Why looking into superstitions in MMOG is important?

Dr M has asked me to include in my abstract why looking into superstitions in MMOG is important in the first place. There are no scholarly work on superstitions on MMOG to date and only Nick Yee, in his blog above, has started the conversation after getting players to share superstitions they seen in MMOG.

How can we benefit from knowing more about superstitions in MMOG? The first of the two video clips below makes claim that we are all superstitions animal just like the pigeons experimented by Skinner (as told by Yee above). How far have we bring our real world superstitions into the virtual world of games. Are the attributes of and our experiences in virtual worlds so comparable to our real world that we share similar fear, suspicious, rational, etc.

Said that, Yee says there are more basis not to believe superstitions in real world because of the presence of omnipotent, omniscient God whom we have no idea how He works but in MMOG there are the game developers who reign supreme. They are humans like us whom we can second guess their intentions, motives and moves. Further, I feel anything humankind creates is nothing near perfection. So they may claim to "use a random number generator throughout... but it’s also true that it takes just several lines of code to increase the chances of all rare drops" (Yee, above). So if this is the case can superstitions in MMOG be seen as scientific endeavours, testing out hypothesis to determine possible mathematical formula in game design (even for instances deem to be randomized).



Or perhaps superstitions in MMOG are at best a science of hunches and suspicious like how superstitions in real world sports (see below). Because of the need to have an edge over the opponents, even mystic are sought - like having a lucky charm in our inventory to increase the chances of rare drops.



Anyway, back to my paper, I guess what I am trying to established is whether superstitions in MMOGs, while primarily motivated by the need to be successful in gameplay, can they possibly be seen either as scientific and cognitive endeavours to establish mathematical functionings of some aspects of game design or as pursuits shape by socio-cultural forces and situated as part of the practices and culture of gamers. If superstitions in MMOGs are scientific and cognitive endeavours, then they have potential for learning that warrant more investigations to uncover the links. If they are the latter, then they are another avenue for game researchers to understand more of the meaning-making and enculturation process of players into the cultures of gamers in MMOGs.