Download Roettger - 1 Analysis of Final Fantasy XI: Development of Social

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Analysis of Final Fantasy XI: Development of Social Values and
Norms using the Social Exchange Theory
By James Roettger
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Since the development of the Internet in the early 1970s, virtual communities have been in
existence.
However, it wasn’t until the early 1990s when computer technology became
affordable and more user-friendly for the average citizen that these online communities began to
develop their own unique form of socialization. By the late 1990s most households had at least
one computer and an internet connection1. People were beginning to spend more of their time on
their computers playing games and socializing online. In March of 1999, a new type of computer
game became popularized—the massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG)—
with the release of a game called EverQuest. MMORPGs are games that take place completely
online, requiring a constant connection to the internet while playing, and usually consisting of an
alternate world in which a player may take on a role of some fantasy character such as a wizard or
warrior. To give players the feeling of having a unique character, MMORPGs give them the
option to customize an avatar to represent the player in the game. These customization options
allow the player to specify everything from height of the avatar to skin color and age. EverQuest,
one of the most popular MMORPGs with over one million players, had several unexpected
effects on society. The first was that many of the players became so engrossed with the game,
preferring it to reality, that they rarely stopped playing it to socialize in the real world. Some lost
their jobs, families, and homes because all that they would do is play the game. Secondly, up
until this point a large majority of computer games were played by people between the ages of
15-30, but EverQuest seemed to draw in an equally large number of adults over the age of thirty,
as well2. Finally, many sociologists began to notice that a virtual culture was slowly being
created on EverQuest which not only contained different rituals for socialization, but also instilled
in players a set of morals different from the ones that they were raised with. Unfortunately, most
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2
Glee, J. Beginning of the Internet. 1999. 12 Feb. 2004
Yee, Nicholas. “The Norrathian Scrolls: A Study of EverQuest” (version 2.5) May 2001.
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of these realizations came many years after EverQuest was released and so it was too late to study
this virtual culture evolving from its conception.
In October of 2003 a chance to study a MMORPG community from its release in America
was offered to me with the announcement of the U.S. release of Final Fantasy XI. Final Fantasy
XI was expected to be one of the fastest growing online games of its time. Having only been out
in the United States for eight short months, Final Fantasy XI already has gained over 800,000
players internationally and is still growing today. Virtual communities are beginning to develop
and social bonds have grown between many players. New social norms and values within the
game world have been created and rituals for socialization are becoming institutionalized. The
purpose of this research project was to apply George Homans’ and Peter Blau’s social exchange
theory to explain the development and reinforcement of in-game norms. This paper breaks the
analysis down into three parts. The first part of the paper will be an introduction into the world of
Final Fantasy XI. In this part I will describe the workings of this game world as well as how the
economy is run. The second part will look at the basic assumptions of George Homans and how
they apply to actions of individual players. Peter Blau’s theories on social conformity and the
development of collective values will be used in the last part of this paper to analyze how groups
and communities in Final Fantasy XI reinforce the social norms developed from individual
players.
“The World”
The world of Final Fantasy XI is composed of 62 different areas (new areas were added
recently), making up 3 continents and one alternate universe designed specifically for high-level
characters Each area takes a player about half an hour to an hour to walk across, can range from a
tropical jungle to a desert, and has an assorted amount of wildlife. Some wildlife will attack
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players who get too close, and there are semi-intelligent monsters in each area that will hunt
players in groups of as large as six monsters. In each area players are able to gather valuable
resources by looting the bodies of the dead creatures. The term resources are used loosely in this
paper to include equipment characters can use, money, animal parts, ores and minerals, and
magical items. A player’s strength is measured in levels, so a beginning player would be
considered level one. Players get stronger (go up in levels) in the game by collecting experience
points (commonly called xp) from killing monsters. The amount of experience points that a
player gets for each monster killed is determined by comparing the player's level to the strength
of the monster. The harder the monster is relative to the player, the more experience points the
player will get from killing the monster. If player gets killed in the game their character is
penalized a large amount of xp, which may lead to a loss of level. After dying, the player will be
teleported back to a pre-determined restart point. Players may also join in groups of up to 18
people to kill any one monster, but the xp will be split fairly among the players involved based on
their level, relative to other players in the party. In addition to this, the game records how many
experience points players from the same kingdom (there are three major kingdoms in the game)
get in each area. At the end of the week those points are tallied up and the kingdom whose
players earned the most points in a specific area gets control of that area. What this means is that
players in an area controlled by their kingdom will be marginally stronger than players from the
other kingdoms and they will be able to gather resources from the environment more efficiently.
