Figure 1: Graph demonstrating that Aluminio’s reported character played times add up to more time possible in 4 years

In a previous post, I said that a player’s /played time in World of Warcraft (WoW) can be used a good indication of their experience in WoW.  In my 2010 April survey, I asked respondents to report their /played time for three types of characters: their first character ever created, the character on which they currently spend most of their time, and the character on which they enjoy playing the most. If the characters were the same, they were asked to repeat the information. When I did my calculation, I ignored any entries that were obvious duplicates. I also asked people to make an estimate to the nearest half year of how long they had been playing World of Warcraft.

While entering data in from my 2010 April survey, I noticed that case S1-025 contained /played numbers that did not add up.  In the raw survey data, the participant—whom I have called “Aluminio”—listed 3 characters:

1. Human priest ranged, played more than 700 days
2. Gnome mage ranged, played more than 900 days
3. Human paladin tank, played more than 900 days.

That adds up to more than 2500 days. Aluminio also reported playing World of Warcraft for a total of 4 years, which amounts to 1460 days. That’s far, far short of the more than 2500 days claimed for playing his three characters, as is clearly evident in Figure 1′s graph. It is impossible for someone on their own to have played all 1460 days 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Credit: Michelle A. Hoyle under an Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Figure 2: Graph showing how much of a four-year period would have been spent on each of Aluminio’s characters.

My first thought was to wonder if they were using bought accounts.  In which case the /played time would include the time the original person spent on the account and, if these were all bought accounts, then the time would overlap potentially with survey participant’s personal playing time.  It need not just be someone who has bought someone else’s account either.  A player named “Sodiumo” in my guild took over the account of a friend who stopped playing.

My partner mentioned a second possibility: multiboxing. This is where a person has multiple account and multiple instances of the game running.  You set each of the other characters to follow the character you are actually playing as you take them through dungeons.  This would accumulate /played time on all the logged in characters, even though the person is really only actively playing one character.

A third possibility is the person had multiple accounts and someone else helped them play each character.   There are several similar cases in my own guild.  For example, a player we will call “Carbona” is the primary player on his account for questing, socializing, and raiding.  He lets his son, however, engage in player versus player encounters on his character.  Another player, whom we will call “Chlorinella”, ended up taking over the account of her brother who lost interest in the game; Now that Cataclysm, the latest World of Warcraft expansion, has been released, the brother has returned to playing.

Finally, a fourth possibility that occurred to me just now is that Aluminio may have made estimates of his /played time for each character instead of checking the /played time in game. I did provide instructions on how to obtain the /played time, but it is not outside the realms of possibility. Many people, myself included, are very poor at estimating time spent when it’s on and off again across multiple accounts, but we are far more accurate about how many total years (in calendar time) we have been playing because that can be easily tied to a fixed date.

When I designed the survey, I did not take into account that people might have been cheating, purchasing accounts, or account sharing.  Basing my estimate of their World of Warcraft experience on the /played time in such a circumstance is not very accurate.  The initial person who triggered this off is willing to be contacted if I have further questions and there is an e-mail address, so I think that would be a good thing to follow up on.

Related posts:

1. /played Time as a Measure of WoW Experience When working with people's experience in World of Warcraft, their /played time is a more accurate measure than calendar time....

Our research is based on participant- observation fieldwork. Each of us created at least two characters and joined at least one guild. We have jointly played for over 25 months and continue to play.

How much experience did they really have in World of Warcraft? Was the 25 months calendar time or in-game time? These are the questions that immediately went through my mind. I quickly concluded that it was not  25 months of in-game time as that would be more than 18,000 hours of play. Even among three people, that seemed unlikely even if they had been playing since the game was released. That led me to think about measuring game experience in immersive worlds, like World of Warcraft.

Typing “/played” in World of Warcraft will tell a player how many days, hours, and minutes they have spent online since creating that character.  This can be a more useful measure of a player’s experience with the game than elapsed calendar time.   For example, I have been playing since World of Warcraft’s public release date in February 2005.  My /played time is 268 days on my main character over a 69-month period.   Contrast that with someone else who, over that same period, only plays two hours a week.  Their /played time would be about 25 days (see Figure 2). I obviously have more experience in the game, even though our elapsed calendar time is identical.  There is an assumption there that I spent the time doing something in the game and not just chatting or idling, but it is going to be a more accurate measure of experience.

Credit: Michelle A. Hoyle under an Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Figure 1: Screenshot of questions in April survey

I asked respondents to report their /played time for three types of characters: their first character ever created, the character on which they currently spend most of their time, and the character on which they enjoy playing the most. If the characters were the same, they were asked to repeat the information. When I did my calculation, I ignored any entries that were obvious duplicates.

On the first page of my April 2010 survey, I had a set of questions asking people about the “/played” time for various types of characters they had played in the game (see Figure 1).  When I designed the survey, I wanted a feel for how much time people had spent on various characters.  I was not, unfortunately, thinking about their total WoW experience time.  Now that I am coding the data in NVivo, I am examining the data and combining the /played times they gave me (where it is obviously not for the same character) to get a rough idea of their minimum World of Warcraft experience.  In hindsight, I realize that I could have kept the original question, but I should have also asked people to calculate their /played time across all of their characters.   That would enable me to more accurately and easily compare what people have learned with the same amount of in-game play time rather than by using the far slipperier and less informative elapsed calendar time. Lessons learned and all that!

Related posts:

1. High /Played Times and Meaning Reasons why someone's /played time, used as a measure of experience in World of Warcraft, might be inaccurate....

Popular perception is that massively multiple online role playing games (MMORPGs), like WoW, are just for kids. In fact, only about 20% of WoW players are between the ages of 12 to 19. Some 80% of players are people we around us: our next-door neighbours, local store owners, or even our teachers. What is it that compels people to spend between 20 to 24 hours a week in WoW? This study attempts to answer that question.

It is hoped that this and related studies will contribute towards a better understanding by players and the general public of the real-world learning benefits derived from playing games like World of Warcraft. This particular study will document what makes people invest so much time and energy into playing.

You will not be asked for any information that will identify you personally, but if you wish to be considered to participate in other parts of the study or do not mind being contacted about your survey, you will be invited to provide an email address.

Important Details:

1. The survey will take no more than 30 minutes; and
2. you will be asked to write a few paragraphs about why you play World of Warcraft.
3. The survey is only open to those 18+. This is because of rules about collection of data and participation by minors. Sorry if you can’t participate.

As a reward for participating, you may optionally enter a draw to win one of several virtual in-game pets at the end of the survey. This will require an e-mail address that will be collected on the WoW Learning website and not associated with your survey.

Do feel free to contact the researcher (wow.learning AT sussex.ac.uk) should you have any questions about this study or Dr. Judith Good (J.Good AT sussex.ac.uk), project supervisor.

Start the survey at SurveyMonkey.com

Related posts:

1. Why Do You Play WoW Survey Now Closed Thanks to everyone who participated fully or partially in my first survey Why Do You Play World of Warcraft. The survey, which opened April 4th,...