Project massive: a study of online gaming communities

ABSTRACT

Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) continue to be a popular and lucrative sector of the gaming market. Project Massive was created to assess MMOG players' social experiences both inside and outside of their gaming environments and the impact of these activities on their everyday lives. The focus of Project Massive has been on the persistent player groups or "guilds" that form in MMOGs. The survey has been completed online by 1836 players, who reported on their play patterns, commitment to their player organizations, and personality traits like sociability, extraversion and depression. Here we report our cross-sectional findings and describe our future longitudinal work as we track players and their guilds across the evolving landscape of the MMOG product space.

REFERENCES

• 1: Mowday, R., Steers, R., and Porter, L. (1979). The Measurement of Organizational Commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior 14, 224--247.
• 2: Singer, J.D. & Willet, J.B. (2003). Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis: Modeling Change and Event Occurrence. New York: Oxford University Press.
• 3: Woodcock, B.S. (2003). An Analysis of MMOG Subscription Growth - Version 6.0. at: http://pw1.netcom.com/~sirbruce/Subscriptions.html
• 4: Yee, Nicholas. (1999-2002). The Hub: Exploring the Psychology of MMORPGs. At www.nickyee.com/hub

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Computer-supported cooperative work

Keywords:
CSCW, MMO, MMOG, MMORPG, group formation, guilds, massively multiplayer, persistent worlds