MMOGs vs MMORPGs

Background
In 2007 I completed a study on why collaboration works in online gaming. I provided a summary in my blog called Learning from Collaborative Play in MMOGs. The study highlights why games are superior in almost all ways in enabling collaboration as compared to conventional online collaboration tools.

G or RPG?
Last night I was lying in bed and contemplating why MMORPGs (massively multi-player online role-playing games) are generally more successful than MMOGs (massively multi-player online games). The answer is relatively simple and comes down to how players associate with their avatar (business speak) or character (game speak).

Gamers invest a lot of time and effort in developing their characters in role-playing games. In a game like WOW (World of Warcraft) you level your character from level one to level eighty, whilst continuously enhancing your character's skills, attributes and gear/clothing. Compare this to a game like DOTA (Defense of the Ancients) where you can choose your character before you play and just as rapidly discard it (when some unique twists).

Furthermore, in WOW, a lot of players spend considerable time and effort ensuring that their character "looks good". A lot of the most desirable items that you can acquire for your character are not only those items that have the best "stats" (skill enhancing points/statistics) but those that look the best. In addition there are many vanity items like extra clothing and pets.

Ego-enhancing
MMORPG players associate with their characters and these characters become an enhancement of their selves. This makes the game very sticky and is probably one of the major reasons why WOW remains so successful even though the game engine is quite dated versus some of the competition.

Walk around (with your character) in one of the major cities in WOW and you will notice that there are a lot of people socialising or merely standing there showing off their gear/clothing.

The better your clothing and gear; the better you are as a player (difficult to acquire items); and by association the better you are.