Massively+Multiplayer+Online+Games

=SOCIAL GAMEPLAY= THROUGH MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAMES (finished) toc

Purpose
It's a common perception amongst popular culture that gaming is a solitary activity. It was seen as an addictive activity that keeps children indoors and drive them to be anti-social. However, with broadband internet being developed, playing over the internet has increased and a new community start to build up virtually through these massive multiplayer games. A massive multiplayer online game, also called as MMOG or MMO, is a video game that allows thousands of players to play simultaneously. Using internet as a medium, MMOs feature a virtual world where players can cooperate and compete with each other on a grand scale and allows them to interact with people from all over the world. The content of my website expands on what an MMO is and why people play it.

Research Summary
MMOG is the kind of topic that people have probably heard of or know briefly about but is often misunderstood by people who doesn't play, therefore I concentrated on trying to explain what it is and why people are drawn to it. A significant part of my research pointed to the social aspect of the game being a big influence on why it's fun but it is mostly the overall experience of being in another world, interacting with other characters and a different sense of play that sets MMOs apart from other games. view research notes here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcddx355_55gcwsswfv view web content here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcddx355_60hqsfr6cf Here are just interesting things I've come across when doing research:

media type="youtube" key="RPOxuOCGi9I" height="355" width="425"



Web Construction
I organized web info like this:

Before getting anything started, I laid out the basic things I would need for the web. I decided to split the main content box in two, so the what and the why is visually separated, since there are sublinks that follows the two main 'what' and 'why' links. Doing this also helped me figure out what kind of interaction is involved in the website and it also helped me figure out what kind of codes I need for the website to function. [|mmo_layout1.png] [|mmo_layout2.png] [|mmo_layout3.png] Since most of the virtual world in MMOGs feels otherworldly, I chose screenshots from different MMOs as a backdrop to give the user the feeling of being in an MMOG. I wanted the website to look simple as to not intimidate or bombard the visitors with information right away. This also gave me a chance to focus on coding the website. [note] A friend suggested that I use the program [|TopStyle], which was easier for me to use than Dreamweaver.

Here are some screenshots of the final product: [|mmo_final1.png] [|mmo_final2.png] [|mmo_final3.png]

Resources
Berger, Arthur Asa. __Video Games: a Popular Culture Phenomenon__. Transaction, 2002. Carr, Diane, and Andrew Burn. "Computer Games: Text, Narrative and Play." __Motivation and Online Gaming__. Cambridge: Polity P, 2006. "Massively Multiplayer Online Game." __Wikipedia__. <[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_game>.] "Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game." __Wikipedia__. <[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_game>.] Newman, James. __Videogames__. London: Routledge, 2004. Yee, Nick. "Primary Motivations." __The Daedalus Project__. 17 Feb. 2008. <[|http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/001612.php?page=1>.] Yee, Nick. "Engineering Relationships." __The Daedalus Project__. 26 Mar. 2003. <[|http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/000429.php>]