Exploring Performance of Gendered Identities through Language in World of Warcraft

This study examines how players of World of Warcraft, an online video game, use language to perform gendered identities. Online environments have become increasingly popular sites for social interaction, and online games are played by millions of people worldwide who must rely on textual language to construct their identity. Data were collected from semi-private chat channels by recording visual game-play while conducting participant observation. The chat log data were analyzed in terms of gender stereotypes known to exist in video games using conversation analytic techniques. Players were observed using gendered stereotypes, as well as language practices that have been prescribed as being male- or female-orientated. How identity is constructed through language in online video games has become increasingly relevant as the importance of individual identity has risen in many Western cultures as well as in academia.     

Designing for reportability: sustainable gamification,public engagement,and promoting environmental debate

There is a growing emphasis in many countries on matters such as participation in e-government, e-democracy, the provision of forums for online debate, and so on. A critical issue in all of these cases is one of encouraging engagement across a broad spectrum of potentially interested parties and stakeholders. In this paper, we use an ethnographic study of an online event, designed to encourage debate, to explore some critical issues in how the mechanisms productive of debate have shifted in company with the Web 2.0 phenomenon. By contrasting this with a prior study of how players managed their gameplay in a multiplayer pervasive game, we focus upon how different ways of constructing games and events can have serious implications for their ordinary everyday reportability in routine face-to-face interactions. We conclude that designing for reportability should be an active consideration when designing the resources for online debate and consider some ways in which that might be accomplished.     

A study of Facebook Groups members’ knowledge sharing

There have been many studies focusing on individuals’ knowledge sharing behavior in the organizational setting. With the rapid prevalence of social networking sites, many people began to express their thoughts or share their knowledge via Facebook website. Facebook is an open environment which does not provide any immediate monetary benefits to its users. Its Groups members’ knowledge sharing behavior could be different from the ones in organizations. We proposed a research model to examine factors which promote the Facebook Groups users’ willingness to share knowledge. The factors in the study include extrinsic motivation, social and psychological forces, and social networking sharing culture. We used PLS to test our proposed hypotheses based on 271 responses collected through an online survey. Our results indicated that reputation would affect knowledge sharing attitude of Groups members and sense of self-worth would directly and indirectly (through subjective norm) affect the attitude. In addition, social networking sharing culture (fairness, identification, and openness) is the most significant factor, not only directly affecting knowledge sharing intention, but also indirectly influencing the sharing intention through subjective norm and knowledge sharing attitude.     

The effects of participation,performance, and interest in a game‐based writing environment

We have observed that many computer‐supported writing environments based on pedagogical strategies have only been designed to incorporate the cognitive aspects, but motivational aspects should also be included. Hence, we theorize that integrating game‐based learning into the writing environment may be a practical approach that can facilitate student participation, not only helping students learn how to write, but also sustaining their willingness to write. In this study, we investigate the effects of the game‐based writing environment on improving students' participation, performance, and interest in writing. An experiment was conducted to compare the effectiveness of 2 approaches to writing in language arts at an elementary school. Two hundred forty‐five third grade students participated in the experiment over a period of 1 year. One hundred thirty‐nine students were assigned to an experimental group and learned with a game‐based writing environment, and 106 students were in the contrast group and learned with an online writing environment. The empirical results show that the game‐based writing environment can effectively promote students' writing participation, writing performance, interest in writing, as well as their perceptions of the use of educational self‐management games. Some implications of the experimental results are also discussed.     

The effects of collective MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) play on gamers’ online and offline social capital

This study examines the impact of collective MMORPG play on gamers’ social capital in both the virtual world and the real world. Collective MMORPG play is conceptualized as the frequency of joint gaming actions and gamers’ assessment of the experience in MMORPG guilds and groups. Social capital at the individual level refers to the resources and support provided by bonding and bridging social networks; collective-level social capital refers to people’s civic engagement. A two-wave online survey was conducted to collect data from 232 Chinese MMORPG players.Two structural equation models were developed to test whether collective play influences offline social capital via the mediation of online social capital; the results did not demonstrate the existence of mediation effects. Specifically, collective play positively influences gamers’ online bonding social capital, online bridging social capital and online civic engagement. The effect of collective play on offline bonding and bridging social capital is not significant; the effect of online bonding/bridging social capital on offline bonding/bridging social capital is not significant either. The study finds a significantly positive impact of collective play on offline civic engagement. The effect of online civic engagement on offline civic engagement is not significant. In contrast with collective play, the time of gaming is found to negatively influence online and offline social capital.This study contributes to the knowledge of social capital because it tests the effects of new media on online and offline social capital in the Chinese culture. In addition, this study provides empirical evidence for the positive effects of online games and highlights the social experience in MMORPG play and how it influences gamers’ social networks and collective participation.     

