Altruism in games: Helping others help themselves

Abstract

Altruistic behavior is often considered the building block of a civic society. As more people interact with others in online environments, altruistic behaviors therein have become an interesting issue for analysis. In this paper, we investigate it in MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) that provide the most realistic, lifelike experiences. Specifically we look at the altruistic behaviors in Aion, an MMORPG serviced by NC Soft, Inc., of Korea. We analyze two types of behaviors, namely donation of cyber assets and guided co-play with lowerlevel users. We find that benefiting from altruistic behaviors can initiate pay-it-forward phenomena, and increases a player's customer loyalty and satisfaction from the game.