There are three basic job categories; tanks, secondary damagers, and healers. Tanks are
composed of the warrior and paladin job classes which specialize in provoking monsters so the
monster attacks only this player, ignoring the other party members. Tanks usually have a lot of
protective armor and can take a lot of damage, but do not deal a large amount of damage to
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anything that they are attacking.
Secondary damagers include monks, thieves, ninjas,
beastmasters, rangers, samurai, summoners, bards, dragoons, black mages, and red mages. These
job classes all specialize in different types of attacks, but generally are used to the same end – to
consistently damage the monster while the tank gets hit by it. Finally, the healer job class
consists of the white mage job.
White mages and bards can not really hurt any monster
themselves, relying on the damage dealers to kill it; white mages focus on healing any damage
done to those fighting the monsters. Players may change their job at any point they wish in the
game, but each job class has a separate level record (so for example a level 20 monk can become
a white mage, but they'll be starting over at level 1).
In addition to choosing a job class, a player must also choose one of five races for their avatar.
A player’s avatar is the virtual representation of themselves in the game. Although the avatar is
humanoid the strengths and weaknesses of each race differ. These races are Galka, Tarutaru,
Mithra, Elvaan, and Hume. Each race is known for being strong in one ascribed area, compared
to the other races. Galka (hulking giants with rippling muscles) are extremely strong so they
make good fighters, but they are also very stupid so they make poor mages. TaruTaru (very tiny
humanoid, resembling mice almost), on the other hand, are very weak physically, but they are
very intelligent, making them good mages.
Mithra (cat people) are considered to be very
dexterous so they make good thieves, but they are also decent fighters and mages. Elvaans
(elves) and Humes (humans) are just about equally balanced in strength, dexterity, and
intelligence, making them versatile in switching between different job classes. Players can never
change their race once it’s chosen.
As with most MMORPGs Final Fantasy XI was created with no clearly defined goals or
objectives, though it does offer an overlying storyline which players may choose to learn about by
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completing certain missions that are offered in the game. In the absences of game-defined
objectives players tend to make up their own goals or objectives to justify playing the game. The
two most common goals are to become the strongest (highest level) player in the game or to
become the richest player in the game. In most cases, however, in order to achieve a goal in the
game, players need resources (which translate into money) and experience points. To gather
resources and experience points most players join or create hunting parties.
The basic hunting party is formed by a group of six players who are generally around the
same level. The primary goal of hunting parties is to seek monsters which no one player could
hunt on his own. The xp yield from hunting monsters of this caliber is greater per party member
than for any single player that hunted weaker monsters alone. Resources gathered from the kill
are put into a lottery which any party member can participate in to obtain the resource. It is
generally considered impractical to be in a group that doesn't have a healer or tank. Parties
without these two job classes break up very quickly and many players flat out refuse to hunt with
parties that lack one or both of these job classes. Sometimes hunting parties will stay together for
days, logging on together, at scheduled times to hunt together while other times, a hunting party
will break apart after only hours of being together. One of the most important factors that
determine the longevity of a group is the abilities of each party member to efficiently play the role
determined by their job class. For example, a group will break apart within hours if it doesn’t
have a skillful white mage to heal the other party members. The same goes for a party that has a
warrior who runs from battle instead of protecting the weaker party members.
Certain
expectations are placed on each job class and if the player does not meet with these expectations,
the group will disband.
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Development of social norms and values: individuals to groups
George Horman based his exchange theory on five principle propositions which could be
applied to all forms social activity. The first three principles, which make up his rationality
proposition3, can be used to explain how values within Final Fantasy XI are formed, while the
least two principles predict the way in which (on the level of an individual player) the norms
are reinforced. The first of these is the success proposition, which states that for all actions
taken by persons, the more often a particular action of a person is rewarded, the more likely
the person is to perform that action. An example of this proposition applying to Final Fantasy
XI is when we see how social rewards will affect what job class a player chooses for their
character. As mentioned before, each race has their own set of advantages and disadvantages
which can help or hinder the character depending on the job class they choose. Players who
have job classes that compliment their race, like a Tarutaru mage, are rewarded by being
invited to a large number of groups. On the other hand, players who choose jobs that are not
complimented by their race, like a Galka mage, will not receive those group invites as often.
From this we see a culturally created value which considers players who have races that do not
compliment their jobs to be useless to the society.
Homan’s second proposition was the stimulus proposition, which states that if an
individual is rewarded for a specific reaction to a stimulus or set of stimuli, then in situations
where the present stimuli is similar to that past stimuli, the more likely the individual is to
perform the same reaction or a reaction that is similar to their past one. In Final Fantasy XI
players begin to form groups almost as soon as they learn how to play the game. As players
gain more knowledge of the game world, they begin to see that grouping with other players to
3
Wallace, Ruth A. & Alison Wolf. Contemporary Sociological Theory. NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999. pg. 307
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kill strong monsters has a greater benefit to everyone; these stronger monsters drop resources
that are more valuable than resources dropped by monsters the player could fight alone. So,
when a player decides to go out hunting monsters, that individual will begin looking for a
group that will be hunting the same monster. This value has become so institutionalized in the
world of Final Fantasy XI; players have declared certain areas of the world as party seeking
areas. When an individual is looking to be invited to a group, they go to these areas where
they know most groups look for members.
