Inte

rnet

Res

earc

h 9.

0re

thin

king

com

mun

ity, r

ethi

nkin

g pl

ace

Virtual Power: How MMO guilds dealwith conflicts in virtual worlds.Luca rossi - University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”luca.rossi@uniurb.it

Inte

rnet

Res

earc

h 9.

0re

thin

king

com

mun

ity, r

ethi

nkin

g pl

ace

MMOs are a good place for social networking (both bridging and bounding) but what about guilds?

conflicts ?

Inte

rnet

Res

earc

h 9.

0re

thin

king

com

mun

ity, r

ethi

nkin

g pl

ace

Guilds, not only raiding together, but sharing of a goal.intended goal vs actual goal“ ”

We had problem within guild members who thought thatwas necessary to enrol good players and who thought theguild was just a bunch of good friends …

Inte

rnet

Res

earc

h 9.

0re

thin

king

com

mun

ity, r

ethi

nkin

g pl

ace

Guilds are not fluid and getting in and out can be quite complicated.At the same time guilds deal with group coordination that means: time and space

Inte

rnet

Res

earc

h 9.

0re

thin

king

com

mun

ity, r

ethi

nkin

g pl

ace“ ”

The problem is that’s not nice when you just realize that you’ve wasted your evening because of someone who didn’t show up […]

Inte

rnet

Res

earc

h 9.

0re

thin

king

com

mun

ity, r

ethi

nkin

g pl

ace

To avoid the wasting of time guilds have a number of social and technical tools: online calendar, ML, forum, SMS, mobile phone…

“ ”[…] every member has the mobile phone number of the guild master and of every officer, so if anything happens you’re supposed to call them. If you don’t do it, it’s obvious that you don’t care […]

Inte

rnet

Res

earc

h 9.

0re

thin

king

com

mun

ity, r

ethi

nkin

g pl

ace

How can guild solve conflicts when they arise? Does power really exist in WoW?

“ ”If someone would show to be not really trustable… then a GM would have a talk with him and as last option there’s always the /gkick

Hirschman defines this as the voice/exit couple, the non-destrucitve way to solve conflicts within a social system

Inte

rnet

Res

earc

h 9.

0re

thin

king

com

mun

ity, r

ethi

nkin

g pl

ace

“ ”In 15-20 we moved away… we disagreed about that way of playing. Anyway I’m still friend with many of them.

The exit option:- guildleft- secession- guildkick

secession

Inte

rnet

Res

earc

h 9.

0re

thin

king

com

mun

ity, r

ethi

nkin

g pl

ace

“ ”The exit option:- guildleft- secession- guildkick

guildkick

In 15-20 we moved away… we disagreed about that way of playing. Anyway I’m still friend with many of them.

The exit option:- guildleft- secession- guildkick

Inte

rnet

Res

earc

h 9.

0re

thin

king

com

mun

ity, r

ethi

nkin

g pl

ace

power in world of warcraft

Power: the ability to direct or influence the behaviours of others - [the choose between an action or a less desirable alternative (Luhmann)]

gkick as the form of power: power is constructed within social groups by controlling the access of valuable resources. In the game the valuable resources that is needed is the opportunity to gather up in a good group of players reducing the wasting of time.

Inte

rnet

Res

earc

h 9.

0re

thin

king

com

mun

ity, r

ethi

nkin

g pl

ace

Flexible power ?

The need of grouping up depends from many elements that are going to change even in the next expansion.