TY - GEN
T1 - Loyalty or profit? Early evolutionary dynamics of online game groups
AU - Kang, Ah Reum
AU - Park, Juyong
AU - Kim, Huy Kang
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - The life and evolution of a social group - its birth, growth, decline, and possible demise - have long been the focus of social science research. The birth and the early growth patterns of social groups, in particular, have been studied relatively little because of the lack of detailed data that describe the trajectories of groups during their early lives. In this paper, we report the major factors that govern the early dynamics of the evolution of social groups that are found in the complete data about user behaviors and activities for ArcheAge, a large-scale Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG). We find that in the early stages of a game where uncertainties prevail regarding the stability of a group, prospects for benefit are the more important factor in a group's growth than personal or social loyalty.
AB - The life and evolution of a social group - its birth, growth, decline, and possible demise - have long been the focus of social science research. The birth and the early growth patterns of social groups, in particular, have been studied relatively little because of the lack of detailed data that describe the trajectories of groups during their early lives. In this paper, we report the major factors that govern the early dynamics of the evolution of social groups that are found in the complete data about user behaviors and activities for ArcheAge, a large-scale Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG). We find that in the early stages of a game where uncertainties prevail regarding the stability of a group, prospects for benefit are the more important factor in a group's growth than personal or social loyalty.
KW - Group dynamics
KW - Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG)
KW - Online game community
KW - User behavior analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84906773199&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/NetGames.2013.6820602
DO - 10.1109/NetGames.2013.6820602
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84906773199
SN - 9781479929610
T3 - Annual Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games
BT - 2013 12th Annual Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games, NetGames 2013
PB - IEEE Computer Society
T2 - 2013 12th Annual Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games, NetGames 2013
Y2 - 9 December 2013 through 10 December 2013
ER -