6.1 Group identities and norms through online gaming

New Note 4

Ahoy

I would like to discuss a game that I used to play online called Utopia. Utopia is a game with a slightly medieval nature in which a team ("kingdom") of 25 players ("provinces") build themselves together and then challenge other kingdoms in wars for land and resources. More information can be found at http://games.swirve.com/UTOPIA/.

There is an extremely high number of norms that must be followed in playing this game. This is caused by the fact that collaboration is so important to the game. There are some kingdoms that are relatively relaxed and sometimes don't gel very well, but there are also extremely competitive teams where players are required by their teammates to log on at crazy hours (like 9AM) in order to carry out their attacks or in other ways help the team. They are also required to provide aid to other provinces that are getting hammered or are slightly behind in their development in preparation for a war. Also, it's very important for members to keep in contact with others through the kingdom forums. In short, there is a great deal of conformity that is required for a province to be included in a kingdom.

Usually people get to know the norms when they join the team. Sometimes people join a new team every few months, others stay with the same one for years at a time. Regardless, once a new teammember joins, the kingdom will make an effort to contact him (or her) if he does not introduce himself formally first. This is when they are first taught the rules of the kingdom, that is, how often they are supposed to log in and other ways in how much they should committing to the kingdom. Also, if they show signs of not committing properly, then they will receive warnings either through the forums or by private message of a reminder of the rules that the other members of the team have set.

In the case that they do not abide, the consequences can get increasingly harsh. The other members of the kingdom will probably stop providing aid to the province if the situation does not improve and ultimately, they might decide to kill the province and remove it from the kingdom. This is the final blow and after that, the province can either leave on its own or go to some other kingdom.

The dynamics of these relationships closely ties to the concepts provided by Wallace in her book. According to SIDE theory, conformity is strongest in situations where members are visually anonymous and the setting is group salient. Therefore, it's important for a kingdom to foster a sense of community so that they can get everybody to conform to the norms. In an individually salient space, the members are less likely to conform, so it's critical to foster a group salient environment. This is possibly one of the reasons behind the medieval theme of Utopia - by creating a dynamic, comprehensively group-oriented theme, it becomes easier for users to identify with the goals and objectives of their teams.