The last proposition that composes Homan’s rationality proposition is the value
proposition. This proposition states that the likelihood of an individual repeating an action
will be dependant on how valuable the result of the action is to the individual4. Thus an
individual who values gathering large amounts of rare resources in a short amount of time will
be more likely to look for a group than an person who values being alone.
Homan’s
Rationality proposition summarizes the success, value, and stimulus propositions by saying,
“In choosing between alternative actions a person will choose the one for which, as perceived
by him the time, the value, V, of the result, multiplied by the probability, p, of getting the
result is greater4.” This basically means that an individual will choose an action based on the
chances of success and the size of the reward.
While Homan’s rationality proposition logically predicts which actions an individual, one
might assume that if the proposition was always true, individuals would repeat certain actions
an infinite number of times. To explain why individuals change the focus of their actions,
Homan created the deprivation-satiation proposition. This proposition says that the more often
in the recent past an individual has received a particular reward, the less valuable any further
unit of that reward becomes for him4. In Final Fantasy XI, as a player gains strength (levels)
4
Wallace, Ruth A. & Alison Wolf. pg. 307
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the amount of experience points required to get to the successive level is exponentially larger.
Thus, for a player to go from level two to level three they would only need 1000 experience
points, while that same player will need 1700 experience points to go from level three to level
four. In this case, a player who is level two will value 100 experience points more than a
person at level four. In game, this means that players actions will change based on the amount
of experience points they need to achieve the next level. Going back to the example from the
value proposition, the player who values hunting monsters alone may begin to value hunting in
groups more because he needs more experience points to get to his next level.
While Homan’s propositions show how values in the game are derived from the rewards
that certain actions elicit, there is still the question as to how these values become societal
norms. Homan offers the theory that a players need for social approval leads to conformity of
values which, in turn, creates social norms. To summarize Homan’s theory up until this point;
individuals will commit certain actions that will induce a rewarding response.
The more
valuable the rewards are, the more likely the individual will repeat their action. These actions
and responses will create a set of values in the virtual society. Then, when new players enter the
game, they will strive for social approval from the older players by conforming and taking on
these values even if they don’t know why the values exist. Eventually, so many players take on
the values and consider them to be a way of life in the game that these values become social
norms.
Enforcement of these social norms can be seen in Homan’s aggression-approval5
proposition. This proposition states that when an individual does not receive an expected reward
or received punishment that was not expected, that person will be angry and will perform
aggressive behavior. In Final Fantasy XI, when a player does not receive the expected rewards
from grouping with other players, the individual becomes very upset and the enjoyment of
5
Wallace, Ruth A. & Alison Wolf. pg. 312
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playing the game is drastically reduced. Since these value sets originally derived from real
situations where when the values were not followed, the rewards were less than expected. This
in turn becomes distributive justice, if groups invite players who do not follow afore mentioned
norms, the other group members become agitated with the less than expected rewards and will
act in an aggressive manner towards the nonconforming member.
Collective Values: A closer look at development of group norms
Blau extends Homan’s theories on group norm development by proposing an “emergent
process” through which the shared experiences of group members help to produce group norms
and values6. In this process individual responses and rationalizations (Homan’s propositions)
are shared through mutual discussion and are transformed into social norms through group
consensus. An example of this in Final Fantasy XI would be if two individuals in a social
setting were arguing whether it is better to hunt in a group for resources or to hunt alone. Both
individuals would present their side of the argument to the community, trying to gain support.
In the end, the belief that wins through social consensus would become an accepted group value
by the community. In this case, the idea that hunting in groups to get more experience points
has been socially accepted and become a strong belief in the game world.
Individuals in a community are willing to participate in this emergent process under the
belief that their norms and values, if instituted as a group norm, would greatly benefit the
community. This interest in helping the community become more successful the members of
that community will become more successful.
This belief can be explained using Blau’s
proposition that as groups grow into larger communities, the exchanges are increasingly
6
Wallace, Ruth A. & Alison Wolf. pg. 333
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indirect7. An example of this in Final Fantasy XI would be if, in a given community an
individual helps another community member obtain a rare and highly prized resource. In doing
this, the individual receives some social approval from the other community members. Later
when this individual needs help completing a difficult task, another community member helps
him. In this way, the player is getting rewards for helping out another community member, but
the rewards do not come from the member he helped out, but from another member of the
community. Thus, as each member becomes more successful, they can help others in the
community become more successful as well.
