Resources

Ben Williamson, Futurelab

You could probably be forgiven for thinking that a MMORPG was the name of a beastie in one of the latest sci-fi or fantasy video games. It's an infinitely larger beast. Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, which until now could only be played on PC, are changing the very nature of computer and video games - with enormous potential impact on how learning to play games occurs. And with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo all introducing online elements to their current consoles, the popularity of MMORPGs is set to prosper.

Not that they aren't massive already. One staggering statistic is that the value of virtual goods purchased in the online world of EverQuest would, if EverQuest were a real country, make it 77th most wealthy in the world - between Russia and Bulgaria![1] That's real people spending real money on virtual objects and skills to better facilitate their play. Some critics in the PC gaming press have even dubbed the game EverCrack, in a nod to its addictive qualities.

With suggestions that some people will pay up to $3,000 for a character and property in a game - not something all games companies are happy about, Sony amongst them (they consider it cheating) - it's clear how passionate some people are about their MMORPGs. So what fires this passion?

MMORPGs are massive in two ways. Firstly, the numbers of players online at once can be phenomenal - up to about 100,000 internationally in some cases. Secondly, the virtual worlds themselves are often vast, with players roaming freely and overcoming obstacles in a non-linear way. You can slay trolls and dragons, spend time shopping for new togs, or sending messages to your friends.

Games of this nature incorporate text-based 'chat' facilities that allow players to communicate on-screen as quickly as they can type - and with the relevant hardware, vocal communication is also possible. Plus, once you've finished, there are usually expansion packs and add-ons available to keep you there just a little longer.

It's not all dragon-slaying and snake-charming stuff though. You can go to discos, beach parties and so on in many fantasy MMORPGs. There are also hundreds of online games (see the GameSpy Arcade website for a long list), covering many scenarios. Wars make for popular material.

World War II Online presents a historically accurate scenario in which players complete missions from the battlefields of Europe in 1940; likewise, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault allows players access to Normandy after D-Day in 1944. Imagine the TV show Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan's opening sequence and you get the idea. Another war game, currently in development, is VietCong, where players can perform multiplayer missions in the virtual Vietnamese jungles of 1967. And the American military even have their own MMORPG, America's Army, for helping to train new recruits.

Other historical MMORPGs include Frontier 1859, currently in pre-production, which presents the American Wild West as a multiplayer environment. Meanwhile, The Sims Online, which sold 90,000 copies in the US in its first month[2], is a real-life simulator. Players have to make their characters earn money, find homes, shop, and make friendships. The original Sims game is the bestselling PC game ever - online, it has the potential to become the first virtual multiplayer version of the real world wholly populated by real people role-playing real life.

There Inc. might contest this. They're releasing a game environment called simply There, a virtual place to meet other players, chat, share interests and build relationships with others. In short, There is a bridge between the virtual and the actual, using the model of a MMORPG to engage people in real communication. Less a game, perhaps, than a social space.

Still, the most common MMORPGs are fantasy-based. Anarchy Online, Asheron's Call, and EverQuest (plus too many others to list) are all set in fantastic worlds where players choose avatars to represent themselves in the game, and build their skills and wealth through a variety of activities. It's not all about fighting - rather, players communicate, trade, help each other out. There is in fact a whole website, the HUB, dedicated to exploring the psychology of MMORPGs.

Slightly different are the fast-action shooters such as Quake III: Team Arena and Unreal Tournament 2003, where players can compete in 'Deathmatch' modes and shoot each other to hell (or 'fragging' as it is popularly known in player communities), or play 'Capture the Flag' and work in teams. Yes, these games are violent, but they're not devoid of merit.

Increasingly, educationalists are going to be looking at MMORPGs as media for learning through collaboration and communication between players. Simon White, Senior Technical Consultant at Oxford LEA, argues that, 'the modern learner is growing up in a global society - and will need to know how to very quickly learn to work and interact with all sorts of people. And a lot of that will be mediated by technology.'

The whole premise of Quake III: Team Arena is that players have to cooperate and work together if they're to succeed in the game. Quake 'clans' with their own websites have emerged, where players, often acquainted only through involvement in the game, swap tactics and strategies for subsequent sorties into the Quake world[3]. Much the same model persists in games like Anarchy Online, where the communicative aspect between players is crucial: skills can often be gained only through proactive trade, or even just plain begging!

If set up appropriately, these games can be played in small communities, over local networks - such as within individual schools. The educational benefits may not appear immediately obvious. But it depends whether your educational focus is on content or skills.

Simon White adds that multiplayer online game players 'learn the skills of social interaction, and communication using different mediums, of planning and group working. The big games have elements of organisation and economics too - not just about having a quick mouse finger!' Clearly, a great many games players are already communicating with each other both within and outside of games to decide on tactics and strategies they can mobilise, as a team, to overcome problems. These are reflective manoeuvres, with players capitalising on and sharing their learning for the benefit of all.

A notable example of some of these issues being explored within a specifically educational context is at the International Centre for Digital Content (ICDC) in Liverpool. ICDC's multiplayer game VMULE (Virtual Multi-User Learning Environment) requires two players, controlling robots in a virtual world, to collaborate to solve a variety of problems and overcome obstacles[4].

As this model gains purchase in the educational community, and if developers gain confidence in games that aren't necessarily violent and bloody, we may well see an increasing synthesis of the richness of online worlds with the classroom. And with games like EverQuest migrating to internet-enabled PlayStation2 within the next year[5], complete with team mission multiplayer settings, it is going to become easier and cheaper to join in.

Early iterations of these online console games will not feature the richness of text chat that PC gamers have become accustomed to - instead they will have access to modifiable standard phrases - but over time keyboard connectivity with consoles will mean all game players have access to cooperative, communicative and collaborative games across networks.

While we can't yet expect the game development community to invest in major educational online games, it is perhaps possible that they might be encouraged to develop educational alternatives of existing titles that address more appropriately the needs of schoolchildren and teachers.

The potential for a Medal of Honor component that relies less on continuous battle and more on historical accuracy and cooperative investigation of real WWII scenarios seems a valuable opportunity worth pursuing (indeed, the game's developers, Electronic Arts, work closely with the Congressional Medal of Honor Society to ensure its accuracy). Likewise, games such as Frontier 1859 have enormous educational promise, in terms of both their content and the skills required. Something like There could become a valuable forum for learners to share and collect information.

Whether this becomes reality or not, online games players are going to continue to develop relationships and solve problems cooperatively through the virtual worlds they inhabit, in addition to the conversations and reading material they mobilise in supporting their play from outside of the game.

Aren't these the sorts of key skills that the Teacher Training Agency and the DfES are referring to when they ask if we know another language? Are we speaking it yet?