MMO Player Psychology

The Proteus Paradox:
MMO Player Psychology
warning: this presentation has big words
Tuesday, September 16th Presented by Charlie

What is psychology?
The science of human behavior, with the
goal of understanding how and why
individuals and groups of people act.
Understanding Online Player Psychology

Want to increases retention or
revenue in your game?
You must have a deep understanding of how your players
think. This is why many of the major online game
companies employ neuroscientists and psychologists.

With this understanding, you can:
• Maximize revenue & retention
• Identify and troubleshoot problems quickly
• Deliver what players really want and make them happy

The Proteus Paradox by Nick Yee

Greek God Proteus
• Proteus is a Greek God who can change
his appearance at will
• He can change into a human, a snake, a
horse, or a sea creature
• Similarly to Proteus, online players seek to
re-invent themselves and change their
identity

Proteus in The Odyssey
In the Odyssey, Homer describes the
sea god Proteus as being able to
change his physical form at will:
“First he turned into a great bearded lion. And
then to a serpent, then to a leopard, then to a
great boar, and he turned into fluid water, to a
tree with towering branches.”

Nick Yee, American Researcher
• A graduate of Stanford University who
studies self-representation and social
interaction in virtual environments
• Creator of the Daedalus Project, his
research project into the psychology and
sociology of MMORPG’s, which has
collected data on 40,000 players

The Proteus Paradox
• Nick Yee’s book, published in June of 2014 about
how MMORPG’s perpetuate social norms and
stereotypes from the offline world, transform play
into labor, and inspire racial scapegoating and
superstitious thinking
• In summary: virtual worlds offer the possibility of
new worlds, but since they are populated by
offline humans, it’s not that simple. People carry
psychological baggage into virtual worlds.

Four Principles of Online MMO Psychology

Principle #1:
People with attractive avatars behave
friendlier, both in the virtual world and offline.

Quote:
“In a lab experiment, we gave participants either an attractive or an
unattractive avatar. They would see their new virtual selves in the virtual
mirror and then interact with a virtual stranger. Within sixty seconds of being
given a new digital body, participants in attractive avatars became friendlier
and shared more personal information with the stranger than participants in
unattractive avatars. Changing avatar height had a similar effect: people
given taller avatars became more confident than people given shorter ones.
Crucially, these behavioral changes followed users even when they had left
the virtual world. Those recently given attractive avatars selected more
attractive partners in a separate offline task. As we create and endlessly
customize our avatars, they in turn influence how we think and how we
behave. Virtual worlds change and control us in unexpected ways.”

Summary:
With design decisions in online games, you don’t
just influence players’ online behavior, but
potentially their entire psychological profile.

Principle #2:
Players only think they’re in control.

Quote:
“Even when we believe we are free and empowered, our
offline politics and cognitive baggage prevent us from
changing. And where we think we are fully in control, unique
psychological levers in virtual worlds (such as our avatars)
powerfully change how we think and behave. This is the
Proteus Paradox. Without a more careful look how these
spaces do and do not change us, the promises of virtual
worlds and online games are being subverted.”

Summary:
Through game design, using psychological
levers, you can make work fun. The success of
MMO’s depend on developing this skill.

Principle #3:
There are 3 clusters of MMO player types.

Quote:
“Statistical analysis of survey data has consistently identified three
clusters of gameplay motivations; achievement, social interaction,
and immersion. These aren’t separate categories that players fall
into but rather the building blocks that allow us to understand
individual players. Thus, most players have high scores on one or
two clusters while having average or low scores on the remaining
clusters. The holistic configuration of these three building blocks
traces out the unique profile of each gamer.”

Related:
The Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology which
identifies broad categories of player types.
The Bartle Test of
Gamer Psychology

Summary:
Accommodate for 3 broad player types:
achievers, socializers, and explorers.

Principle #4:
Train people to enjoy things.

Quote:
”A well -studied psychological principle called operant conditioning helps us
understand how a system of rewards can make an inherently uninteresting task
appealing. In its simplest form, the principle seems obvious. If you reward a person for
performing a certain behavior, he or she is more likely to repeat that behavior. The way
you provide rewards matters a great deal. Imagine training your dog. After a dog has
successfully learned the “sit” command, you might use a fixed schedule and provide a
treat every two times the dog follows the command. Or you might provide a treat after
a random number of successful “sits.” Studies have shown that the latter schedule is
best for maintaining behavior. If a fixed schedule is ever broken, even accidentally, it is
easily detected, and the behavior quickly ceases. A broken variable schedule isn’t
immediately obvious, and the behavior continues.“

Operant Conditioning in
Destiny on Playstation 4

Operant Conditioning on The
Big Bang Theory

Summary:
Through a system of reward and punishment,
you can make completely unfun things fun. This
is at the core of what MMO’s are all about.

Principle #1:
People with attractive avatars behave
friendlier, both in the virtual world and offline.
Principle #2:
Players only think they’re in control.
Principle #3:
There are 3 clusters of MMO player types.
Principle #4:
Train people to enjoy things.

For More Information:
• Check out “The Proteus Paradox
• Read about “The Daedalus Project”, the
research project conducted by Nick Yee
• Watch “Play Nice: The Science and Behavior
of Online Games” by Jeffrey Lin, neuroscientist
and Lead Game Designer at Riot Games
(League of Legends)

One More Thing

The “GIFT” Theory of Player Behavior
When something funny
turns into actual science.

The GIFT Theory on Player Behavior
• Developed in 2004 by internet comic Penny
Arcade about how online games make people
behave differently
• The psychological principle is: benevolent
behavior ignored, poor behavior rewarded with
attention
• This is a negative game environment that
people don’t like, especially adults.

• To combat this, games build reward systems to
encourage players to be good to each other
• An example is Game of War, which strongly
encourages and rewards benevolent behavior
within alliances
• All MMO’s have protection systems in place to
protect players from similar abuse

• Tap4Fun has dealt with plenty of “Fuckwads” in
our games which have affected the game
experience for many of our players
• King’s Empire was one example, but other
games have experienced similar situations.
• Preventing players from being abused, and
rewarding good behavior, is critical to cultivating
a positive game environment

Online Disinhibition Effect
The science behind this.

That’s all.
Thanks for listening, and I hope this
has convinced you that it’s worth
your time to continue learning
about player psychology.

MMO Player Psychology

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