Massively multiplayer online role-playing games in education and training

What are massively multiplayer online role-playing games?

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are games that simulate quasi-infinite universes in which players evolve and act through their avatars. These universes are "persistent" because avatars "live" in them all the time, whether the player is connected or not.

Each game has its own universe, and there's something for every taste: consumer society (e.g. Second Life), adventure in a fantasy world (e.g. Dofus), and so on. What's special about these games is that they enable players to build communities by connecting with each other through their avatars.

These networked games, or online multiplayer games, are now one of the most dynamic segments in the video game industry. For example, World of Warcraft (WoW), one of the most popular, started out with around 1.5 million subscribers in 2005, and annual revenues from multiplayer games were around half a billion dollars. But by 2013, the number of players worldwide had risen to 628 million, representing $14.9 billion in annual global revenues for the industry. Today, the phenomenon has taken a new turn, notably with League of Legends (LoL), a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA ) video game, which is now the most played multiplayer game in the world. Every year, the world championship final is watched by several million spectators, both online and in theatres.

It's clear, then, that this is a highly lucrative and attractive economic sector, but what about the educational side? What experiments or educational uses can be carried out using online multiplayer role-playing games? What added value does the use of these games confer compared with other game-based or non-game-based educational approaches? What factors should educators consider when implementing this approach? In this article, we present the most significant online games used for learning/teaching.

A few cases of pedagogical experimentation

MMORGP is essentially based on trial-and-error learning, as opposed to the traditional method of understanding before acting. On the Internet and in online role-playing games, the public generally uses this more inductive and intuitive way of learning. They participate and act in this universe while discovering the rules. They also enable the acquisition of skills such as the ability to cope with changing environments and to work as part of a team. In the classroom, they can be integrated into pedagogical activities requiring interaction, collaboration or socialization. Below, we present the practices of teachers in different disciplines or themes.

1. Teaching computer programming...

The article "CMX: The Effects of an Educational MMORPG on Learning and Teaching Computer Programming, IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies" analyzes [1] the impact of using an online multiplayer educational game in teaching and learning computer programming to first-year college students.

The results show that the majority of the 76 students were able to learn programming concepts while having fun, and were even motivated to continue because the learning scenarios contained a variety of fun activities. Finally, the authors offer game designers and teachers empirical or factual evidence on the effectiveness of multi-player games in teaching a discipline as difficult as computer programming.

2. In language learning...

Suh and Kim have demonstrated the effectiveness of multiplayer games in teaching foreign languages [2]. Indeed, the growing popularity and social nature of online multiplayer games mean that they have become a major tool for socialization. These games are spaces where users of all ages can engage in various forms of social interaction. These are most often in written form, thus developing linguistic skills.

These authors [3] found that students learning English as a second language through English-language multiplayer games performed better in listening, reading and writing than those who had only attended face-to-face courses. These interesting results could generate or inspire new approaches to the teaching/learning of foreign languages, especially when they are not spoken in the learner's or player's real life.

Zon / New Chengo from the University of Michigan (USA) and Thélème[4]from the University of Strasbourg are other examples of multi-player games used to teach the French language, and which simultaneously make use of all the features of online games: interactivity, immersion, simulation and playfulness. However, they also raise questions linked to the model conflicts they provoke: learning models, models of the learner-actor and the teacher-actor, and value systems.

3. In the legal sector

The EducTice team at ENS Lyon has also developed Tamagocours [5], an online multiplayer game designed to promote learning about the legal rules governing the use of digital resources in an educational context. It is intended as a preparation for the Certificat Informatique et Internet de Niveau 2 Enseignant (C2i2e). When this pedagogical project was designed [6], a playful approach was favored in order to motivate the player/learner to complete the various complex legal tasks.

4. In the distance learning sector

Multiplayer games enhance learners' critical thinking and social problem-solving skills. Indeed, in these universes, the player most often belongs to an online community [7] with which he or she communicates regularly through the various activities provided in the game, which is sometimes difficult for some shy or too quiet students unable to do so face-to-face.

Virtuality and anonymity on the Internet make it easier to take the initiative and make contact than when face-to-face with a real person. To this end, Marcus Childress and Ray Braswell [8] have demonstrated the positive impact of the Second Life online multiplayer game in facilitating collaborative learning activities, reinforcing communication and interaction in a massive open online course (MOOC).

Some limitations

1. The risk of addiction

Unlike other educational video games, where the user can easily decide to stop after one game, massively multiplayer online role-playing games follow a different logic. They operate on the model of virtual communities, with a learner's/user's avatar evolving in parallel with real time, and the game's virtual universe evolving even when the user is offline.

When the user disconnects, this marks the end of a mission. The more a player has invested in his virtual "double", the greater the fear of losing him or seeing him diminished in relation to the others, and therefore all the emotions linked to the game increase. A learner may therefore involuntarily spend more time than expected connected to the game, for fear of causing inconvenience to his or her community by disconnecting.

It is therefore important for any educator considering adopting this multi-player gaming tool to clearly establish balanced rules of use, in common with the learner/player, and to define group pressure factors and provide appropriate sanctions for non-compliance.

2. Low playfulness, boring play

The ludic-educational balance has always been at the heart of the success or pedagogical effectiveness of any serious game. The first question that often comes to mind is: are they really games? Some MMORPGs have been subverted for educational purposes. Such is the case with World of Warcraft [9].

In fact, it's not enough to have a nice scenario and images to have a serious game. In this respect, Laurence Schmoll demonstrates that many educational games - such as Polar-FLE or Second Life - for teaching French as a foreign language (FLE) are not very playful. They're little more than exercises to apply a lexical or grammatical point. The pedagogical objective is far too explicit for the learner to be fooled, and these types of application are only games in the name given to them by their designer. Only the user's attitude can give them a play value [10].

Making the tedious interesting and social

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games lend themselves particularly well to use as a learning tool in certain disciplines that require time and repetition at the risk of being tedious. They enable interaction with others, the simulation of concrete situations, contextualized actions and involvement in a community life that encourages players to stay in the game space for a long time and to accept to face difficulties, even repetitive ones. However, the strength of emotions, availability and greater immersion are mechanisms that increase the risk of addiction.