Cultural ways of constructing knowledge: the role of identities in online group discussions

Learning scientists and the CSCL community have argued that knowledge construction is a process of collective thinking; a process that is simultaneously personal and social that requires group cognition. However, while CSCL researchers have investigated situated knowledge in the process of collective thinking, little work has been done to fully understand how different identification categories play a role in sense-making and knowledge construction. This research, therefore, explores in detail how individuals operationalize identification categories when they engage in group discussions in online learning environments. Results demonstrate that individuals do not experience online learning through only one aspect of their identity. Rather, learning experiences evoke different elements of their identities that are used continuously and simultaneously when they collaborate with each other in the phases of knowledge construction.     

A social scientific framework for social systems in online video games: Building a better looking for raid loot system in World of Warcraft

This paper examines social behavior in the online video game World of Warcraft. Specifically focusing on one element of social design: the behavior of players in the first release of Looking-for-Raid (LFR) loot system of World of Warcraft. It uses lens of economic game theory, combined with Williams (2010) mapping principle and a modern theoretical account of human decision-making, to explore how theory about individual interactions in well-defined contexts (games) can explain collective behavior. It provides some support for this theoretical approach with an examination of data collected as part of an ethnographic study, through focus groups, and a survey distributed to 333 World of Warcraft players. It concludes with a discussion of the results and some guidelines for predicting collective outcomes in certain types of online games using the introduced framework.     

Temporal enactment of resettled refugees' ICT‐mediated information practices

“In this paper, we explain how resettled refugees use information and communication technology (ICT) to respond to their changed circumstances and, in doing so, enhance their well‐being and effective participation in a new society. Focusing on three modes of ICT‐mediated information practices (ie, orienting, instrumental, and expressive), we identify eight patterns of ICT use: learning about a new environment, keeping informed, transacting online, communicating with others, managing everyday life, sustaining support networks, maintaining transnational ties, and expressing cultural identity. Further, we draw on a temporal theory of human agency to explain how current dilemmas and contingencies, cultural identities and connections to the past, and future expectations and aspirations shape resettled refugees' enactment of these patterns of ICT‐mediated information practices. We show that, as resettled refugees move between multiple and overlapping temporal‐relational contexts, ICT use makes a difference to managing their bifurcated lives.”     

Games without frontiers: On the moral and psychological implications of violating taboos within multi-player virtual spaces

When assessing the appropriateness of massively multiplayer online role-playing games, it is our contention that questions dealing with the morality of their content – especially regarding the more ‘adult’ nature of potential interactions – are the wrong sorts of questions to ask. Instead, when considering the permissibility of such games, a more informative strategy is to focus on what gamers are able to deal with, psychologically, especially regarding taboo violation. Thus, we argue that there is nothing morally problematic with online gamespace per se, no matter how prohibitive the simulated behaviour is offline (as long as the space is frequented by adults only). Instead, we should concern ourselves with whether the potential moral freedoms afforded the online gaming community are psychologically healthy: For it is our contention that underlying any change to the gamer’s behaviour offline is the need (in some) to seek psychological parity across domains (making congruent one’s identity and actions in both the virtual and offline worlds). It is therefore not so much what games are doing to us that is of concern, here, but what we are doing to ourselves through the process of seeking psychological parity.     

Communicative practices in an online financial forum during abnormal stock market behavior

We offered a new perspective on communication in computer-mediated environments by examining communicative practices used during discussion in an online financial forum about a listed company that was experiencing abnormal trading behavior. The analysis of communicative practices showed how the linguistic nature of the online forum allowed covert manipulation of inexperienced and unsuspecting forum participants - against all the norms and rules governing online financial forums. Based on our theoretical understanding of communicative practices, we found a discrepancy between the expectations of and the actual divergence from an ideal communicative environment free from distortion and manipulation that is normally assumed to govern online forums. The discrepancy, which remains largely concealed, can be seen as a major factor in the negative implications of online financial forums.     

Reimagining Internet Geographies: A User‐Centric Ethnological Mapping of the World Wide Web

We propose a new user‐centric imagery of the WWW that foregrounds local usage and its shaping forces, in contrast to existing imageries that prioritize Internet infrastructure. We construct ethnological maps of WWW usage through a network analysis of shared global traffic between 1000 most popular websites at 3 time points and develop granular measures for exploring global participation in online communication. Our results reveal the significant growth and thickening of online regional cultures associated with the global South. We draw attention to how local cultural identity, affirmative state intervention and economic contexts shape regional cultures on the global WWW.     

Speaking things into existence: Ontological foundations of identity representation and management

Conceptual models capture knowledge about domains of reality. Therefore, conceptual models and their modelling constructs should be based on theories about the world—that is, they should be grounded in ontology. Identity is fundamental to ontology and conceptual modelling because it addresses the very existence of objects and conceptual systems in general. Classification involves grouping objects that share similarities and delineating them from objects that fall under other concepts (qualitative identity). However, among objects that fall under the same concept, we must also distinguish between individual objects (individual identity). In this paper, we analyze the ontological question of identity, focusing specifically on institutional identity, which is the identity of socially constructed institutional objects. An institutional entity is a language construct that is ‘spoken into existence’. We elaborate on how institutional identity changes how we understand conceptual modelling and the models produced. We show that different models result if we base modelling on a property-based conception of identity compared to an institutional one. We use the Bunge-Wand-Weber principles, which embrace a property-based view of identity, as an anchor to the existing literature to point out how this type of ontology sidesteps identity in general and institutional identity in particular. We contribute theoretically by providing the first in-depth ontological analysis of what the notion of institutional identity can bring to conceptual modelling. We also contribute a solid ontological grounding of identity management and the identity of things in digital infrastructures.     

