Sociability design guidelines for the online gaming community: Role play and reciprocity

Abstract

This study connects two different perspectives, HCI and CMC, and attempts to develop sociability design guidelines for the online community. According to the literature, the results of previous studies related to sociability are either too general or are lacking in focus. Role play and reciprocity are important factors influencing the dynamics of the online community because they can keep the community to development positively and keep the community in the order. The research questions for this study originated from the theoretical framework which combines role play process ideas of impression management with role play models. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.