A lesson for MMORPG designers

I love psychology. I’m equally fascinated by sociology, group think and management theory. I’ve invested large amounts of my life in learning about managing people and teaching others how to do so. It is the engineer in me trying to figure out the most complex of machines: the human mind. I’m always intrigued when I look at MMORPGs and the psychological mechanics that developers employ to keep players interested. It often leads me to wonder why games these days grasp me so much less than they used to. Some say it is rose colored glasses for the past. I say it is difficult psychological motivators. The casino-based systems we have now just don’t do it for me. I look for real life mirrors in MMORPGs and often no longer find them.

I am bringing this up because of an extremely interesting article I read today. It had absolutely nothing to do with gaming or MMORPGs. This particular article focused on quadriplegics and artificial limbs. For those of you who don’t care to read the whole thing the gist is this: the individuals in question were less interested in an automatic armor even if it was faster, more accurate and easier than a manual arm. One particular quote struck me as so relevant. It sums up how I feel inside when it comes to MMORPGs.

“In an interview with Wired.com, he expanded on this, drawing on psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi’s theory of flow: “We stay engaged when our capabilities are matched by our challenges and our opportunities,” Bricout said. If that balance tilts too far to one direction, we get anxious; if it tilts to the other, we get bored. Match them, and we’re at our happiest, most creative, and most productive.”

That is where I find myself with most MMORPGs these days; simply bored. The challenges of these games rarely match my capabilities. I grew up on far more complex and less forgiving titles. It was so refreshing to see someone else sum this up so well. I may not be a niche after all! At any rate the article was a great read and quite interesting. Hopefully there is something there that a designer can use and, at any rate, at least my readers will have a slightly better understanding of my thought process.