the associated uncertainties. In such and comparable situations, bots represent virtually the only possibility of catching up with the current state of the player group and thus to maintain both social contacts and gaming enjoyment. These findings can also be generalised insofar that within groups, individual players have at least temporarily different amounts of time and thus possibilities for gaining experience available. This can ultimately lead to such heterogeneity within a group that it will fall apart (see Fig. 4). This effect can be countered through targeted RMT and botting. Since players pay to use bots, the scarce amount of time available for proceeding within the game is actually substituted for money by means of bot use, a process which is also common in daily life. If a landowner has no time to look after the lawn or he finds doing so boring, he employs a gardener or uses a lawnmowing robot. This principle is used intensively in many online games, in both MMORPGs and even more in social games, and in the case of the free-to-play approach even represents the core of the business model. Download 0.78 Mb. Share with your friends:
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