Is Online-Gaming for Business or Pleasure? Adam Pyszkowski Tony Zhe Richard Thompson

Presentation Outline 1.The Social Impacts of Online Gaming 2.Virtual Economy and Business Model 3.Motivations and Crime 4.Conclusion

What are Virtual Worlds and MMORPG? Massively Multiplayer Online Role Play Game Fantasy life becomes real Large number of subscribers Asia the main players but growing worldwide Virtual Worlds Virtual reality environments Players choose a physical self called an avatar Engage in meaningful activities

What Happening with Online Gaming? More popular than TV Replace real job with a virtual job Retail product to blockbuster movie

MMORPG is a Social Activity Source: Yee, N. (2006).

Its Not All Fun and Games Lifes a game but the game can be a life Spend more time online then at work Health problems The story never ends Addiction problems can lead to death Website for online gaming anonymous Failing education is a concern

Virtual Economy

What is a Virtual Economy? A Virtual Economy (or sometimes synthetic economy) is an emergent economy existing in a virtual persistent world, usually in the context of an Internet game Source:

New Market Places Gold Farming and virtual item trade Virtual objects are sold for real money to the tune of at least $100m a year It has become a real market Inflation in WoW 1 st half of 2005, gold price drop from $0.6 to $0.1

Real Market Place World of Warcraft Gold Price Graph:1st Half 2005 Source : warcraft-gold.htm

Business Models

Game Running Company Persistent Charge Free Online Game (Popular in China nearly 100 games are free) No entry cost No persistent charge Charge extra serves (such as selling special items) Reasons Increasing competitions New online games published every month Number of players lost when game start to charge money Keep basic number of online players to increase potential paying players

Players or Small Groups Individual RMT in MMOG Selling virtual items or gold Gold Farmer Farming virtual gold for real currency Substitute Playing Spend time to build a virtual character for customer character pay money for characters fees depend on the top level or how long it will take some of them have contract to restrict serves

Players or Small Groups Example of substitute playing Very popular in China According to the AD at 5173.com, In WoW Any characters, Any severs 0-60 level 13 days and 12 hours 1280 Yuan / £ 85

Middleman Between the farmers and vendors Offer players a platform Charge money from trade Reasons:- help farmers to avoid process of finding vendors less frauds than individual trade international trade e.g.. IGE, 5172.COM

International Marketplace Source :

Motivations and Crime on MMORPG

Reason For Play Social Reasons Escape from Reality Pass the time Fulfil Aspiration e.g. To be a Gangster… online identity in a gamer community is often tied to the quest for the achievement of the unattainable Source: Beudrillard, 1998 Financial Reasons

Reason for Online Gaming 54% Played for fun 17% Played to relive stress 15% Play to escape reality 8% Didnt have a reason why they played 6% Played for a mixture of social interaction, monetary gain and various others. Source:

Virtual Crime A virtual crime refers to a virtual criminal act that takes place in a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), usually an MMORPG Source: Steal virtual property – sell to highest bidder Build characters with intent to sell

Types of Crime Phishing: Gain artefacts through deception Bugs and Attacks Virtual Mugging Racial Hatred

Possible Solution Create specialised internet laws and police Games developers group together to make standardised rules to MMORPG games Changes Being Made! South Korea created new task force US Government Investigating Online Gaming

Conclusion Positive social impacts on user Decrease of market value Fun

Any Questions?