Social User Experience Design for MMORPG Players in Social Anxiety Environment

This study began with the fact that the proportion of social anxiety groups surged after COVID-19. Massively multiplayer online role-playing games（MMORPGs） have become essential for Social Anxiety players to socialize because of their unique social attributes. Many researchers have found that among many game genres, players with social anxiety generally play MMORPGs more frequently than their non-anxious counterparts. This study aims to improve the game social experience of players with social anxiety. Therefore, this study analyzed why players with social anxiety are more immersed in MMORPG and analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the MMORPG social system in the social anxiety environment. This study conducted a questionnaire survey of 310 players of MMORPGs with social anxiety. It used the importance-performance analysis (IPA） method to analyze the players' importance and satisfaction differences with the game's social factors (socializing, social support, self-affirmation, and self-disclosure). The study results, and contents are as follows. First, the strengths of the MMORPG social system are socializing (learning social skills, making friends, and experiencing socialization) and social support (action support). Second, the weaknesses of the MMORPG social system are social support (information and physical support) and self-affirmation (self-worth affirmation and positive evaluation). Based on study results, this study proposes game design suggestions to optimize the social experience of MMORPG players with social anxiety. Hope to provide theoretical support for the future optimization of the social system in MMORPGs.