Daedalus Project data, March 2006
As usual, here’s my summary of the latest issue of the Daedalus Project.
- Guilds tend to be founded by young people.
- Guilds tend to end up run by older people.
- 90% of people play MMOs on their desktop machines, not laptops.
- Nearly half of respondents have more than one machine on which MMOs are played (and even higher a percentage among women, who are far more likely to be playing with a romatic partner)
- Looks like an average over 10% have more than two machines on which MMOs are played. A rising trend of families gaming online together?
- Over half of women play with someone else playing in the same room.
- In fact, a substantial number of people in general play that way — around 60% of males and 40% of females do so describe themselves as “always alone” or “usually alone.” Biggest segment: more than 40% of males play “always alone.”
- 70% of people have tried voice over IP; males are slightly more likely to have done so.
- 30% do so on a regular basis during MMO play, and generally speaking, people found it more enjoyable.
- The people who tend to like using VoIP tend to be achievement-oriented, not socializers or folks seeking immersion.
Another curious thing I see happening is when 2 or more people play together, be it husband/wife, father/son… etc, one is a “support” role. And it seems to be the female or younger of the lot. (No disrepect to the ladies intended, some of you can whip up on me and I know it!)
It would be interesting to see some hard data on that subject.
Hahahaha. My Dad would find that statistic interesting. He’s one of the guild leaders for an uberguild on his WoW server. They probably have no idea how old he is. But people notice maturity, responsibility, and leadership skills.
Interesting! Many of my friends play on laptops — especially in Australia, for some reason. The ones who play on desktops tend to have the mega-gaming-room (aka “The Office”), with his and hers computers, and big speakers. I like to play on laptop, because it makes my game portable to different rooms of the house. I’ve been known to game and cook, at the same time. (The hard part is keeping your hands clean.)
This doesn’t surprise me at all.
Huh. Maybe. Some people might also play with co-workers, after hours.
Yeah, this goes back to the “his and hers computers.” A LOT of couples play together. This is a pattern we saw a lot in text MUDs (the ones I was involved with, anyway), and it appears to have scaled very well.
Or roommates, as in the case of many San Diego residents. This trend might also indicate increasing housing costs and financial stability. That combination may challenge designers to provide entertainment for spectators and “close-quarters adventuring”. 😉
None of these conclusions surprise me a bit — especially this one. At this point, I’m not playing a game that I can’t play with B at the same time. That goes for non-MMO’s, as well. I’ve had two of its expansions for The Sims 2 for two months now, and I haven’t played at all since I got them. I don’t see him all day long … I can’t imagine doing things separately once he gets home.
At this point, B has never played an MMO. We haven’t tried WoW yet, but we may, after we’re done with NWN.
My family of four has two WoW accounts. Primarly one for me, and one for my wife. My kids each have characters on both accounts, to facilitate different combinations of who-plays-with-who. I really wished there was some cheaper way to get my kids their own accounts, for control purposes. I’m hoping that as this trend increases MMO developers will offer some other pricing plans for families.
On the topic of Support roles:
When I play with my wife or kids, I almost ALWAYS play the support character. The reason is simple–support roles are harder to play. My wife doesn’t like complex game mechanics, and my kids aren’t old enough to understand them. (And by complex, I mean even something as “simple” to most gamers as just maintaining buffs and heals throughout a fight.)
On multiple machines:
We have three computers in our “office” at home. Two are of the caliber to play newer MMOs. One can play Toontown and Puzzle Pirates. It’s not an infrequent occurrence at hour house that all three computers will be logged into either a MMO or some online game (Neopets, Webkins, MSN, etc…).
This judgement of the data they have doesn’t really follow. It assumes that guilds never die (leading to the conclusion that the guilds younger players start are taken over by older players). I’m guessing that most guilds simply don’t last long enough to have several sets of leaders and that most of the guilds that don’t last are created by younger players. If the majority of successful, long-term guilds are run by, and created by older players then we will see exactly the trend indicated. A guild may be started by 1 older person and then be run, over time, by a dozen other older people. In other words, what appears to be a bias to take over and assume control of guilds may simply be a bias towards running successful, lasting guilds with multiple leaders over time.
Ive founded a few guilds and taken them down myself as well. Course I also had a chance to do the opposite. Takeover a guild that was started by a older player when I was much younger. I agree with most of the statements too. Once voice over ip becomes integrated into the games that will change how people use it. Most other games only have guilds who use it for say raid group purposes.
Well, the information is not the least bit suprising to me, I do have to say. All of those are pretty much what I would figure… But, it is interesting nonetheless. Heh, always figured the voice chatting would just mostly appeal to the achievers. 🙂
I think the MMORPG powers that be have not yet figured out the the teen male gamer is not the only market.
we have a 4 computer network with DSL at my house.
My wife and I enjoyed 2 years of gaming together on SWG (left after CU made it a level based game)
Most games seem to have barely enough content for one person. (Long term)
Let alone for two adults.
Maybe some day soon a company will understand it takes a large full world to game in to make some of us happy for long periods of time.
One with
A large world to explore (not paths thru a big colorful map)
combat(off/on choice pvp….if i wanted mugged..I’d go downtown)
quests(real quests, not kill X of this and repeat)
a deep crafting system (not a time/money sink where every item made looks the same)
avatar personalization (not clones of everyone else of the same race/class/type)
A good raw material system for crafting
skill based system ( classed based system don’t allow the player to adapt to game upgrade/expanstion changes or play style changs….etc.)
Just my humble opinon……..
Yes I did love SWG pre-cu..No other game has all the things that made it fun for me.
Thats said….I’m a fan of your work and hope you will give us a another rich, full, game.(maybe with out the IP pressure)
2 machines for games here, one PC, one laptop.
Generally myself and the youngest son play head to head, he’s not ‘into’ MMOs… yet.
Older players end up running guilds started by younger players. Doesn’t surprise me, younger players seem to come and go in games more, us old f*rts just linger…. uhm, quite.
(Currently GM for two seperate guilds, and I’m the oldest member on both guilds roster)