Social approval, a sought after characteristic, is one of the prime determinants of social
status in the virtual communities. With enough social approval, an individual will be able to
coerce others into helping him gather extremely rare resources. There are several ways in which
a player may gain social approval to raise their social status:
generosity towards other
community members, character level, services provided to the community, and how well the
individual follows the social norms of the group.
Similar to certain tribes in New Guinea8, players may bestow gifts or provide services to
other community members in exchange for a degree of social approval. The underlying belief
here is that the person receiving the gift or service will eventually pay the giver back, with
interest, for this generous display. While the gift giving is not institutionalized or ritualized a
person who does not reciprocate (with interest) for a gift given will lose social status with the
other community members. Blau theorized that this underlying process of social exchange is a
fundamental social norm of reciprocity. This norm creates a starting mechanism of social
interactions which could be defined as a need to reciprocate for gifts received in order to
7
8
Wallace, Ruth A. & Alison Wolf. pg. 331
Ongka's Big Moka - The Kawelka of Papua, New Guinea. Odyssey Series (1974).
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continue receiving them9. This theory leads back to Homan’s distributive justice definition in
that those who don’t reciprocate are considered to be freeloaders and that’s why they lose social
status.
Character level is another important part of social status, because the higher the level of the
character, the more expensive or rare the resources that the character can gather are. Level also
dictates how much authority a player has since the higher the level of the character the more they
are assumed to know about the game world and how to survive. Lower level characters are
always happy to have a higher level character around to help them gather resources, because it is
assumed that the higher level character will increase the likelihood of efficient resource
gathering and survivability in battles.
Character level also contributes a great deal to
legitimation of authority over the community.
Blau asserts that the major determinant of authority stems from the exchange aspect of
power—specifically whether subordinate groups feel that the power of an individual is being
utilized not only fairly, but generously. In regards to character level, one might say that a player
with high-level power is considered a legitimate authority, because that person generously
provides more goods and services to the other, lower level community members than would be
expected for players of his status. Having tested this theory in particular in game, I can attest to
the validity of this theory. As a new player I had found a quiet social community to join. While
in this community I readily offered my services to any member who was in need. In addition to
this I periodically gave out gifts to each community member. Within two months of joining this
community I was viewed as one of the most powerful and influential community members.
When there was a dispute between two other members I was called in to settle the quarrel. I was
also seen as one of the more “experienced” members of the community because of the speed at
9
Wallace, Ruth A. & Alison Wolf. pg. 331
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which I gained levels was quite a bit faster than others. This was mainly due to the fact that
most of my spare time was spent in the game world, but the amount of time I was in the game
also contributed to my status. The amount of time in-game will, to a degree, show other players
how dedicated an individual is to the world. However, if a player plays over a certain amount of
hours in-game (over 8 hours a day), the player is considered to be fanatical and loses social
approval. This is due to media publicity of the EverQuest players who did nothing but play
EverQuest—most people who participate in online games know that there is a health limit to
how much time should be spent online.
Closing thoughts
As presented in this paper, George Homan’s and Peter Blau’s social exchange theory can
be applied to interactions within the virtual world of Final Fantasy XI. The player-to-player and
player-to-group actions of this online game are just as realistic and valid in the virtual world as
they are in real life. A character’s actions will determine if he or she is successful in life, there is
still racial biases in-game just as there are out of game and the basic economic structure if Final
Fantasy XI works the same as most economic structures in the world work—workers gather
resources to sell or trade for capital. Status and the need for social approval are still a major part
of society and are used to create and enforce social norms. This study and numerous other
studies on virtual societies bring to light a question that sociologists may have to answer in the
near future. The online world has evolved far past the boundaries that its creators had originally
conceived for it10. Having become a gathering place for people of every country, the Internet
has developed its own social norms, rituals, and values. Some of these norms, rituals, and values
10
Glee, J
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stem from cultures found in the real world, but others, such as the norms and values of Final
Fantasy XI, are developed and used solely online. What sociologists must now look is whether
or not the Internet in general, and online games in specific, should be considered separate
cultures in which members of societies in the real world can join and take on a role completely
different from who they are. Even then, there may be adverse effects of having an additional
role which may be completely different from the public self that an individual can now play
online. While I may not consider the online world to be a separate culture, I do see it as a
separate society. Having looked at socialization in one virtual world I have become curious as to
if any of the norms and values that players learn in the game are transferred to the norms and
values that they have in their “real world” society. As for the social exchange theory, it has
show to be a very versatile theory which can be applied to interactions and situations that its
creators could not have imagined possible.
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Appendix A: Races
Elvaan
Galka
Tarutaru
Mithra
Hume
Size Ratio