Digital Library Keyword Archives
- Proceedings of DiGRA23
Social Control
- 2 articles or papers
Games of Social Control: A Sociological Study of Addiction to Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games
Krassen Cindy Aupers Stef
2018 DiGRA ’18 – Abstract Proceedings of the 2018 DiGRA International Conference: The Game is the Message
Selling the Imperium: Changing Organisational Culture and History in EVE Online
Webber Nick Milik Oskar
2016 DiGRA/FDG '16 - Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG
This paper uses two different methodologies to look at the culture and identity of different organisations in the digital game EVE Online. First, it uses a critical historical perspective to look at how powerful individuals and groups in Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games attempt to construct active identities. Secondly, through ethnography and ethnomethodology, it looks at how the player base responds to modifications to this identity and how conflicts between leadership and membership are formed, perceived, and resolved. Looking specifically at two different events in EVE Online’s history, this paper finds that line members in the game have a lot of power in determining how the group identity forms, and if pushed sufficiently by leaders against their will, they will be able to stop changes from occurring. The lack of resistance, then, can be taken as implicit legitimacy for the actions from the leaders, in particular in the case of naming The Imperium.