How players value their characters in world of warcraft

Abstract

Characters in games such as World of Warcraft allow players to act in the game world and to interact with others. Game characters and avatars are a mediated form of selfrepresentation for the player, but some research suggests that players also view characters in other ways that have to do with the kinds of value that the characters provide. To better understand the ways that players value their characters in an online environment, we carried out a semistructured interview study of twenty World of Warcraft players. From our data we identify ten kinds of value that characters can provide -including utility, investment, communication, memory, enjoyment, and representations of relationships, as well as value as an opportunity for experience, creativity, sociability, and self-expression. The analytical lens of value provides a new understanding of the ways that players appreciate characters in online multi-user worlds. Our results can help developers understand and enhance an element of multi-player games that contributes greatly to player experience and satisfaction.

Screen ecologies, multi-gaming and designing for different registers of engagement

“…World of Warcraft is a popular fantasy themed MMORPG familiar to games research in HCI [10,17,23,30]. In this study we examined the culture and practices of players of World of Warcraft who identified themselves as 'raiders' and engaged in 'progression raiding' (see below).…”

A Framework and Taxonomy of Videogame Playing Preferences

“…For example, Birk et al [7] revealed that avatar customization stimulates player identification, leading to increased autonomy, immersion, invested effort, enjoyment, and positive affect. Livingston et al [21] interviewed twenty World of Warcraft [9] players with the goal of investigating what kind of value their game characters provided. Tondello et al [32] and Toups et al [33] built on their work to examine why players value and collect a diversity of game objects, including but not limited to characters.…”

"The Collecting Itself Feels Good"

“…We lack a clear understanding of players' collecting behaviors and how players perceive the value of their digital game objects. Prior research has explored how players value digital game characters (e.g., [20]) and general digital collections (e.g., [16,17,36]), yet questions remain about how players value digital game objects. We surveyed over 180 gamers about their digital game object collecting practices.…”

“…With this manual, we are able to understand the composition of players' collections. We connect our digital object types with prior work on digital character value (e.g., [20]) to understand why players value digital game objects and what drives them to collect. Through our data, we develop an understanding of why players collect digital game objects, why digital game objects are valued, how sociality plays a role in digital game object collections, and how players compose their digital game object collections.…”