RA-model: a taxonomy model of player activities in mobile MMORPGs

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we present a player taxonomy model for MMORPGs on mobile phone: RA-Model (Relationship and Achievement Taxonomy Model). This model uses two player motivations: Relationship and Achievemen to explain why players play the game. All players in the game can be divided into 3 types: Socializer, Moderator and Fighter based on their scores of Relationship and Achievement. This model has been applied on a commercially launched mobile massively multi-player online role playing game (MMORPG) "ZhanGuo"[10], which has been run on more than 800 types of mobile phones owned by a million subscribers since 2005 in China. RA-Model can be used to control player balance and analyze player payment in the game, which will provide useful information to the game design.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.m Miscellaneous

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Human Factors, Theory

Keywords:
mobile MMORPG, motivation, payment, taxonomy