POWER GAMERS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN?: INSTRUMENTAL PLAY IN A MMOG - A MMOG ethnography

Aug 28, 2026

The paper examines power gamers, a subset of massive multiplayer online game participants, through ethnographic study of EverQuest and interviews with players. It analyzes how this highly instrumental, game-orientation is sustained and enacted through a range of distinctly social activities rather than isolated play stereotypes. By reframing power gamers as embedded in social structures, rituals, and shared practices, the work extends understanding of “fun” beyond simplistic design-driven ideas. The study also situates the power-vs-casual distinction within richer accounts of styles of play and collective knowledge production.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Types of Gamers

Power gaming

COPYRIGHT Copyright © 2003 by authors, Utrecht University and Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) . All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any forms or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, filming, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holders. 24 . POWER GAMERS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN?: INSTRUMENTAL PLAY IN A MMOG T . L . Taylor ABSTRACT In this paper I explore a particular slice of massive multiplayer participants known as power gamers . Through my ethnography of EverQuest, as well as interviews with players, I analyze the ways these participants, who operate with a highly instrumental game-orientation, actually facilitate their play style through a variety of distinctly social activities . Rather than seeing this segment of the gaming population as “lone ranger”figures or via various other “geek gamer” myths, this work explores the way high-end players are actually embedded in deeply social structures, rituals, and practices . KEYWORDS Massive multiplayer online games, MMOG, EverQuest, socialization, styles of play, player typology, power gaming INTRODUCTION While there is a growing body of literature on massive multiplayer online games (MMOG) it has typically focused on a generic player. Given the newness of the field this kind of homogeneity is understandable – the terrain has been getting a basic mapping and so fine-grained distinctions had not yet emerged. Earlier work however by people like Bartle [2] provide some indication that not all players are the same. He proposes that there are a variety of different types of activities people prefer do in MUDs (though the theory is often used for other games) and that we can characterize such players through a basic taxonomy. His now oft-repeated categories – killers, achievers, socializers, explorers – form a continual basis for discussions of player types. While such distinctions are often overstated as complete archetypes, it is worth exploring the different kinds of styles of play users engage in. The notion that people play differently, and the subjective experience of play varies, is central to an argument that would suggest there is no single definitive way of enjoying a game or of talking about what constitutes “fun.” I would argue we need expansive definitions of play to account for the variety of pleasurable labor participants engage in (see [9] for further discussion of the multiple pleasures of games). Suggesting that games are always “fun”(and then in turn endlessly running after the design of such) is likely to gloss over more analytically productive psychological, social, and structural components of games. 301 One of the most interesting distinctions I have found in my research on MMOGs is the difference between the casual and power gamer. Both terms are likely to evoke a kind of stereotyped figure. The casual gamer is often seen as someone “with a life” who invests only moderate amounts of time in a game while the power gamer appears as an isolated and socially inept player with little “real life” to ground them. For the most part dialogue about the types rests on unproductive rhetoric and tells us very little about styles of play and what brings people back to a game over and over again. It dichotomizes and oversimplifies the much more complicated social experience of each category. In this paper I will, using ethnographic and interview data, focus on power gamers and try to provide some initial thoughts on their style of play and identify ways in which they participate in a kind of social labor and collective knowledge production. TYPES OF GAMERS The question about styles of play and gamer types isan old one and debated in both designer & player communities. There are often a normative aspects to suc

FAQs

What does the paper investigate about power gamers in MMOGs?

It explores how power gamers sustain their instrumental play style through various social activities in EverQuest, based on ethnography and interviews.

How does the author position power gamers compared with casual gamers?

The paper argues that the casual/power distinction is often portrayed stereotypically and oversimplifies social experience, so it focuses on power gamers to reveal deeper play strategies.

Why does the author reject viewing power gamers as lone, socially inept players?

Because the findings emphasize that high-end players are embedded in social structures, rituals, and practices that support collective knowledge and ongoing engagement.

Aug 28, 2026

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