Al-Hossami 1

Annotated Bibliography

Can Massive Multi-Player Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) make us better people?

Erfan Al-Hossami
Professor Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
Erfan Al-Hossami

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Annotated Bibliography

Chatfield, Tom. "Reality Is Broken by Jane McGonigal." Reality Is Broken by Jane McGonigal.
The Guardian, 30 Apr. 2011. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
In this article published in The Guardian Newspaper, Tom Chatfield provides us with an
objective review of the book Reality is Broken which I used for my research. The author
recalls the authors statistics and describes the authors thesis in his own words. As of
today we play over 3 Billion hours of Video games per week. Mcgonigals thesis is to
make use of these games to make us better people. The article describes how are hungry
for engagement, which engages us in video games. The article describes the book with
not much psychological nor technological insights. In the end, the article describes that
McGonigal has given darker potentials to the tools she described in reference to games.
I think this essay is objective. It also provides me an expert digital commentators
opinion. This source is reliable for me to stay objective in my assessment and look more
into the topics he discussed in her book.

McGonial, Jane. Reality Is Broken. The Penguin Press New York 2011. Print.
The book is a good read. Jane starts discussing reality and how it is missing something.
Jane further discusses the benefits of games and gaming. She gives examples of fully
alive and energetic players who feel the power of a heroic purpose and accomplish great
missions and earn rewards. Although these are derived from real-world characteristics,
Jane explains how it is constantly experienced in games and therefore argues that reality
does not motivate us effectively. With the expanding 68$ Billion gaming industry such

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motivation could exist. The Author explains how important it is to retreat from reality, get
rewarded for accomplishing virtual tasks and how it can support self-esteem, learning
from mistakes, and playing with other teammates on our learning, positivity, and
escaping negatives in the real world. She gives an example from the Ancient Lydian
Empire when they used immersive games to survive famine.
Additionally, using games as an innovative thinking strategy was an element of the book.
A new thinking and leadership strategy is being developed by our generation based on
games. Some of that is evident in public education in which games are played to educate.
Finally, as a result of the expanding gaming industry, research is being poured into
learning how games can optimize human experience. In the future, we can have more
specific games to satisfy us in our careers to relieve tension, anxiety, and obesity.
This source is very valuable. Although it does not discuss my specific type of Video
Games, but it gives my ability to know where, what and how to analyze the MMORPG
games and its effect on humans. Many games have similar effects, and this book
discussed the common effects and included a chapter specifically for Alternate Reality
Games. The Author proposes that such games should have a tie with the real world such
as a tasks or mission that has to be accomplished in the real world. Jane McGonial is a
very reliable source. She conducted a research on the effects of games, earned a PHD,
and designed multiple games including Evoke and Super Better based on her research to
help solve real world problems. However i do believe there is some bias towards favoring
video games because of her profession and passion in game design.

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"Jane McGonigal: Gaming Can Make a Better World." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Mar. 2010. Web.
25 Oct. 2015.
In this video, Jane talks about her research before publishing her book. She pulls up
interesting statistics and facts that are not discussed in her book, but rather extrapolated.
For example: We need about 10 Billion hours of gaming per week in order to be able to
solve the next generations worlds problems; Our children spend time playing video
games as much time as they spend in school up to high school. This source is really
beneficial since it introduced me to the topic, provided me with useful and extrapolated
statistics not just plain numbers, and provided me with a sample argumentative logic that
I can follow. This source is reliable because the author is experienced and a professional
in her field as discussed before. Also I note some Bias towards games probably because
of her profession as a game designer.

Yee, Nicholas. The Psychology of MMORPG Games: Emotional Investment, Motivations,

Relationship Formation, and Problematic Usage. In R. Schroeder & A. Axelsson (Eds.),
Avatars at Work and Play: Collaboration and Interaction in Shared Virtual
Environments. (pp. 187-207) London: Springer-Verlag.Web. 21 OCT. 2015.
This academic article summarizes the research Professor Yee has done for a decade about
MMORPG games. The article starts with introducing many terms such as MMORPGs,
Shared Virtual Environments, and Multi-User Domains (Environments where more than
one user interacts with one another). The author discusses the success of the first
MMORPG game Ultima Online in 1997. Although a monthly subscription fee is required,

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to play the game, many players all over the world join these games. Very popular
MMORPGs arose in the year 2000 called World of War Craft, Final Fantasy, and
Minecraft are just few names that can describe the success of MMORPGs. The author
describes player personalities and how they affect the party or the group of players
fighting together. He gives detailed examples from players through his surveys that show
the effect of personalities and risk-taking measures in players. For example, if a player
decides to chase the monster while the other players in his party decide not to, and the
chaser asserts his decision and wants everybody on his team to follow him, and he dies
and blames his team. Most communication is on typed chat some are on voice chat,
however thoughts can also be communicated through solitary user actions, and such
decision in MMORPG games affect the life or death of the group. Yee goes on to analyze
the literature and dialogue of the researched MMORPG games, and then explains how his
survey methodology works, and computes the average age of an MMORPG player which
was 26.7 years, average time 22.72 hours per week, positive experiences in the game
around 45% and 55% negative experiences. Yee goes on and explains how in MMORPGs
negative experiences are mostly influenced by other players. Whether your party member
is a hero with rare courage and bravery and high skill or a troll with a bad mouth and
terrible manners. Because of such high negative percentages research is being poured into
making players better, lessening trolls, and increasing manners. Overall I could not type
in all the noted I had because of time and the words I have. It is a 30 page article, this
source is very valuable because it addresses specifically the game type Im researching,
adds a scholastic insight, and researched statistics. The source is very well trusted
because the author is a researcher who studies self-representation and social interaction in

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Virtual Environments (which is something Im really interested in) and he received his
PHD from Stanford. He launched project Daedalus to research the effects of MMORPGs
on Human Psychology. Yee is a Psychologist so I doubt that there is any bias towards
video games. Professor Yee is very objective and scientific in his research.