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Daedalus Project MMO Survey Updated
Nick Yee writes "The Daedalus Project, an ongoing online survey study of MMORPG players that started 4 years ago and has surveyed over 30,000 players, has published presentations of new findings, including whether players get more frustrated in MMOs or everyday life, quotes from players discussing why they play online games, and a statistical ranking of the motivations for MMORPG players. There's also a new multiple-choice survey MMO gamers can fill out."
The drive for me has always been to find something new or interesting to do or try. It is amazing how often that games try to hide old material with a smatter of different pixels. That is why I am always looking for a new game to play, I want something that will provide something new and different. I don't want to got from kill 200 zombies, level up, now kill 200 ghouls!
Well, I played Diablo II(I know it's not an MMORPG, read on) since about 2 months before the Lord of Destruction expansion came out for around 2 years, I had some strong characters on the USWest realm and I finally got tired of it after 2 years because of having 2 of every characters at level 99, and the economy went to heck back then.
Now I started playing a MMORPG that was originally korean or chinese or something, but a few months ago went global and is free (for now), it is called MUOnline and at first glance I thought something like this "hm...Diablo II, worse grahpics, FREE!, more than 8 players per server" and now I play it, what do I do there? well, at first I killed spiders, then budge dragons, then bull fighters, then elite bull fighters, then beetle monsters...you get the picture, but it's still fun, both games consist of about the same thing and look similar and are all about clicking on monsters over and over and over again until they die, level up, move on to stronger monster, but people find that fun especially when you have hours of time to waste, and I find it fun too.
Now, that's what people basically want now-adays from MMORPGs, (well, free ones, if compared to a p2p MMORPG MUOnline would be considered 1/50th as good), now comparing MU to D2 I can say this, most of the interface is similar, most of the basic game functions are too, but there are ofcourse some new stuff, such as obviously the more than 8 players per server thing, as well as things like the specific classes (which may be similar in concept, but have a new look and name), the specific weapons...but overall the game is about the same, it was popular back then, it's popular now (did I mention it's free?).
Four years? 30,000 players? Thats an average of 7,500 people surveyed each year on average. I know this doesn't exactly have the mass hordes of telephone callers like political parties, but that few responses? You'd think they woulda established some kinda method over that time, maybe streamlined the survey, or at least gotten more people. Or just hire some people in Korea and have them conduct surveys there, the number of responses would probably skyrocket.
The Following is what I found to be the most interesting item within the study.
"When we take a step back, it seems odd that the very people who find so much value in one game deny any value to other kind of games considering that all games at an abstract level are goals defined in the context of arbitrary rules".
Over the years I have been hounded by friends and family about the amount of time I spend playing video games. I'm sure the things I hear are the same as what other game players hear... "You need to get outside more" , "Why do you always have your nose stuck in your computer, those things are bad for you" etc...
A good example would be my brother. He is an avid fisherman as am I, however there are a lot of times when he'll go everyday for months on end. I work and can't do that, and even if I could I wouldn't. I have set at home before and played computer fishing games when it was too hot out, or I simply didn't feel like going and doing the real thing. I really enjoy the competition in some of these games. My brother doesn't get it at all, his normal response is to roll his eyes and state "I get high on the real thing"!
There really isn't much difference between the feeling a sportsman gets bagging a trophy fish or animal and the joy I get finding a new +7 iron crossbow with 60 poison damage. Both of these things can be shown off, he shows off his trophy to people that come to his house and I show off my new crossbow to all of my online friends that I play MMORPG's with.
I guess my point is "don't let people put you down or get you down because you spend hours a week playing electronic games". A lot of these same people spend several hours a week playing softball and/or bowling/golf/billiards/darts and they are in "leagues" just as we are in "Clans" or "Guilds". MMORPGs are a great social output with tons of possibilities, just give it a shot and ignore all those that consider it a "waste of time".
Jay Dale "If you're not living on the edge then you're taking up too much space!"