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the traditional “prisoner’s dilemma” from economic game theory. In the prisoner’s dilemma game, two players are offered reduced punishments for tattling on the other. The best collective result is for the two players to hold fast and not betray the other, but they have no way of knowing what the rival player’s plans are. If the game is played repeatedly, trust improves as the players begin to predict how the other will react. In World of Warcraft, the end result was that, even in repeated games, the players ratted each other out. Although World of Warcraft’s party system seems to encourage collaboration, “within virtual realms, people don’t feel the same sense of consequence or responsibility for their actions,” said North. “There is a definite distinction between a person and their avatar” (Dagger 2007).

Gender

The addition of graphics changes the nature of online games for massive multiplayers in subtle but important ways. Many massive multiplayer games have characters that are statistically equal when they are first created despite their difference in gender, but the female is sexually exaggerated (Castronova 2005:117; Taylor 2006:13).

Because there are visual cues in online games, there is more flexibility in presenting one’s avatar as something other than oneself. This is a gender-crossing activity (Sinha 1999:118). Whereas boys might be criticized for dressing and grooming a doll, both genders can try on thousands of different outfits and appearances on their avatars—even if that means beating the pulp out of someone else with said avatar (Beck and Wade 2004:50). A study at Nottingham Trent University found that 15 percent of players in MMORPGs routinely switch genders (Poole 2003).

There are contrasting views as to the status of female gamers. On the one hand, female gamers comprise nearly 40 percent of gamers in the United States if the broad definition of online gaming encompasses all forms of online gaming. Taylor posits that free time is one reason for why female gamers are rarer in fantasy MMORPGs (20 to 30 percent) and the upper echelons of power gaming in particular. Due to domestic pressures, many women may simply not have the time to devote to this sort of time-intensive gaming (2006:73). One RetroMUD player explained her experience growing up as a female gamer:

Growing up I tried very hard to find gamer friends, and therefore the majority of my friends turned out to be male. It seems there is a shortage of female gamers in my area. However, a couple of my female friends do play console games when the mood strikes them. I would hesitate to call them gamers themselves however, as they did not immerse themselves into the gaming world beyond a few games with one exception. My closest female friend growing up was a gamer as well. I was always the more prolific about it than she was though, and when we would get together we often played single player games. She enjoyed watching me play through Resident Evil and similar titles, though multiplayer games between us was rare. I am not really certain as to why, as she certainly played when I was not around. She still plays console games now, but not nearly so frequently any longer [Simes 2010].

Soloers

Soloers play the game by themselves without the benefit of a party. The plight of the soloer is particularly vexing to game developers, who build their interactive worlds on the basic principles of Dungeons & Dragons, which requires teamwork. A population of soloers breaks down many of the inherent social benefits that gamers take for granted, most particularly the incentive to help new players. The cost of “social exit” is what helps bind the community together—even if they don’t like the game, they don’t want to leave their friends. An unfriendly, selfish community is hostile to new players, who by definition are weaker than the higher-level players they partner with. A shared sense of weakness and vulnerability is critical to group cohesion and party advancement, and soloing circumvents this (Taylor 2006:36).

Still, one of the largest