MMOG phenomenon

Online gaming is booming like never before. The communities of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) are growing rapidly. Several million players worldwide are active in the virtual worlds of ‘World of Warcraft’ & Co.; however, the number of registered users of lesser-known MMOGs such as ‘Habbo Hotel’ or ‘Puzzle Pirates’ also often exceeds the million mark. The upcoming GAMEplaces evening, which takes place on 21 November in Frankfurt am Main, is dedicated to the online gaming worlds of MMOGs dedicated to the online game worlds of MMOGs. In addition to cultural factors such as social interaction or the organisation of virtual societies, the potential and risks of online worlds will also be discussed from an economic perspective. What influence do virtual worlds in general and MMOGs as a particularly popular type of game have on social processes such as communication and interaction? How should virtual worlds and virtual friendships be assessed in comparison to their counterparts in ‘real’ life? These are questions that the operators of major MMOGs are increasingly looking into with regard to the marketing of their titles, as online communities are becoming an attractive target group for so-called in-game advertising. “The form in which the respective online communities are constituted is of course closely linked to the genre of the game,” explains Janette Keller from Weber Networking, who is involved in the conceptualisation of the upcoming GAMEplaces evening. “That’s why we will be analysing the topic using different MMOGs,” Keller continues.