Researchers attempted to depict and analyze player behavior towards the end of the (virtual) world in a study. They received support from the developer XLGames, who had provided data from a beta of the MMORPG ArcheAge for this endeavor. You can find out what conclusions can be drawn from this here.
How was the investigation conducted? The company behind ArcheAge provided data in the form of a MySQL database with a size of 45 GB. The database contained information on when and which activities users engaged in. Meanwhile, the developer is already working on ArcheAge 2.
The scientists studied the dataset and categorized it into 11 areas. These included:
- Combat
- Party
- Dungeons
- Battlefield
- Siege combat (including guild vs. guild)
- Raid
- Family/Guild
- Interaction with the game world (e.g., farming, wood gathering)
- Creation of items
- Housing
- PvP
The dataset came from the fourth closed beta of the MMORPG ArcheAge and thus covers 11 weeks. Over the weeks, the game data was analyzed based on which of the mentioned categories players engaged in and to what extent.
Additionally, aspects such as the chat history during the closed beta or PvP, as well as virtual deaths, were examined during the testing phase. A total of 270 million lines of data were considered for the study. By the way, ArcheAge: War is gearing up for 2023.
Check out the trailer for ArcheAge: War here.
What do the measurements show? If we start with combat, players fought intensely through the game world during the entire time. Only in the last week, just before the end of the virtual existence, did the slaughter decrease.
Additional content such as dungeons was engaged with intensively starting in the third week, but was nearly abandoned by week 9 of 11. Raids, on the other hand, started in the second week but were not played further past the tenth week.
Players began experimenting with housing from the third week onwards. However, housing failed to generate further interest from the tenth week of the closed beta.
The creation of items, however, found favor with players well into the tenth week. Yet this category, like interaction with the game world, receded into the background afterward.
Grouping peaked early on, in the second week, but steadily declined over time. By the tenth week, there was also a lack of group participation and activity here.
PvP and battlefields started moderately in the third week and ended with similarly low intensity between the ninth and tenth weeks. Siege battles were hardly ever conducted.
Family and guild activities were measured highest at the beginning of the testing phase. However, these activities also disappeared from the tenth week onwards.
Interestingly, virtual deaths increased significantly in the last third of the closed beta. On the other hand, the guild chat stood out positively towards the end, as the content was friendlier than at the start of the closed beta.
When the world ends, many of you will be fine
What do the measurements say? The researchers conclude that many of us will be doing quite well should the end of the world loom.
The increased virtual deaths, however, are a sign that some of us players can become bloodthirsty beasts. Furthermore, players do not engage in their normal activities towards the end, but give up, or rather, the character development. This is evidenced by the radical decline in all activities during the last 2 weeks of the closed beta.
Certainly, this behavior is observed in a game, but according to colleagues at PCGamer (via PCGamer), these studies are based on the so-called mapping principle, namely: a behavioral and explanatory model.
The principle behind it allows us to transfer results from players of the MMORPG ArcheAge to the behavior of those individuals in a real situation. Of course, this is a theoretical model that is not 100% accurate. It merely offers a way to derive behavioral patterns in real-life situations.
In addition, it was noted that the chat assumed a more positive tone towards the end than at the start of the closed beta. In the end, it seems that tempers cooled down somewhat, and more attention was given to interaction among one another rather than the game itself.
Whether MMORPG players are better equipped for an apocalyptic scenario due to the complexity of the games is debatable. Nevertheless, the data reveals interesting details about how precisely a developer monitors a testing phase and how it unfolds.
What do you think of the study? Do you agree or do you doubt the transfer of behavior to real situations or an apocalyptic scenario? Please share your thoughts in our comments.
If you are interested in researching gaming behavior, the following article may also be of interest to you: Do games make kids dumb and violent? New study says the opposite
