Article Summary Of:

Ducheneaut, N., Yee, N., Nickell, E., and Moore, R. J. 2006. "Alone together?": exploring the social dynamics of massively multiplayer online games. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Montréal, Québec, Canada, April 22 - 27, 2006). R. Grinter, T. Rodden, P. Aoki, E. Cutrell, R. Jeffries, and G. Olson, Eds. CHI '06. ACM Press, New York, NY, 407-416. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1124772.1124834

Primary Topic(s) Addressed:  MMOGs

Secondary Topic(s) Addressed:  online communities, social dynamics; activity metrics

How this might be used on my dissertation:

Interesting to note that study was done on the GAME DATA rather than by interviewing game users

Discusses WoW (World of Warcraft) and what gamers look for:  their online reputation, power, a steady challenge

Questions Raised (potential topic for me):

MMOGs are fun to analyze- they are complex online worlds that can be easily researched.

Social interaction is easily researched- we can also look at group cognition (guilds, etc)

I saw a correspondence between setting appropriate tasks based on one's level of understanding (educational theory) and setting the difficulty to advance levels in a game:  they both steadily increase as skill develops.  In a game, this leads to an addicting / good game.  Also, shows a fine balance between frustration and getting bored with a task; WoW masters this balance very well

Summary of Paper:

Brings in social aspects of gaming (uses SNA:  social network analysis)

Differs from most papers- does a quantitative data analysis of GAME DATA, not using interviews

Analyzes WoW to see what players are looking for (reputation, etc)

Social dynamics are quite complex in a MMOG- many systems developed among game players to achieve success

Guilds serve as temporary, small groups that vary in size and length of operation, and serve as a social group used to tackle game obstacles / challenges
- author notes that guilds consist of players of close levels- as lower level players are less efficient / weak, higher level players are futher along and don't need the help

Many levels in game.  Author graphs time to 'level up' which shows a steady increase in time / difficulty for each level:  agreeing with the principle of gaming where challenge steadily increases (novices get easy goals, experts get harder ones).  Corresponds to good playability and addiction of gamers
- could apply this to learning as well- increase the challenge as player increases their skill:  appropriate goals keep us interested without letting us get bored.  Too easy = boredom; too hard = give up

 

Terms / Definitions defined:

1. WoW:  World of Warcraft- a MMOG that is very popular at time paper was written (still is a big game)

Good Quotes:

see paper (circled)

"To use an analogy, WoW is therefore like playing pinball in a crowded arcade, where spectators gather around the machine to observe the best players." (p. 413) -- reputation in a MMOG

"WoW begins with almost instant gratification but, as soon as the player masters the initial tasks and they become trivial, they are replaced with slightly more difficult tasks- along with the promise of better rewards (e.g. more skills, travel to new zones, etc.)." (p. 409)