1. Communication, Coordination, and Camaraderie in World of Warcraft
Mark Chen
October 27, 2006
communication practices of a group of players
coordination that occurs in particular in-game tasks
camaraderie valued by group and how it sustained the group
explain that shots are of game

2. 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

3. 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)
important for civic engagement, multicultural awareness, shared responsibility

4. Ethnography of MMORPGs
personal experience didn’t match up with models
players’ actual choices are complex and socially situated
look at social practice (Taylor, Steinkuehler)
but game mechanics don’t explain most of what I see
therefore ethnography
explain MMORPGs here

5. World of Warcraft 7 million subscribers each server has 1000s
fantasy world
character classes
kill monsters, complete quests to gain experience and loot
7 million = $100 million a month
choose race and class to play

6. Game Interface character character panel with equipped items
abilities for different types of attacks

7. Attributes and Items
character becomes more powerful as gains experience and loot
all quantified
better loot and experience = more powerful character

8. 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)
warriors do one thing, mages do another
individuals called to do certain tasks specific to particular fight
prior friendships in and out of game

9. Communication text chat channels voice chat standard (raid)
specialized (madrogues)
voice chat
similar to IM or chatroom on the web
multiple channels—some general and each role had a specialized channel
voice

10. Coordination chat interwoven on and off task
simultaneously coordinated
contextually meaningful
18:11: : [4. soulburn] Lori: Remember, ss target will change at Domo, but until then, your rezzer is to be ssed at all times.
jovial
Lori is reminding others in the warlock chat channel to make sure a particular person is able to self-resurrect at all times (in case we all die), but that the person they are to keep track of will change once we get to the encounter with a monster named Domo.
Still obscure...
jovial and playful

11. Molten Core
enormity and clusters of monsters which each required coordinated effort

12. An encounter with Molten Giants—why coordination necessary?
two players each assigned to giants to keep them occupied and spread them out, healers heal them, I did damage to them...
two Main Tanks
healers
damage dealers kept track of aggro

13. 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!”
balance
failure seen as opportunity to learn—also old-timer move to frame situation for newcomers

14. 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)
raid broke up
bickering hidden
low communication atypical
communication necessary for trust

15. Recovery bottom-up reflection on meltdown reaffirmed goals
“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
raid members (not leaders) making sense of situation through talk
explicitly restating goals of hanging out and caring for each other rather than game-defined individual loot goals

16. 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
game mechanics not enough to predict player behavior
learning is social and situational/made meaningful through actual experience
coordination needed = trust needed
this group teaches us that trust can be built through...
valued specialized roles
failure seen as opportunity for learning
sufficient communication
valuing friendship
metacognition
trophy shot of end boss