A Practice-Based Analysis of Social Interaction in a Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming Environment

Abstract

This chapter analyzes behaviour in on-line games from a practice-oriented perspective and focuses on how individuals create and sustain social structures. It reports on research based in MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) that investigates how what the players do in the gaming environment can give rise to structures that continue to exist outside that environment. The analysis centres on the notion of how practice is framed within the game; the methodology is one based on virtual ethnography. It describes the activities of a group of gamers in both MMOGs and other on-line settings. It will show how such players develop an identity as members of a ’community of games players’ and how their gaming practices are not based around a single game but are spread across several different platforms.