“Study Shows Human Behavior During End of the World in Online Game”

The end of the world is one of the concerns of many people. While it may actually be a long way off, there are already portrayed several ways for an apocalypse.

The collision of a meteor, a virus, fungus or deadly bacteria, nuclear wars and even the collapse of the Earth itself: these are all common examples that we see in movies, series and cartoons.

A big difference that we see in these stagings and that brings a doubt to the spectators is: what would be the behavior of people in the face of the end of the world?

This is certainly a very difficult answer to obtain precisely, given the experimental difficulty. However, a group of researchers managed to come up with at least one idea using just one online game.

Study on human behavior at the end of time

In a study published in the “Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on World Wide Web Companion”, a team of scientists used the game “ArcheAge”, of the MMORPG genre, that is, with multiple players connected in the same universe, to analyze the behavior of people facing a hypothetical apocalypse.

For that, they had to produce the research still in the beta version of the gamebecause, in it, the players could play normally, advancing in the game to obtain higher levels and more equipment.

However, at the end of the 11-week study, he was told that the server would shut down and any progress would be erased, as in a sort of virtual end of the world.

The study had more than 270 million behavioral records: for example, the missions completed, the accumulation of items and the advancement of levels.

This could be a good benchmark for how people would behave in such a situation, as all sense of progress is lost with the deletion of data.

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The team could conclude that, for the end of the world, it was actually quite calm. There were no such significant changes in the players’ habits, only a few showed aggressive behavior towards others, killing other characters.

The analysis also revealed that, as the end approached, the vast majority of users abandoned in-game evolution, stopping with quests and experience gathering. People were more focused on exploring and having fun with virtual partners than on leveling up.

Scientists recognize that the study has a major limitation, after all an online game is not exactly a realistic scenario. However, in any case, the end was peaceful.