Guild play in MMOGs: Rethinking common group dynamics models

Abstract

Humans form groups and congregate into groups for a variety of reasons and in a variety of contexts e.g., corporations in offline space and guilds in Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). In recent years a number of models of group formation have been proposed. One such model is Johnson et al's [10] model of group evolution. The model is motivated by commonalities observed in evolution of street gangs in Los Angeles and guilds in an MMOG (World of Warcraft). In this paper we first apply their model to guilds in another MMOG (EQ2)1 and found results inconsistent from the model's predictions, additionally we found support for the role of homophily in guild formation, which was ruled out in previous results, Alternatively, we explore alternative models for guild formation and evolution in MMOGs by modifying earlier models to account for the existence of previous relationships between people. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.