37 research outputs found
Surveillant assemblages of governance in massively multiplayer online games:a comparative analysis
This paper explores governance in Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), one sub-sector of the digital games industry. Informed by media governance studies, Surveillance Studies, and game studies, this paper identifies five elements which form part of the system of governance in MMOGs. These elements are: game code and rules; game policies; company community management practices; player participatory practices; and paratexts. Together these governance elements function as a surveillant assemblage, which relies to varying degrees on lateral and hierarchical forms of surveillance, and the assembly of human and nonhuman elements.Using qualitative mixed methods we examine and compare how these elements operate in three commercial MMOGs: Eve Online, World of Warcraft and Tibia. While peer and participatory surveillance elements are important, we identified two major trends in the governance of disruptive behaviours by the game companies in our case studies. Firstly, an increasing reliance on automated forms of dataveillance to control and punish game players, and secondly, increasing recourse to contract law and diminishing user privacy rights. Game players found it difficult to appeal the changing terms and conditions and they turned to creating paratexts outside of the game in an attempt to negotiate the boundaries of the surveillant assemblage. In the wider context of self-regulated governance systems these trends highlight the relevance of consumer rights, privacy, and data protection legislation to online games and the usefulness of bringing game studies and Surveillance Studies into dialogue
Behaviour-Based Cheat Detection in Multiplayer Games with Event-B
Cheating is a key issue in multiplayer games as it causes unfairness which reduces legitimate users' satisfaction and is thus detrimental to game revenue. Many commercial solutions prevent cheats by reacting to speci c implementations of cheats. As a result, they respond more slowly to fast-changing cheat techniques. This work proposes a framework using Event-B to describe and detect cheats from server-visible game behaviours. We argue that this cheat detection is more resistant to changing cheat technique
Integrating Players, Reputation and Ranking to Manage Cheating in MMOGs
In this paper, we propose an approach that uses in-game
reputation as a solution to the problem of cheating in massively
multiplayer online games. What constitutes cheating
is however quite context-specific and subjective, and there is
no universal view. Thus our approach aims to adjust to the
particular forms of cheating to which players object rather
than deciding a priori which forms of cheating should be
controlled.
The main feature of our approach is an architecture and
model for maintaining player-based and context-appropriate
trust and reputation measures, with the integration of these
into the game’s ranking system. When an avatar loses reputation,
our approach intervenes to reduce its ranking. It
is envisaged that players will come to attach value to reputation
in its own right. We also present the results of relatively
large-scale simulations of various scenarios involving
sequences of encounters between players, with an initial implementation
of our reputation and ranking model in place,
to observe the impact on cheaters (and non-cheaters)
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MOTIVATIONS FOR SOCIAL NETWORK SITE (SNS) GAMING: A USES AND GRATIFICATION & FLOW PERSPECTIVE
The penetration of the internet, smart-phones and tablets has witnessed tremendous increase in the number of people playing online games in the past few years. Social networking site (SNS) games are a subset of digital games. They are platform based, multiplayer and reveal the real identity of the player. These games are hosted on social networks such as Facebook, where in people play with many other players online. The risks associated with social network gaming are addiction, theft, fraud, loneliness, anxiety, aggression, poor academic performance, cognition distortion etc. This study aims to understand the user motivations to continue to play social networking games and spread a word of mouth for these games. To understand this phenomenon, Uses and Gratification theory (U&G) along with flow and immersion have been considered as the antecedents. A total of 242 respondents comprising of 125 participants who play social networking games and 117 participants who do not play social networking games completed the survey. This aided in understanding the participants’ motivations and inhibitions towards playing social networking games. The present findings indicate that gratifications, flow and immersion are significantly related to the continuance motivation, which in turn is significantly related to word of mouth
Analysis domain model for shared virtual environments
The field of shared virtual environments, which also
encompasses online games and social 3D environments, has a
system landscape consisting of multiple solutions that share great functional overlap. However, there is little system interoperability between the different solutions. A shared virtual environment has an associated problem domain that is highly complex raising difficult challenges to the development process, starting with the architectural design of the underlying system. This paper has two main contributions. The first contribution is a broad domain analysis of shared virtual environments, which enables developers to have a better understanding of the whole rather than the part(s). The second contribution is a reference domain model for discussing and describing solutions - the Analysis Domain Model
"We Will Always Be One Step Ahead of Them" A Case Study on the Economy of Cheating in MMORPGs
Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) are a sub-sector
of virtual worlds that share with other worlds the characteristics of both complex
technological systems and complex societies. The success of several MMORPGs
makes them a vibrant area for research from different points of view, including their
economic aspects (Castronova, 2005). Our research is mainly concerned with the
practice of cheating in MMORPGs and its consequences.
In this paper we explore the economic dimensions of cheating in MMORPGs as
they relate to the business activities of companies that offer cheating software, in
particular programs called 'bots'. Specifically, we address the following question:
"How do cheating practices shape economic interactions around MMORPGs?" We
characterize the economy of cheating (as it is carried out by cheating companies) as
an answer to breakdowns in the relationship between cheaters and cheating
companies (Winograd and Flores, 1987; Akrich, 1992), which involves both
learning and innovation processes. In order to answer our question we present a
case study of the Tibia (http://www.tibia.com) and an ongoing anti-cheating
campaign. In the conclusion of the paper we provide some general reflections on the
relevance of the economy of cheating to Virtual Worlds research