Would you ever consider walking around for hours, without a purpose, with a group of people that you do not even know? Apparently this became a social norm in a massive multiplayer on game Runescape. Players engage in this event, called a PK trip, and other similar events not because they are fun, but because they have become a social norm. (If any of you are more familiar with this online game, please correct me if I am wrong in some of these terms because I do not actually play this game, but my brother has described it to me throughout the 6 years he has been playing this game.)
Strangely, this has become a norm in any clan that exists in Runescape. A clan is a group of people who play together at the same times, hold events and competitions, and fight with other clans. Any person who has played this game for over a week, and more certainly and any person who is in a clan is guaranteed to have participated in a PK trip. People have come to know this norm through other players. Because of this, players are the Leviathan. Friends are expected to go on these trips, even if it is not enjoyable for both parties. If people decide not to join this event for a good reason, they will probably be ignored and not accepted by others. According to Wallace, this can be referred to as the arched eyebrow effect.
Clans can also be seen to be the Leviathan for this norm. Every clan requires members to participate in one of these events at least once every week. This can be related to Wallace’s “psychological recipe for creating a cohesive group.” These events are required events reflect the heavy time demands portion of this recipe. (On another note, clans also have a group symbol and color; applications and initiations; and entrance requirements.) The Leviathan enforces this norm through one of the worst punishment—group exclusion. If a member fails to meet these events without a good reason, they are usually kicked out of the clan for being inactive.
The SIDE theory explains some of the actions that occur in one of these trips. In a required clan event, the main goal is to strengthen the relationship between the members in the clan. In other words, group identity is salient. For the most part, members are visually anonymous—anonymity can be seen in different aspects here. First of all, players do not see profile pictures of other players, so in this sense they are visually anonymous; however, individuals are identifiable to some extent: each player can be identified by username when you roll over them with the cursor, and each player’s name can be read when they type a message in the chatbox. In these events, individuals are more anonymous than in other actives because it is hard to keep track of who says what when there are over 200 people speaking at once, and when they walk together they have to follow 1 person, so every disappears into square. Because people are visually anonymous to each other and other players some unusually actions may occur in these events. When you actually find a person to kill, and you realize that this person is one of your other online friends, you will end up killing him/her anyway because everyone else is doing it, and your friend will not be able to identity that you did it because you are visually anonymous. It would be hard to control all of your clan members because once again you are visually anonymous. Clan members conform to the actions of the group. The SIDE can help explain these unusually situations. The Social Identity/Deindiviuation Theory states that if the group identity is salient and players a visually anonymous, then conformity and social influence is exhibited.
http://comm245brown.blogspot.com/2007/10/facebook-is-leviathan.html
http://comm245brown.blogspot.com/2007/10/6-1-craming-leave-me-alone.html
1 comment:
I found your post really interesting. First, I find it hard to believe that anyone would actually want to play this game, or join a clan, if it required weekly commitments for these crazy hunts. Of course, there must be if this practice is the social norm for the game. The way these players force others in the clan to comply with the norm by threat of excommunication from the clan was well explained and also goes along well with Wallace's descriptions of group dynamics and the Leviathan. Overall, I would say that if you want to play online computer games, stick to Counter Strike (which was what my post was about). At least there all you do is run around and shoot someone every five seconds.
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