Transcript Communication, Coordination, and Camaraderie in World of

Communication, Coordination, and
Camaraderie in World of Warcraft
Mark Chen
October 27, 2006
Overview
• concept: game
mechanics vs. player
behavior
• setting: World of
Warcraft
• analysis: coordination in
high-end raids;
camaraderie and trust
• implications: mechanics
too narrow; coordination
based on experience, not
end goal
Game Mechanics &
Communities
• Assumptions:
– helping people see how individual
affects community and vice versa
important
– responsibility of educators
• If games can be used as training
grounds, how do we get people
to value community?
• Previous research looked at
game design and mechanics—
change mechanic, change player
behavior. (Smith; Zagal, Rick, & Hsi)
Ethnography of
MMORPGs
• personal experience didn’t match
up with models
• players’ actual choices are
complex and socially situated
• look at social practice
Steinkuehler)
(Taylor,
World of Warcraft
• 7 million subscribers
• each server has 1000s
• fantasy world
• character classes
• kill monsters, complete
quests to gain
experience and loot
Game Interface
Attributes and Items
better loot and
experience = more
powerful character
Raid Group
• 40 players - Molten Core
• each played different role
• labor was divided/roles
emerged through social
practice (Strauss, Stevens)
– through game defined roles
(character class and ability)
– through merit (case-specific
ability or prior knowledge)
– through existing structures
(previous relationships)
Communication
• text chat channels
– standard (raid)
– specialized
(madrogues)
• voice chat
Coordination
•
•
•
•
chat interwoven
on and off task
simultaneously coordinated
contextually meaningful
– 18:11:20.421 : [4. soulburn] Lori: Remember,
ss target will change at Domo, but until then,
your rezzer is to be ssed at all times.
• jovial
Molten
Core
An encounter with Molten Giants—
why coordination necessary?
• two Main Tanks
• healers
• damage dealers kept track of aggro
Learning in Molten Core
bodies from
previous failures
• individual learning
• group learning through failure:
– “Now I hope no one's getting frustrated.
This is how raids go. It's normal: You fight
and fight and fight until your gear is
broken, repair and do it again... It can take
a while to master these encounters but
we're doing good work!”
Camaraderie (lack thereof)
• One night, raid suffered meltdown.
• doubt, bickering in specialized chat channels
– Shaun: .... Sven, you are fired.
– Sven: Hey, most people avoid you, Shaunie! It's the breath. I'm
giving an alternative!
– Shaun: an option that is closer to the caves. you... you are
trying to kill us all....
– Sven: Well? It hasn't happened, now has it?? Stop being so
paranoid!
• camaraderie, level of communication in shared
channels low (8 min of silence)
• no communication = no trust
(Iacono & Weisband)
Recovery
• bottom-up reflection on meltdown
– “I love our raid... We are like brothers and sisters
really. Stuff like this is going to happen. However I
think we have all been playing long enough to
know that we have a pretty great group of people
going here and truly we care about and try to do
what is best for one another.”
• reaffirmed goals
• trust built through valuing shared experience
Implications
• Must look at player social practice
• Learning happens socially, through lived
experience and practice
• Coordination needed to succeed in group work
• Trust among team members crucial
• What builds trust?
–
–
–
–
specialized roles
willingness to fail
communication
relationships/shared
experience goal
– ability to reflect on
goal