Article about MMOs and loss aversion
Caveat: I am not that familiar with the concepts of sandbox MMOs so it was hard for me to consider the discussion within that context. That said…
First, I am not sure that “loss aversion” is the right term for this. I know of almost no one that is not “loss averse.” If you ask me if I want to go lose some money, lose a bet, or even (on a grander scale) lose a war…my answer would be a resounding “no.” Coming from the business world, the term “risk aversion” is one that seems more suited to the discussion. In considering risk and reward, all things being equal, some people are more risk averse than others. Even narrowed down to a single person, the degree of risk tolerated would seem to be some ratio of the value of the reward to the individual versus the impact of the loss to the individual.
Another key point in the discussion is consideration of the motivation of individuals to play MMOs. Some players are highly competitive; others are social creatures who thrive on the interpersonal contact; while still others come to the games as a means of “decompressing.” The elements that make a “good” MMO are likely to vary with that motivation. While some may well thrive on heightened risk, others would likely turn away from it. With that in mind, is there some objective metric that tells us whether an MMO is “good” or “bad” other than market performance? Certainly there are technical considerations….graphics, music, voice-overs, diversity of activity, etc. but, assuming most companies in this business are capable of competently providing those elements, how is a good MMO distinguished from a bad one?
Finally, as the author points out, the entire concept of the MMO is to create a virtual environment where loss will not have the same impact that it does in real life. If we are downed by an enemy…PVP or a PVE mob…the consequences in game include a bit of silver for repairs, the cost of a WP, loss of time, and aggravation of having to fight my way back to the point where I died. Keep in mind that this is considered alongside the probability of loss versus the probability of success. A simplistic view of this would be that, as you either increase the impact of loss or increase the probability of failure, the potential reward would have to be increased in order for the function to hold. But…(and this is nothing more than a guess…no formal research to back it up), I doubt whether this is a linear function with no limits. I suspect that as the consequences of loss go up or the likelihood of failure goes up, the rewards would have to increase by ever increasing amounts until at some point there would be no reward great enough to justify the level or risk.
But the MMO, by its very nature, serves to dampen that function. The risks are virtual (other than our expenditure of time and what little cash we play for the access). The developers can increase the magnitude of loss consequence or reward along with difficulty (which impacts probability of success) and within a range, I expect that it might heighten the experience. As the magnitude gets cranked higher and higher, though, it will certainly weed out a lot of more casual players. The question is…does that make it a better MMO?