The effects of winning and losing on social presence in team-based digital games

Social play is an increasingly important constituent of the digital game experience. Though there is a growing understanding of how the social context influences the experience of playing, there is little known about how the experience of play influences the social experience. Specifically, it is not even known whether winning or losing affects a player's sense of social presence with their co-players. This paper provides the results of two studies aiming to explore this interaction. The first study is a lab-based study that looked at whether social presence varied in collocated teams playing team-based games depending on whether they won or lost. The second study is a user experience survey which measured how variables in the context of gameplay affected social presence across a number of team-based online games. The results of both studies show that when teams lose, the negative impact on social presence is greater within teams than between the competing teams. This has implications for how studies in this area should be analysed and also, through consideration of individual games, suggests that mechanisms in the games may lead to the reduced social presence.     

Student interactions in online discussion forums: their perception on learning with business simulation games

Digital technology offers new teaching methods with controversial results over learning. They allow students to develop a more active participation in their learning process although it does not always drive to unequivocal better learning outcomes. This study aims to offer additional evidence on the contribution of business simulation games to students’ learning outcomes, considering student interactions in online discussion forums. We conducted a qualitative research with the online discussion forums of 5 different courses at bachelor and master levels, which involves 41 students’ teams. The final sample was composed of 3681 messages posted by the students. The results reveal that some generic and specific managerial skills exert a positive influence on learning outcomes. Students mostly highlighted teamwork, decision-making, information processing, reaching agreements, and dealing with uncertainty as the most relevant contributions of the game towards their learning. These results have instructional and pedagogical implications for determining the best way to enhance students’ motivation and learning outcomes when using digital technology methods, which involves recommendations that affect their design and monitoring.     

Social value creation through digital activism in an online health community

The study explores how online health communities produce social value by uniting individuals under a common purpose, to advance healthcare in post‐conflict states. We selected MedicineAfrica – a digital platform known for creating social value by providing medical education in regions with under‐resourced healthcare systems – and drew on multiple data collection methods. We found that it is through a unique form of digital health activism that social value is created in this context. Drawing on a sociological understanding of digital health activism, we make the following contributions: First, we identify three types of non‐economic, social value: cognitive, professional and epistemic. Second, we indicate that social value creation is enabled by three emergent forms of digital health activism (ie, philanthropic, moral and reciprocal activity). Third, we elicit three enabling mechanisms explaining how these forms of activism are technically and socially afforded through the platform's connective capacity and emerging collective practices in tandem with its members' growing commitment. Our article contributes to the growing IS literature on digital activism by offering a framework that elucidates how digital health activism relates to social value creation. The article provides practical implications as to how platforms can enable sustainable online (health) communities.     

The right tool for the wrong task? Match and mismatch between first and second stimulus in double stimulation

Using Vygotsky’s notion of double stimulation as an analytical tool, we discuss the complex relationship between tasks, tools, and agency in CSCL environments. Empirically we examine how learners in a Norwegian senior high school class learning English as a foreign language approach and respond to an open-ended and collectively oriented task using a wiki. Our findings show that collectively oriented knowledge and language production takes place locally in small groups as well as in the larger collective of the class, and that learners find it difficult to maintain awareness of both levels of activity. However, when facing a breakdown in the wiki application, learners sustained strategies that carried many of the characteristics of collective production. We argue that there is a need to further theorize the task-tool relationship in activities involving collective knowledge production and that we need to align pedagogical as well as technological designs in order to give support for such efforts.     

Identity formation in adolescent and emerging adult regular players of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG)

The aim of this study was to investigate the process of identity formation in adolescent and emerging adult regular players of massively multiplayer online role-playing games. Moreover, considering the association between involvement in these games and addiction, we took into account also the role of internet addiction. A total of 176 regular players and 239 controls, not playing massively multiplayer online role-playing games, aged between 15 and 30 years completed: the Utrecht-management of identity commitments scale, evaluating three identity processes, i.e. commitment, in-depth exploration and reconsideration of commitment; and the dependence subscale from the use abuse and dependence on internet questionnaire, in order to evaluate internet addiction. A multivariate analysis of variance evidenced that controls were higher on commitment and in-depth exploration, whereas players were higher on reconsideration of commitment and internet addiction. A structural equation model in which the three identity processes affected simultaneously internet addiction and regular involvement in massively multiplayer online role-playing games showed that reconsideration of commitment was positively associated with internet addiction and the probability to be a player, whereas in-depth exploration was negatively associated only with the probability to be a player. Being a regular player of massively multiplayer online role-playing games seems to be associated with a troubled path in the process of identity formation.