Social Dynamics of MMOGs

Docbug comments on a paper on the social dynamics within World of Warcraft. The researchers watched how people interacted and concluded that rather than communicating with people in the form of conversations, players rely on them as an audience for their in-game performances, as an entertaining spectacle, and as a diffuse and easily accessible source of information and chitchat. For most, playing the game is therefore like being "alone together"— surrounded by others, but not necessarily actively interacting with them..

I had a phone call earlier this week from a reporter writing a story on Google Earth and Second Life, and he was at a loss for what people do in online games. He asked plaintively, "but what do you DO in there?". While obviously the reporter should actually play the game he's writing about (which I tried to gently suggest to him), this paper might help him understand what he sees. I wonder whether players of Second Life have similar dynamics, where there's no "game" but life in the virtual world.