As I play more and more… and more and more, I finally understand why so many different people play this game. It’s addictive.
But, that is not what I want to talk about today. One component I have seen in the game is higher level characters helping lower level characters with quests, instances, and grinding. There are even the people who randomly buff (positively enchant) players they pass, and do not even talk to them. Buy why? Why is there this general sense of generosity that exists all throughout the game?
A player on The Daedalus Project said, “From my 4 or 5 years MMOG experience Id say that simply helping others is the most memorable thing you can do.” The site continues on with a comparison between the virtual MMO worlds and the real worlds. It claims,
“The other category revolves around being helped by a stranger in a time of great need. Typically, a lot of time investment, risk or trust is needed during these events. In real life, many friendships are solidified through a series of favors or repaid debts because they signify a sharing of trust and understanding. The difference is that crises are far and few between in our everyday lives, so it takes months if not years for those kinds of relationships to solidify, whereas MMORPGs are designed to be dangerous worlds where crises occur frequently.”
Basically saying that the game world is (at least partially) designed to allow higher level users to help the lower level users with ease.
The Daedalus Project continues its comparison between helping people IRL and helping people in the virtual world. The site claims that "Most MMORPGs on the other hand are designed to contain many everyday inconveniences. You need a travel ability to travel long distances. You need someone to rez you. More importantly, MMORPGs empower users to help each other. You can heal someone who is about to die. You can craft a component another player needs. You can root a mob long enough for the player to escape. Thus, MMORPGs empower players to help each other in a way that is often difficult in real life." This is a very interesting concept; the game designs certain fun things that only prohibit players to help each other. MMORPGs remove much of the ambiguity and danger of altruism. A kind of social engineering occurs in MMORPG by restructuring the rules and expectations of how and when people can help each other.
The altruistic nature is indeed important to how MMO games function, but there are always the players who are greedy, unappreciative and ask for more help. Basically asking for an inch and taking a mile. There are also the players who refuse to help, (or perhaps help for monentary gain). But, this is human nature, and one would not have the good helpers without having a definition of a bad helper (or helper).
1 comment:
This is an intriguing line of inquiry--for what reasons do players choose to help others? Daedelus respondants seem to indicate, according to your analysis, that the game itself it set up to encourage such behavior. As such, does this make players actions _less_ altruistic, that is, because its easier, does that somehow lessen the power of the acts players' avatars commit? Because you find it easier to take a moment and heal someone who is about to die, does that make the act of saving them a long corpse run less important than stopping to warn someone about a dangerous situation in real life?
As you note, "MMORPGs remove much of the ambiguity and danger of altruism." As such, are we left with a pale imitation of RL, or can we instead counter by saying that the greater frequency of altruism in game suggests simply that humans in general assess a wide variety of factors when deciding whether to be altruistic, and the game mechanics simply reveal that self-interest is always an important element of those considerations. When the game removes some of the barriers relating to self-injury (like being able to heal from 30 or 40 yards away while the other player is still deeply engaged in a fight), we can see more clearly the relative weight many people give to self-interest.
This is an excellent line of inquiry and might very well become a section of the final essay. Keep working on it.
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