In past survey results, we’ve seen that many MMO players play with people they know face-to-face (friends, romantic partners, family members, etc.). And we’ve also seen hints that role-reversals can occur. For example, a father may be a member of a guild where his son is the leader. In this article, we’ll take a look at whether and how MMO role-reversals impact existing relationships.

Given the contextual constraints of the scenario, it’s not surprising that the question elicited only a handful of respondents. 46 players described their role-reversal experiences. Most of these came from parent-child (17) and romantic partner (18) pairs. The remainder came from friends (5), siblings (4), and boss-employee pairs (2). Of the 46 players, 24 felt that the role-reversal did not change the existing relationship at all. Of the remaining 22 responses, half felt the role-reversal had a positive impact on the relationship while the other half felt it had a negative impact on the relationship.