SAMPLE CRITICAL REVIEW

(THIS IS NOT NECESSARILY AN "A" PAPER.  IT IS ONLY A SAMPLE)

Role-Playing Games: A Choice of Reality

“The computer game has been a killer app for the home PC, increasing consumer demand for vivid graphics, rapid processing, greater memory and better sound. One could make the case that games have been to the PC what NASA was to the mainframe – the thing that pushes forward innovation and experimentation.”

–Henry Jenkins, Games, the New Lively Art

In a world that seems constantly bent on innovation, discarding the old to replace it with new, it is intriguing that one of the most popular and profitable niches in the game market today takes the form of a play style we learn as children: role-playing. One of the definitions listed at Dictionary.com for role-playing is “the modifying of a person's behavior to accord with a desired personal image, as to impress others or conform to a particular environment.” It can be argued that the modern online role-playing game (or ORPG) is a prime example of this social modification, a place where players around the nation and sometimes even the globe converge on the virtual soil of some great artificial frontier. The modern MMORPG (where the M’s stand for “massively multiplayer”) has been long in development. In 1974, the table-top game Dungeons and Dragons was published by a company called TSR. Its early profit margins were projected to be slim even by the makers, with a sales figure initially estimated around 50,000 copies, almost all to hobbyists (Wiki 1). The game would go on to become one of the most popular, most well-known RPG titles in American history, but perhaps more importantly was the profound influence it would have on the development of RPGs in general. What started as a hobbyist affair soon blossomed into one of the premier niches in game-development. As technology continued to advance, so did the RPGs, and by the time the internet was beginning to come into its own, ORPGs were ready to take the stage. By 2006, MMORPG revenues in the West alone exceeded one billion dollars (Wiki 2), and according to ScreenDigest, a game-trends review website, “Online virtual worlds and 3D social networking sites are emerging as significant platforms in the ongoing convergence of the media industry” (8). Though their popularity continues to be evident across the globe, their impact on society is just beginning to be understood. Online role-playing games continue to shape (and be shaped by) social practices through the alternate mindset they allow players to engage in, the demands they place on time, and the escape from reality that they provide.

Even in the early days of table-top RPGs, disputes were already stirring among groups who claimed that the games promoted negativity in social and psychological realms. The fact was (and remains), user interactivity in RPGs offered players an opportunity to take on alternative social roles than they would normally assume—a fact that continues to make some uncomfortable. Most RPGs rely heavily on some form of social aspect to drive portions of the game, be it in the progression of the story itself, or simply the game economy. A Wikipedia except helps clarify:

MMORPGs always allow players to communicate with one another. Depending on the other interactions allowed by the game, other social expectations will be present. Many MMORPGs exploit their players' social skills and offer support for in-game guilds or clans (though these will usually form whether the game supports them or not). As a result many players will find themselves as either a member or a leader of such a group after playing a MMORPG for some time (2).

With this understanding of game dynamics in mind, it becomes clearer how an RPG affords participants the opportunity to “be someone else.” Within the context of the game world, no one cares if a player is overweight or anti-social or unpopular. The day a person begins game-play, they are given a choice of the image they want to present and the role they want to play within that world; usual societal constraints and prejudices fall to the wayside in a land of pixels and make-believe. Followers can take the lead, and leaders can sit back in the quiet. Even gender-roles are up for exploration: if a male wants to play a female character, interacting with others as if he is in fact female, no one will be the wiser unless he chooses to reveal this himself. Actions that may be taboo in real-life are suddenly options in game-land. For many players, this is a liberating experience. Clinical psychologist Sherry Turkle has in fact conducted research on the topic, and discovered that “many people have expanded their emotional range by exploring the many different roles (including gender identities) that MMORPGs allow a person to explore” (Wiki 2). Of course, the significant part to remember is that “…interactions between MMORPG players are real, even if the environments are not” (Wiki 2). So while players get the initial rush of acting in roles that they want and essentially shaping their destiny within the game, part of the excitement is that they are still interacting with other real people behind these constructs.

In addition to the societal influence RPGs have due to the roles they allow to be played, RPGs also impact the way players oftentimes alter their real-world schedules to better accommodate game time. What sets MMORPGs apart from other games is that not only do they demand a certain time commitment to advance in general, but often these games are played widely enough that different time zones may be included on a single server. Real world time changes must now also be taken into consideration when playing. As a Wikipedia article comments, “This tends to force players to change their real-world schedules in order to "keep up" within the game-world” (2). Players must not only consider when they will have free time available, but when peak and low population times are, depending on their goals. On top of the time-zone conflict, most games have a set “server time,” and certain events may be scheduled to occur at certain times. This places further strain on players to adjust their schedules, or else risk missing out on important events and activities.

Perhaps one of the most significant reasons people continue to love role-playing games is the escape from reality that they offer. Beyond just stepping into another persona, RPGs allow gamers to enter an entirely different reality, where virtually anything is possible. From as early on as the original Nintendo consoles, game-makers recognized why kids would throw themselves into their games as soon as they got home from school. According to the designer of Nintendo’s Mario, Miyamoto, “the game provides them with an enjoyable, livable world” (Kline 118). In the case of online games, this livable world comes complete with real people to interact with. Instead of being stuck with stock game characters, the cast of MMORPGs comes from a vast and diverse selection of players from around the world, each sculpting away at their own little portion of game-reality. Much as chat rooms gained popularity in the early days of internet, RPGs take communication and interaction to a new and almost limitless new pinnacle. Game designers, like any other efficient new media makers, are well aware of the societal need to “get away from it all.” Far beyond just providing a little mindless entertainment or a few hours respite from the daily grind, RPGs allow the player to decide what happens; the rewards you reap are directly related to the time and energy you put forth. In the end, RPGs can become far more than simple games; they provide the platform for imagination to take over, for players to create the roles they want to play, and for childhood fantasies of dragons and knights to become reality.

Works Cited

Games, the New Lively Art. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 07 Jan. 2008 <http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/GamesNewLively.html>.

Kline, Stephen, et al. Digital Play: the Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing. McGill-Queen's UP, 2003. “Chapter 5.” 06 Jan. 2008 <http://asu.edu/courses/fms110/readings/Kline_Stephen-DigitalPlayCh5.pdf>.

"Western World MMOG Market." ScreenDigest. 07 Jan. 2008 <http://www.screendigest.com/reports/07westworldmmog/NSMH-6ZFF9N/sample.pdf>.

Wikipedia. 07 Jan. 2008. <http://www.wikipedia.org>.

1. “Role-Playing Game." Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-playing_game>.

2. "Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game." Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMORPG#_note-0>.