Unveiling group characteristics in online social games: A socio-economic analysis

Taejoong Chung, Jinyoung Han, Daejin Choi, Taekyoung Kwon, Huy Kang Kim, Yanghee Choi

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Understanding the group characteristics in MMORPGs is important in user behavior studies since people tend to gather together and form groups due to their inherent nature. In this paper, we analyze the group activities of users in Aion, one of the largest MMORPGs, based on the records of the activities of 94,497 users. In particular, we focus on (i) how social interactions within a group differ from the ones across groups, (ii) what makes a group rise, sustain, or fall, (iii) how group members join and leave a group, and (iv) what makes a group end. We first find that structural patterns of social interactions within a group are more likely to be close-knit and reciprocative than the ones across groups. We also observe that members in a rising group (i.e., the number of members increases) are more cohesive, and communicate with more evenly within the group than the ones in other groups. Our analysis further reveals that if a group is not cohesive, not actively communicating, or not evenly communicating among members, members of the group tend to leave. Copyright is held by the International World Wide Web Conference Committee (IW3C2).

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationWWW 2014 - Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on World Wide Web
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages889-899
Number of pages11
ISBN (Electronic)9781450327442
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014 Apr 7
Event23rd International Conference on World Wide Web, WWW 2014 - Seoul, Korea, Republic of
Duration: 2014 Apr 72014 Apr 11

Publication series

NameWWW 2014 - Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on World Wide Web

Other

Other23rd International Conference on World Wide Web, WWW 2014
Country/TerritoryKorea, Republic of
CitySeoul
Period14/4/714/4/11

Keywords

  • Group activity
  • Group characteristics
  • MMORPG
  • Online social game
  • Social interactions
  • Socio-economic analysis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Software

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