VIRTUAL COMMUNITY IN ONLINE MULTIPLAYER BOARD AND CARD GAME SITES A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Department of Computer Science University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By Gregor Flynn McEwan © Copyright Gregor Flynn McEwan, September, 2015. All rights reserved. PERMISSION TO USE In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis. Requests for permission to copy or to make other use of material in this thesis in whole or part should be addressed to: Head of the Department of Computer Science University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5C9 i ABSTRACT Board and Card Game (BCG) sites allow people to connect over the Internet to play virtual versions of games, like Chess or Canasta, that can be played on a physical table. Many of these sites are successful as they have large memberships, are extremely active, and persist for a long time. However, when analysing the BCG site PlayOK, I found that the community did not exhibit behaviours traditionally associated with successful community: there was little verbal communication; most interactions were impersonal and once-only; and the player population was highly transient. The problem is that designers and researchers have a poor understanding of the characteristics of BCG communities, and how those characteristics are affected by factors that are typically seen as important for community such as size and leadership. In this thesis, I improve understanding of BCG site communities through three studies: 1 No research describes community behaviour in BCG sites. I analysed community behaviour in the PlayOK BCG using ‘social accounting’ methods, which generate summary behavioural statistics from log traces. I found that players were motivated by wanting an opponent, without being concerned with the opponent’s identity. 2 The effects of community size on BCG community behaviour are poorly understood. I used social accounting analyses to compare a small site (GameCenter), with the large PlayOK site. I found that the smaller GameCenter exhibits very similar behaviour but is less efficient due to the smaller population. 3 There are no empirical studies of the role of leadership in online game communities through a substantial change in leadership. I used social accounting techniques to analyse GameCenter BCG before and after a substantial change in leadership. I found ii that sub-communities responded differently according to how they relied on the leadership for their core activities. This research is the first to identify a type of community that is sustained through impersonal, non-verbal interactions. This important because examples exist in BCG sites and may exist as sub-communities in other settings such as online discussion forums, social media sites, and other online games. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My wife, Stephanie Smale, for her endless patience and support. My children, Callum and Ferelith, for (usually) welcome distraction. My supervisor Dr Carl Gutwin for guiding me through this process and teaching me many things along the way. My committee Dr Jorden Cummings, Dr Ian McQuillan, and Dr Julita Vassileva for guidance, suggestions, and discussion, both individually and together. All the members of the HCI Lab for the good times and for being there experiencing all the same situations. My Postdoctoral Fellowship supervisor, Dr Crawford Revie, first for hiring me as a “postdoc” without yet having the “doc” part, and second for being very patient and generous with time to work on this thesis. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... IV LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... XI LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................... XII INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 Problem ...................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Solution ...................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Characterising a BCG Community .................................................................................................................... 4 Effects of Population Size .................................................................................................................................. 6 Leadership ............................................................................................................................................................. 7 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................. 9 Contributions ........................................................................................................................................................ 9 Structure of the Thesis .......................................................................................................................................... 10 RELATED WORK .................................................................................................................... 11 Definition of Terms .............................................................................................................................................. 11 Virtual Communities ............................................................................................................................................. 12 Is There Such a Thing as a Virtual Community? ......................................................................................... 13 Why Study Virtual Communities? .................................................................................................................. 14 What is a Virtual Community? ........................................................................................................................ 14 Behavioural Definition of Community ............................................................................. 15 Social Networks .................................................................................................................... 17 Sense of Virtual Community (SOVC) ............................................................................... 20 Leadership in Virtual Communities ............................................................................................................... 22 What Do Leaders Do? ......................................................................................................... 22 Formal and Shared Leadership ........................................................................................... 24 Online Multiplayer Games ................................................................................................................................... 25 Types of Online Multiplayer Games .............................................................................................................. 26 Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs) .......................................................................................... 27 Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) ............................................................ 29 Multiplayer Role Playing Games (MRPGs) ...................................................................... 30 v Multiplayer First Person Shooter (MFPSs) ....................................................................... 31 Real Time Strategy (RTSs) ................................................................................................... 32 Fighting Games ..................................................................................................................... 33 Online Board and Card Games (BCGs) ........................................................................... 34 Online Multiplayer Game Groups of People ............................................................................................... 35 Studying Virtual Communities in Games ...................................................................................................... 38 Observing ..............................................................................................................................