Engaged to Learn? Study Shows MMORPGs Rule

I corresponded recently with Dr. Joshua Smyth over at Syracuse’s Dept. of Psychology, who graciously sent me a copy of his most recent paper concerning research regarding MMORPGs and their influence on college students.

Dr. Smyth set up an experiment with 100 college students, and divided them equally into four groups. Each group he asked to play a different genre of videogames for a month. One group was given a batch of tokens and asked to play the games of their choice in a traditional video arcade. Another group was given access to PlayStation 2 consoles to play Gauntlet: Dark Legacy. The third group was given Diablo II for the PC. The fourth group played the MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot. To guard against self-selection bias, group assignments were randomized. All participants were given free access to games and equipment (arcade players got tokens). A month later, Dr. Smyth checked back on the participants.

Dr. Smyth was interested in tracking changes among the participants in the following areas: the number of hours participants played their games the last week of the study; overall health; quality of sleep; perceived academic performance; perceived social life; overall well being; how much they enjoyed playing the games; the likelihood participants would continue playing the games; how much they felt the games interfered in their social lives; how much they felt the games interfered with their academic performance; and if they were able to make new friends over the month of game play.

The findings are fascinating. The last week of the study, arcade players played the least, on average, number of hours: 2.1. Console players were next at 3.4. Computer game players were second highest at 6.2 while the MMORPG players were highest at 14.4.

Other factors were self rated from 0 to 6, with 0 being not at all and 6 being very good. The findings were most interesting surrounding reporting by subjects in the MMORPG group. These players had the highest average game enjoyment score at 4.4. They showed the highest likelihood to continue playing the game after the study. They also indicated they had made more friends than participants in the other groups, although these were online friendships rather than face to face.

Conversely, the MMORPG players rated themselves least in overall health. They also rated themselves lowest in quality of sleep, social life, and perceived academic performance. Incongruently, they averaged highest in feeling that their gaming did not interfere with academics. Dr. Smyth speculated this might have something to do with the short one month time span the study covered and college students’ propensity toward time-shifting priorities and recreational pursuits.

The quantitative finding that the MMORPG group spent more time playing is most intriguing. Dr. Smyth does a good job of covering the research indicating potential benefits for MMORPGs, and the potential negative aspects. Those players with a predilection toward excessive online use may find a mare’s nest in MMORPGs. Conversely, game play in general, and MMORPG play in particular, may have a variety of attributes from which players can benefit including overall improvement in their well-being and various medical and social interactions that are helpful.

My take: with the increased complexity of each game came the corresponding remarkable self scoring. Speaking in broad generalizations, arcades comprise the traditional land of “low thought needed” videogames. Home consoles, with notable exceptions, are often just a step above traditional quarter arcade games. Large budget PC games are often considerably more complex, with MMORPGs and other virtual worlds ranking as the most complex, the most time spent creating and maintaining, and (obviously) the most time played. Online social interactions, so often noted and of such interest to many researchers, add to the complexity of MMORPGs because the human element is the most complex and mysterious of all gaming components.

Thus, increased complexity leads to higher engagement, and higher satisfaction with the game. This is certainly an important piece of knowledge educational game makers should take from the research.

References
Smyth, J. M. (2007). Beyond self-selection in video game play: An experimental examination of the consequences of massively multiplayer online role-playing game play. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10(5), 717-721.