Tanks, Chauffeurs and Backseat Drivers: Competence in MMORPGs

Carr and Oliver's study examines how competence is developed and recognized in massively multiplayer online role-playing games, using World of Warcraft as its primary case. Drawing on ten semi-structured interviews with real-life couples who play together, and on a constructivist grounded theory approach, the authors argue that competence cannot be reduced to character level or mechanical skill. Instead, they propose a "management of resources" framework that identifies material, ludic, and social resources as the foundations of learning and play, and show that players are judged competent through markers such as preparation, fluency in specialist jargon, and understanding of one's role within a group.

The study's central findings emphasize that learning in these environments is fundamentally social and negotiated. Players engage in coaching, "chauffeuring," and "boosting," practices that transfer expertise between more and less experienced participants, while navigating the risk of becoming intrusive "backseat drivers." The concept of "playing together" itself proves elastic, ranging from shared role-play and common vocabulary to sharing a single account or simply occupying the same physical space. The authors also document how blurred boundaries between game and everyday life, gendered access to resources, and negotiation over time and role-play shape how couples experience and sustain their play. Players, the authors note, hold conflicting views about what constitutes fair play.

The study's scope is focused on a small qualitative sample of couples and on the broader guild and social contexts of MMORPG play, with an emphasis on World of Warcraft as a representative environment. The accompanying reference material situates the work within wider scholarship on game learning, online social worlds, and player culture, drawing on established authors in game studies and on DiGRA conference contributions. Taken together, the work argues that competence in MMORPGs is complex and multi-faceted, shaped as much by social dynamics and negotiated norms as by the formal structures of the game.