Mimicry in Dragon Nest

It was Christmas when I first entered the world of Lagendia. Apparently, the festive mode at the end of December has been brought forward to the month of January as well. After Christmas, Legendia entered yet another festive season, the Chinese Lunar New Year (CNY).

The virtual world of Lagendia seems to be synchronized and up to date with the real world. I assume that this is the least I could expect from a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) to create a relatively realistic fantasy world.

[World][PlayerA]: “GONG XI FA CAI”

[World][PlayerB]: “Happy Chinese New Year!”

[Guild][PlayerC]: “Happy New Year”

These were some of the messages that flooded my chat box during twelve midnight on CNY eve. Some of my guild members were online and we counted down to CNY during the ever. However, with my television turned on beside me, I was viewing the countdown in the real world as well. Soon after, there was nothing seen in the chatbox that was about CNY except for the discussion of the statistical advantage and probability of owning the CNY promotional items.


[Party][PlayerD]: “How many times did you try before you get the attk 20-20 cny weapon?
[PlayerE]: “Wad? CNY items are rubbish, there is only 1/8 chances I will get the item I need and wad am I gonna do with those pile of junk that I wasted my cash on?”

With that being said, I come to my point of discussion concerning Mimicry: Do players actually become absorbed into the game acting like “citizen” of the virtual world in the context of MMORPGs? The reason why I ask this question is because from my observation, players in Dragon Nest behave more agonistically than interested about the storyline of Lagendia. There are many claims made that MMORPGs provide a realistic virtual world that promotes Escapism and results in addiction issues for some players. However, the closest examples of such claims I can find in relation to Dragon Nest are videos such as this:

I find that such videos depicted the game to be more Agonistic by nature rather than being related to Mimicry.

In Dragon Nest, players are mostly more concern about their Player-Versus-Player (PVP) rankings, what is the best equipment in the game currently, forming parties to farm for better items. Furthermore, buying Vanity items such as the CNY Promotional Cash Shop items are seen as a statistical improvement to their character as these items do give players additional statistical advantages in-game rather than items just to make your characters look good.

Given the nature of the Dragon Nest, players in it then to be competitive and as the game are PVP centric, there are two different PVP arenas in Dragon Nest. The Colosseum is catered to people who are unable to devote their time into gearing up their character (so they normalize all character stats in it) while in LADDER matches character equipment plays a significant role in winning.


[Player B]: "When you lose to super geared noobs, you will understand why LADDER is not as fun as Colosseum".

From this statement, we can sense unhappiness of players in LADDER who lost due to equipment rather than skill and many in my guild thus opt to play in the Colosseum rather than the LADDER matches.

From the interview with Will Wright, the game, The Sims, reminded me of online games like HABBO and Second Life. These games may have placed more emphasis on in-game character development and storyline which may then be classified under “Mimicry". Thus, this brings me to my question for the Seminar Discussion:

Are there any online games that are considered to be only classified under Mimicry or is Mimicry only used in online games to differentiate itself from other game titles?