ABSTRACT
Research has argued that social interaction is a primary driving force for gamers to continue to play Massive Multiple Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs). However, one recent study argues that gamers don't really socialize with other players but play alone. Part of the confusion over whether players socialize much and/or enjoy socializing while playing MMORPGs may be due to the lack of a conceptual framework that adequately articulates what is meant by 'social interaction in MMORPGs to understand how users experience interactions within the game. This study utilized ethnography to map out social interaction within the game World of Warcraft. It provides a broad framework of the factors affecting social interaction. The framework developed can be further verified and modified for future research.
- Blumer, H. Society in action. In S.E. Cahill(Ed.), Inside social life: Readings in sociological psychology and microsociology, Roxbury Publishing Company, Los Angeles, 2004, 320--324.Google Scholar
- Castronova, E., Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier, CESifo Working Paper Series No. 618 (2001).Google Scholar
- Chen, V.H.H., Duh, H.B.L., Phuah, P.S.K., Lam, D.Z.Y. Enjoyment or Engagement? Role of Social Interaction in Playing Massively Mulitplayer Online Role-playing Games (MMORPGS). Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 4161(2006), 262--267. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Denzin, N. K. The methodological implication of symbolic interactionism for the study of deviance. The British journal of sociology, 25, 3 (1974), 269--282.Google Scholar
- Denzin, N. K. Symbolic interactionaism and cultural studies: The politics of interpretation. Oxford/Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1992.Google Scholar
- Ducheneaut, N. and Moore, R.J. "The social side of gaming: a study of interaction patterns in a massively multiplayer online game." In Proc. CSCW 2004, ACM Press, 360--369. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ducheneaut, N., Yee, N., Nickell, E., & Moore, R.J. Alone Together? Exploring the Social Dynamics of Massively Multiplayer Games." In Proc. CHI2006, ACM Press, 407--416. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Goffman, E. The presentation of self. In S.E. Cahill(Ed.), Inside social life: Readings in sociological psychology and microsociology. Los Angeles, California: Roxbury Publishing Company, 2004, 108--116.Google Scholar
- Griffiths, M. D., Davies, M. N. O., & Chappell, D. Breaking the stereotype: The case of online gaming. Cyber Psychology and Behavior, 6 (2003), 81--91.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Jakobsson, M.& Taylor, T.L. The Sopranos meets EverQuest. Social networking in massively multiplayer online games. Paper presented in the Digital Arts and Culture Conference 2003. http://www.informatik.umu.se/~mjson/Google Scholar
- Kolo, C., Baur, T. (2004) "Living a virtual life: social dynamics of online gaming", Game Studies: International Journal of Computer Game Research, 4, 1 (2004).Google Scholar
- Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury Park, Sage, CA, USA, 1985.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Steinkuehler, C. A. A Discourse analysis of MMOG talk. In Proc. Other Players conference 2004, IT University of Copenhagen.Google Scholar
- Yee, N. The Psychology of MMORPGs: Emotional Investment, Motivations, Relationship Formation, and Problematic Usage. In R. Schroeder & A. Axelsson (Eds.), Avatars at Work and Play: Collaboration and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments, Springer-Verlag, London, Britain, 2006, 187--207.Google Scholar
- Yee, N. The Demographics, Motivations and Derived Experiences of Users of Massively-Multiuser Online Graphical Environments. PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 15 (2006), 309--329. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Understanding social interaction in world of warcraft
Recommendations
The changing dynamic of social interaction in World of Warcraft: the impacts of game feature change
ACE '08: Proceedings of the 2008 International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment TechnologyThis study examines how changes in game features through patches and expansions can affect the social interaction within massively multiplayer games. Since patches and expansions are now commonplace within massively multiplayer games, understanding of ...
World of Warcraft as a ludic cyborg
Future Play '08: Proceedings of the 2008 Conference on Future Play: Research, Play, ShareThis paper describes World of Warcraft as a ludic cyborg --- an entity that exists for play and depends on both artificial and organic components to survive. We argue that the popularity of the game arose due to the balance between the types of ...
When social networking meets online games: the activity system of grouping in world of warcraft
SIGDOC '07: Proceedings of the 25th annual ACM international conference on Design of communicationUsing activity theory and genre theory as bases for analysis, this article examines the activity of grouping in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft. The article first examines what grouping does in the overall context of ...
Comments