Virtually Together: Examining Pre-Existing Relationships in MMOG Play

Abstract

Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) have been a fruitful venue to study social interactions ranging from small temporary groups, to larger more permanent in-game social collectives such as guilds or clans. Much of this literature is focused on strangers becoming friends through MMOG play; comparatively, little is known about gameplay-based interactions between pre-existing romantic couples. To address that gap, this paper describes the methods used and subsequent results of an empirical investigation of the in-game actions and collaborations between couple and non-couple pairings as they played the MMOG RIFT. In our attempts to determine if couples display distinctive in-game behaviors, we found that players with a pre-existing relationship (friendship or romantic) behave in a similar manner while playing together. However, our findings indicate that avatar proximity is the key to distinguishing whether this pre-existing relationship is platonic or romantic in nature.

Virtual Rituals: Community, Emotion, and Ritual in Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games—A Quantitative Test and Extension of Structural Ritualization Theory

“…Players who focus on human resources required for a ritual event, for example, new or preexisting social networks, will be more likely to feel committed to their MMORPG community, while players who focus on nonhuman resources or material aspects of the game like collecting gold or equipment in the game are less likely to feel committed to their MMORPG community. Existing social networks and relationships that extend beyond the game are important for the solidarity of virtual communities (Bergstrom et al 2017; Ferdig et al 2017). The different impact that resources have on commitment to community reflect distinct types of community relationships.…”

“…Item 9, "How important is it that you play with people from real life?," measures the importance of playing with people with relationships outside the game. Human resources represent social networks that extend outside of the game but can be activated to form groups for participation in collective events (Bergstrom et al 2017;Ferdig, Pytash, and Muschert 2017). We expect human resources to increase commitment to community because of preexisting and external social networks.…”

Sentimental Avatars: Gender Identification and Vehicles of Selfhood in Popular Media From Nineteenth-Century Novels to Modern Video Games

“…Cohen, 2001;Van Looy, Courtois, De Vocht, & De Marez, 2012), ideas about identification as a merger of character-self (Klimmt, Hefner, & Vorderer, 2009), and other approaches that emphasize virtual embodiment, such as self-presence, or the sense of the self as present in the avatar's body, emotion, or identity (Ratan, 2012). Indeed, relative presence with other avatars has been shown to indicate a level of attraction or romantic connection between players (Bergstrom, Jenson, de Castell, & Taylor, 2017). As we elaborate below, in much the same way that sentimental literature has been understood to be produced by and for women, video games are still heavily marketed and culturally oriented toward male consumers (Ivory, 2006), with women often serving in secondary roles (T. Lynch, Tompkins, van Driel, & Fritz, 2016;Ratan, Taylor, Hogan, Kennedy, & Williams, 2015) or as little more than salacious ornamentation (H. D. Fisher, 2015).…”