The militarization of teamwork in alternate reality gaming

Abstract

This ongoing research project examines ad-hoc virtual teamwork in playful environments. Our results suggest that alternate reality game (ARG) players devise leadership structures spontaneously over short periods of time, in response to a lack of formal structure. In the ARG we studied, teams self-structured around tropes of military culture, going so far as to adopt military ranks to describe team roles and individual statuses. Our findings have implications for effective in-game virtual organizing, and for the design of gameful environments. Copyright © 2012 by the Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. (ACM).