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THE PATTERNS, EFFECTS AND EVOLUTION OF PLAYER SOCIAL NETWORKS
IN ONLINE GAMING COMMUNITIES
by
Cuihua Shen
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(COMMUNICATION)
December 2010
Copyright 2010 Cuihua Shen
Object Description
| Title | The patterns, effects and evolution of player social networks in online gaming communities |
| Author | Shen, Cuihua |
| Author email | shencuihua@gmail.com; shencuihua@hotmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Communication |
| School | Annenberg School for Communication |
| Date defended/completed | 2010-12 |
| Date submitted | 2010 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2010-09-20 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Monge, Peter R. |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Fulk, Janet Williams, Dmitri Robertson, Peter John |
| Abstract | This dissertation presents a critical examination of the social interactions among MMOG participants by focusing on network patterns, effects and evolution. It is situated in a popular MMOG, EverQuest II (EQII), drawing on a combination of unobtrusively collected behavioral server logs and a comprehensive survey conducted with the players directly through the game engine.; An exploratory analysis of network patterns revealed that the social architecture of the world was quite effective in shaping the structure of interaction, as the involvement in various social networks was influenced by class choice and character level. However,sociability among players was quite diffuse, with a sizable number of players opting to play solo despite the built-in mechanisms that encourage collaborative play. Second, drawing on the theory of social capital, this study tested the effects of different structural properties of player social networks. Players who bridged diverse, otherwise unconnected partners were rewarded with better task performance in EQII. But contrary to expectation, players located in dense and closed cliques did not show higher level of trust towards guildmates or sense of community. Lastly, a longitudinal analysis of tie persistence and decay demonstrated the transient nature of social relationships in EQII, but these ties became considerably more durable over time. Also, character level similarity, shared guild membership and geographic proximity were powerful mechanisms in preserving social relationships. |
| Keyword | MMOG; social networks; online communities; network evolution; sociability; social relationships; online games; social capital |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3450 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Shen, Cuihua |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@dots.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-shen-4084 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume40/etd-shen-4084.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@dots.usc.edu |
| Full text | THE PATTERNS, EFFECTS AND EVOLUTION OF PLAYER SOCIAL NETWORKS IN ONLINE GAMING COMMUNITIES by Cuihua Shen A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (COMMUNICATION) December 2010 Copyright 2010 Cuihua Shen |
