Better not scoff at academic research: From Superdata to in-house economists, from feminist theory to Bartle, and from education applications to NASA mapping, science is shaping the video games we play — and vice versa.
Read on for a recap of our best science-related MMO articles from 2015. Don’t worry; there won’t be a quiz at the end!
Researcher studies City of Heroes memorymaking - City of Heroes players, did you ever think your beloved old world would be the subject of academic research? Olle Sköld from Uppsala University in Sweden recently examined the extant City of Heroes community in an "interpretative…
Star Citizen’s sound designer weighs in on sound in space - In space, no one can hear you scream. Or yell, or fart, or blow up another ship. Sound doesn't travel well in a vacuum, opting instead to not travel at all. This provides a bit of…
EVE Evolved: How many subscriptions does EVE have? - Two weeks ago, a mathemagician over at The Nosy Gamer published some interesting calculations showing that EVE Online's subscriptions may have dropped by around 18% in the past two years. CCP has always prided itself on…
Elite: Dangerous generates its galaxy with NASA data - Elite: Dangerous is a work of science fiction; that's not under discussion. So as in all science fiction, the developers just created a galaxy by selecting random areas and dropping in planets or stars. By which we of…
SuperData’s Van Dreunen on tomorrow’s Heroes of the Storm launch - Tomorrow's the big day for Blizzard's entry into the crowded and uber-competitive MOBA market. Heroes of the Storm officially launches on June 2nd, and SuperData CEO Joost Van Dreunen has penned an editorial at GamesIndustry.biz that…
Hearthstone dominates digital CCG market with $20M monthly sales - [AL:Hearth]As the digital card game market continues to outpace its physical counterpart, Hearthstone is coming out on top as one of the dominant forces in the genre. A recent Superdata report found that the game is…
Eco as an academic tool: Educating with PvE survival and permadeath - Like the idea of survival games, but not PvP? Wish your class involved video games? Maybe you want to doom humanity to choking itself on its own filth? Well, good news for all of you:Â Eco made…
Exploring ‘The Video Game Debate’: Modern online game research - Late last year, I published on Massively-that-was a set of articles addressing current research on the relationship between shyness and online game friendships, including a detailed interview with Dr. Rachel Kowert, a lead researcher on the related…
Exploring ‘The Video Game Debate’: Online games and internet addiction - Massively OP's overview of Rachel Kowert and Thorsten Quandt's book The Video Game Debate last month was just the beginning of our coverage of the topics contained within it. I advised MMO players and writers to pick up the…
Extra Credits explains Bartle’s Taxonomy and its application - The generally excellent Extra Credits series occasionally touches on MMORPGs and their various systems has a pair of new videos out that might be of interest to you. The first explores Bartle's Taxonomy, which you might…
The Soapbox: MMOs and the power of habit - I've been reading this book by Charles Duhigg called The Power of Habit. Actually, the full title is The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and in Business, but that was…
EVE Vegas 2015: Project Discovery gamifies scientific research - One of the problems facing some fields of scientific research is that there are often huge numbers of images to classify and analyse, and researchers just can't keep up with the workload. Several labs have launched…
Massively Overthinking: Let’s take the classic Bartle test - Here's something you probably didn't know: Online worlds researcher Dr. Richard Bartle didn't actually write the Bartle test. His original research explored, analyzed, and defined the four player archetypes -- killer, socializer, achiever, and explorer -- but…
Exploring ‘The Video Game Debate’: Moral panic and online griefing - Welcome back to our ongoing exploration of Rachel Kowert and Thorsten Quandt’s book The Video Game Debate. As you can guess, the book itself focuses on games in general, not just MMOs and online games, so I was…
Industry experts weigh in on Activision Blizzard’s King acquisition - If you're still trying to wrap your head around Activision Blizzard's stunning purchase of Candy Crush developer King for $5.9 billion, trust us, you're far from alone. Over the past day, several industry analysts have weighed…
Exploring ‘The Video Game Debate’: Games and education - We've got some really smart commenters here at MassivelyOP, and I think they help keep the fiercer trolls away. But when Joystiq itself went under, I found myself homeless for general gaming news. Sure, there are other…
City of Titans is using government science to build its maps - The upcoming superhero MMO City of Titans has ambitious plans to build up to 40 districts for the game. But how will it create these sculpted maps with an indie crew? By harnessing government science, that's…
New research illuminates our gaming motivations - If you've ever thought that the Bartle test was a bit outdated, game analytics consulting firm Quantic Foundry has a new gamer psych chart for you. This past week, it released its Gamer Motivation Model, which groups gamer types…
The Daily Grind: Will you Kickstart any video games in the new year? - A recent piece on Gamesindustry.biz posits that while there the crowdfunding "bubble" hasn't burst, the crowdfunding scene, at least insofar as video games, is experiencing decline. Author Thomas Bidaux explains, "2015 has been an excellent year for Kickstarter…
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