Folios (Dec 2005)

Profiling Academic Research on Massively Multiplayer On-line Role-Play Gaming (MMORPG) 2000-2009: Horizons for Educational Research

  • Harold Castañeda Peña,
  • Adriana Salazar Sierra,
  • Nadya González Romero,
  • Luis Ignacio Sierra Gutiérrez,
  • Alfredo Menéndez Echavarría

DOI
https://doi.org/10.17227/01234870.38folios75.94
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 0, no. 38

Abstract

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17227/01234870.38folios75.94 Whilst there exists a large body of publications around Massively Multiplayer On-line Role-Play Gaming (MMORPG), there is little profiling academic research on this type of game. This study aims at unveiling what, when, where and who constitute scholarly work in research about MMORPG. A 777-register dataset was configured with primary documents taken from 16 databases and two web-portals. The dataset was drilled down using specialized text-mining software. Findings revealed four main research interests that comprise the games themselves, gaming experiences, systems architecture and educational MMORPG. It was also found that research on this topic started out in 2002 and some milestones of emerging research were charted out. The most prolific organizations and authors were also identified in which the USA, Canada and Italy occupy outstanding places. It is recommended that research profiling studies be carried out to extendmore informed literature reviews and support further research questions.