Crashing a virtual funeral: morality in MMORPGs

Luck, Morgan

doi:10.1108/14779960911004516

Cited by 14 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 10 publications

(8 reference statements)

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“…In a method based broadly on moral foundations vignettes [11; see also 21], participants were then presented with four vignettes that each described a controversial scenario in a game, and participants' ethical judgments on these cases were explored. The vignettes in this study were written based on four controversial cases of play in gaming forums and the media that cover a range of acts, platforms and game genres: (1) in-game scamming in a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) [27]; (2) group-based griefing of an in-game event on a social virtual platform [20,24]; (3) 'virtual groping' in a virtual reality (VR) game [7,36]; and (4) refusing to switch characters in a team-based FPS [15]. Thematic analysis of the interview transcripts using NVivo was chosen as the most suitable method for data analysis given the exploratory nature of the study.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Apathetic Villagers and the Trolls Who Love Them

Sparrow

Gibbs

Arnold

2019

Proceedings of the 31st Australian Conference on Human-Computer-Interaction

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Players are sometimes understood to hold an 'amoral' stance in games, morally disengaging from game content and in-game player behaviours because 'it's just a game'. This amorality is often seen as problematic and in need of refuting or amendment, particularly if we wish to encourage more ethical play online. However, few studies have approached a theory of player amorality from the player's perspective in multiplayer games. This study aims to address this gap by conducting 20 in-depth interviews with a wide range of multiplayer game-players, exploring players' ethical views towards problematic or disruptive in-game behaviours. Preliminary results show that while players do exhibit a certain amorality regarding in-game actions, players express, justify and explain this amorality in a variety of considered ways that go beyond notions of 'it's just a game' and the 'sociopathic griefer', and step outside the framework of moral disengagement. This paper puts forward a preliminary framework of player amorality termed 'Apathetic Villager Theory', encapsulated by six key attitudes/themes that highlight the nuances involved in the (un)ethical standpoints of a range of players. It is hoped that this framework will be useful in approaching and responding to player amorality in a way that gives due recognition of the various voices and understandings involved in multiplayer digital gameplay.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Apathetic Villagers and the Trolls Who Love Them

Sparrow

Gibbs

Arnold

2019

Proceedings of the 31st Australian Conference on Human-Computer-Interaction

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“…Just as players can form meaningful interpersonal relationships and communities in the virtual environments of online games, those relationships and communities can be affected by antisocial behavior within the game environments. One prominent anecdotal example of the extent to which virtual relationships in online games can be disrupted by antisocial behavior occurred in the online role-playing game World of Warcraft in 2006, where players assembling to memorialize a recently deceased player found their game characters ambushed by another group of players (Luck, 2009). Many other anecdotes in virtual worlds recount similar instances of "griefing," or prankish behavior that disrupts others' game play experiences and may cause financial or other material loss (Bakioglu, 2008).…”

Section: Online Relationships In Virtual Environments and The Role Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harsh Words and Deeds: Systematic Content Analyses of Offensive* User Behavior in the Virtual Environments of Online First-Person Shooter Games

Ivory¹,

Ivory

et al. 2017

JVWR

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While the virtual environments of online games can foster healthy relationships and strong communities, some online games are also marred by antisocial and offensive behavior. Such behavior, even when relatively rare, influences the interactions and relationships of users in online communities. Thus, understanding the prevalence and nature of antisocial and offensive behaviors in online games is an important step toward understanding the full spectrum of healthy and unhealthy interactions and relationships in virtual environments. Extensive research has explored video game content produced by game developers, such as violence, profanity, and sexualized portrayals, but much less research has systematically examined potentially problematic content produced by players in online games. While potential effects of antisocial and offensive online game content are not well understood, a first step toward exploring this concern is systematic documentation of offensive usergenerated content in online games. To that end, two large-scale content analyses measured a range of 1 This paper contains strong language which may be offensive to some readers. offensive user-generated content, including utterances, text, and images, from a total of more than 2,500 users in popular first-person shooter video games. Findings indicated that some content, such as profanity, was frequent among users who spoke during games. More offensive and potentially harmful content, such as racial slurs, was proportionally very rare, but frequent enough to be encountered often by regular players. Results of this initial investigation should be interpreted tentatively, do not suggest that relationships in online shooter games lack healthy elements, and should not be generalized to other online game communities until further research is conducted.User names. For player names, coded variables assessed presence or absence of sexual references, references to drugs and alcohol, overall profanity, "seven dirty words" and other strong profanity, mild profanity, and slurs related to race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. User emblems.Coded variables for customized player emblems assessed images including the same variables as for player names, but with sexual reference categories including overall sexual references, mild sexual references, and explicit sexual references, and with a coded category for insults also included.Coding and reliability. For utterance variables, the unit of analysis for the study was the online speech from each of the 1,866 individual players appearing in the study, and the unit of enumeration was the total number of utterances by each player meeting the criteria for each of the measured utterance-related variables. For user name and emblem variables, the unit of analysis was the presence or absence of content in each of the 1,866 individual players' user names and emblems.The matches randomly assigned to the two coders included an overlap of 59 matches (yielding 633 individual player cases) for assessment of intercoder reliabil...

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“…Bainbridge, 2007; Krzywinska, 2006; Schwartz, 2006), morality (e.g. Luck, 2009), racism and colonialism (e.g. Langer, 2008; Monson, 2012) and, most relevant for this study, the primacy of religion, mysticism and magic in the game world (e.g.…”

Section: The Case Of Wowmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Gods in World of Warcraft exist’: Religious reflexivity and the quest for meaning in online computer games

Schaap

Aupers

2016

New Media & Society

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In 'secular' Western societies, religious topics permeate media texts of books, films, series and games and such texts even inform several religious-spiritual movements. Critically expanding on theories about 'fiction-based religion', 'invented religion' or 'hyper-real religion', this article studies if, how and why players of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft reflect on religious narratives in the game world and what influence it has on their personal perspective on religion. Based on interviews with 22 international players, three forms of 'religious reflexivity' are distinguished: (1) religious performance, an acting out of offline experiences with religion through online role-playing; (2) religious relativism, a shift from dogmatic atheism to a tolerant attitude towards religion; and (3) religious quests, an increased interest in religion and active 'bricolage' of online religion and official religion to create personal systems of meaning. Online games, it is concluded, can serve as laboratories where youngsters freely experiment with religion outside the established churches.

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Crashing a virtual funeral: morality in MMORPGs

Cited by 14 publications

References 10 publications

Apathetic Villagers and the Trolls Who Love Them

Apathetic Villagers and the Trolls Who Love Them

Harsh Words and Deeds: Systematic Content Analyses of Offensive* User Behavior in the Virtual Environments of Online First-Person Shooter Games

‘Gods in World of Warcraft exist’: Religious reflexivity and the quest for meaning in online computer games

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