Transcript GroupEgaming

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?
 Virtual Worlds
• Virtual reality environments
• Players choose a physical self called an ‘avatar’
• Engage in meaningful activities
 Massively Multiplayer Online Role Play Game
• Fantasy life becomes real
• Large number of subscribers
• Asia the main players but growing worldwide
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
Percentage of Respondents
70
60
50
MALE
FEMALE
40
30
20
10
0
12-17
18-22
23-28
Age Ranges
29-35
>35
Source: “Yee, N. (2006).”
Online gamers who agreed that their
MMORPG friends were comparable
to or better then their real-life friends
Its Not All Fun and Games
 Life’s 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: “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_economy”
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
• 1st half of 2005, gold price drop from
• $0.6 to $0.1
Real Market Place
Source : “http://www.gameusd.com/world-ofwarcraft-gold.htm ”
World of Warcraft Gold Price Graph:1st Half 2005
Business Models
Game Running Company
 Persistent Charge
 Free Online Game
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•
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(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
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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
e.g.. IGE, 5172.COM




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
International Marketplace
Source : www.ige.com
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% Didn’t have a reason why they played
6% Played for a mixture of social interaction,
monetary gain and various others.
Source: “www.misterpoll.com”
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: www.wikipedia.com
 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?