Griefing in WoW - image from thegrief.org

An article by Christian Nutt posted on both Gamasutra and Worlds in Motion covers a discussion at AGDC between MMO community managers and psychologists on unpleasant behavior in MMO environments, the why’s, wherefore’s and possible solutions.

Now I’m a psychology student (so I’m probably coming at this from the wrong direction) and I’m unfamiliar with the kinds of bullying (for lack of a better word) that takes place in multiplayer gaming so it was intriguing to read about the situations identified as problems e.g. griefing (at first I thought it was a typo ), and the suggested reasoning as to why these situations occur.

Although a difference between game environment and real world was briefly mentioned I don’t feel the potentially sensitive detail of this was adequately considered and the conclusion from at least one of the psychologists seemed to be that the solution was in the hands of the community managers - finding ways of policing, punishing and pulling people into line.

One of the difficulties I see in this (and it’s been around as long as the environments themselves) is where to draw the line with rules, regulations and policing in on-line / virtual environments. Assuming that one of the reasons one ventures into such environments is to escape the constrains of daily life, will slapping a set of protocols and punishments down be all that appealing? On the flip side, who wants to be in an environment that has had all the fun stripped out of it by *&$#*%@@??

I’m just playing devils advocate here. I don’t have nearly enough direct experience to choose a particular side of this rather precarious fence I’m sitting on. Mind you, I’d be willing to wager, that neither do either of the psychologists involved in the AGDC discussion

“Though both of the psychologists admitted that they are not personally gamers, they clearly find the subject of MMO audiences fascinating…”

That’s great but it’s not really all that useful is it? It’s outstanding that there is definite interest in this area and no doubt some general personality theory applies, however, more helpful research might come from becoming involved in the very communities studied and experiencing first hand the types of behavior deemed unacceptable. Perhaps there are people out there who have a background or understanding of psychology and are already a part of various communities who could draw on their personal experience and come up with some theories of their own. I’m certainly planning to get out there and do some exploring… hope my thin skin can handle being a noob!

Another writer for Gamasutra, Bill Fullman, is a gamer and has a background in Social Psychology. He has written some interesting stuff on the social aspect of on-line gaming, offering up some possible solutions of his own and seems to have had quite a response from the people who are most affected - the gamers themselves (who have their own ideas - read the comments!). Still, everyone seems to be coming at this from a very narrow, limited perspective.

I could go on and on but I wont. Too many different ideas to cover in the one post! The truth is, the study of how humans behave on-line and in virtual environments “the psychology of cyberspace” is still relatively new in the grand scheme of things (i.e. only 10s of years rather than 100s of years old). There is still so much for us to learn. How will we evolve on-line? Will we become more or less like our “real” selves? Will the sense of anonymity fade as we become used to the idea of the invisible audience? So many questions! So many possibilities!

Another way: class on dealing with griefers in Second Life