I’m not a frequent MMOG player. The one MMOG game I played so far is an online racing game called PopKart. Originally named Crazyracing Kartrider, the game is a hit in Korea and China as well as some Southeast Asian countries. It is currently not officially released in North America. Since it is not as popular and well-known as WOW, I would like to give a brief introduction to those who are not familiar with the game. Popkart is an online multiplayer racing game that has managed to get well over 230 million users playing (although I seriously doubt the accuracy of the statistic). The game earns revenues by selling virtual items in the in-game shop, including different types of vehicle and body paint. The game has an estimated 30 million users in Korean along. Its Chinese version, Popkart, is ranked number one MMOG game in China. The game is once reported to have a record 800,000 players log into the game at the same time. My experience with online virtual worlds is equally limited. Second Life is the one I played most so far. My experience in second life is largely associated with school projects. I was participated in some argument reality performance projects that utilize second life as virtual stage. Beyond that, I seldom played the game for recreational purpose. Even among the limited time I had in Second Life, I spent most of them on educational islands like NASA and Space museum.
But even with my limited experience with both MMOG and virtual world, when place PopKart and SL side by side and compare the two, I can still see clear different between the two. The difference range from game genre, objectives, rules all the way to the way players doing social interactions with others.
Taylor argues that multiuser games offer their players with interpersonal pleasures by allowing online interaction of connecting with other people, forming relationships and maintaining relationship. This is largely true to both PopKart and Second Life. But under this broad definition of social interaction is the fact that these two games have dramatically different ways of implementing it. Although Popkart also features places like chat rooms for players to socialize among themselves, it can be argued that people come to this game to race against others. Within the game the objective is very clear: you race, you win, you gain points, you spend points on upgrades and you go out to win more races. (Both PopKart and Second Life have monetary system and both are connected to the real-world monetary). This simple loop can get very addictive but that is not the point for discussion at here. The point is, the game has a clear objective for players to achieve. A gamer begins to play the game with that objective in mind until he/she is done with the game. However, this is hardly the case for the players in Second life. Second Life has no specific objectives that players need to achieve. The game set no goals, no schedule or end point. This is a common feature for online virtual worlds. For players that are used to MMOG such as WOW, this goal-less virtual environment is indeed hard to adjust to at first. Morningstar and Farmer, for example, pointed out that online virtual world such as Habitat don’t come with a fixed set of objectives for its inhabitants and allows players to pursuit a variety of activities that they want to pursuit after. Among this variety of activities that is available within Second Life, however, a major portion is about social interaction. Like Curtis points out in the article about social phenomenon in virtual realities, virtual realities provide a necessary social outlet. Second Life in this sense is obvious not different from other virtual worlds. As some seasoned SL players may remind you, second life is not a game; it is a universe of its own.
Mnookin, in her article about virtual Law in LambdaMOO, points out virtual worlds develops both social structure and legal order. Like in the real world, these rules and laws are constantly evolving in response to the dynamically changing world and to response to such as Mr. Bungle incident in LambdaMOO, as described by Dibbell in A Rape in Cyberspace. Both PopKart and Second life are guarded by such orders, although the laws being enforced in both game are different in many ways due to the different subject matters the games are dealing with, many of them are common and can be found in virtually all online games. There are rules against botting (a rampant issue for PopKart), illegal transaction and indecency behaviors, both verbal and physical. For the difference, Popkart has a ranking system based on player’s experience points, higher points are usually associated with better equipment and fancier cars. But in second life, players don’t earn points (correct me if I’m wrong). And one’s achievement can be hardly measured by another one’s standard. And the fact that in both games players can spend real-world money to buy things in the virtual world has further blur the boundary.
Second Life is all about user-create contents. Customization is at the core of the game. As soon as a player begins to play the game, the journey of customization begins. Just like in Sims, Second life allows players to design how he/she looks, body shape and the cloth to be worn. Giving how ugly the “default” character looks, it is clear that SL encourages and even “force” players to customize and personalize their avatars. And customization of avatars is just a small part of the game’s scheme for user-create contents. Users can create contents ranging from cloths to items, character animations to even a whole virtual university campus (if you are good at modeling). This is what Pearce describes as the concept of “productive play” where players are not only the passive recipient of the game but as the significant contributors to the game’s contents (Pearce, 19). The same player-contribution exists in PopKart as well but in very different ways. Players can only choose from limited number of characters s their avatar. There are no options to fine-tune the appearance of the avatar. On the other hand, since the game is about racing, it offers endless car modification options from engine upgrades to special edition of body paints. These modifications however can be only purchased with in-game points or real- world money. Players can’t simply create their own modification and upload to the game, like what you can easily do in Second Life.
References:
Curtis P. Mudding: Social Phenomena in Text-Based Virtual Realities.
Dibbell, Julian. (1993/1998). A Rape in Cyberspace.
Farmer, R. & Morningstar, C. (1990/1991). The Lesson of LucasArts Habitat.
Mnookin, J. (1996) Virtual(ly) Law: The Emergence of Law in LambdaMOO. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication: Volume 2, Number 1: Part 1 of a Special Issue, June 1996.
Pearce, C. (2006). "Productive Play: Game Culture from the Bottom Up." Games & Culture. Volume 1, Issue 1. 1-8.
Taylor T.L. (2003). Multiple Pleasures: Women and Online Gaming. Convergence, Vol. 9, No. 1, 21-46.
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