Appeal of Game Elements

Knowing how different key elements of an MMORPG differ in importance across age and gender help us predict how games that emphasize different components will appeal to different people and gives us a sense of why certain gender or age skews appear. It also lets us understand how enhancing an element in the game might impact the player base. For example, if a game enhanced the visual quality of the landscape, who is most likely to enjoy that change?

Respondents were asked to indicate on an 8-point scale how important the following elements of an MMORPG are relative to each other.

• A good combat system
• A good crafting system
• Varied and interesting landscape
• Varied and interesting quests
• Highly customizable character creation

Overall, the "combat" element is more important to male players as would be expected, and the "quest" element is more important to female players. The age differences among male and female MMORPG players are summarized below. The percentages shown are percentages of players who ranked that element in the 2 highest points on the 8-point scale. The range shows the two percentages of the 12-18 age group and the over 35 age group to give a rough sense of how strong the trend is.