Online games, such as World of Warcraft, Second Life, Angry Birds etc. or others have become a huge phenomena; recent surveys show that 59% of Americans play video games [1]. A genre of games, Massively Multiplayer Online Games, like World of Warcraft and Eve Online, stand out as complex, rich environments in which players develop strong social connections with each other, fight over resources and territories, engage in diplomacy, and form and maintain large, complex organizations. In short these are “Virtual Worlds” that capture many of the dynamics of the real world. Virtual worlds can thus be a window towards studying and understanding human behavior.
Social Interaction in Virtual Worlds
Editors: Kiran Lakkaraju and Gita Sukthankar
One of the major challenges (and opportunities) with studying human behavior in virtual worlds is the interdisciplinary nature. Many fundamental computer science problems arise in analyzing large quantities of data (“big data”), but along with that are foundational questions on human behavior. It’s clear that human’s change behavior when playing a game, but what types of behavior changes? Do people put on different personalities online (recent evidence suggests that this is not always the case)? Studying behavior within virtual worlds is an inherently interdisciplinary endeavor, requiring the expertise of computer scientists, statisticians, economists, sociologists and psychologists.
This multi-author volume intends to present a unified perspective on the field, drawing from contributions from a variety of disciplines. Thus, we are requesting chapter proposals on a variety of topics, from multiple disciplines, around the areas of:
Who plays games:
* Demographics of players
* Behavioral/Psychological characteristics of players.
* Cultural differences between players.
Games in the real world:
* Use of games to foster social interaction.
* MMOGs and training.
* Detecting malicious behavior in games.
Social Systems in Games:
* Team/group formation, evolution.
* Leadership emergence.
* Norm/behavior emergence.
Schedule:
* July 31st, 2015: Chapter proposal deadline.
* August 15th, 2015: Notifications.
* February 1st, 2016: Chapters due.
Website:
For any questions or concerns, please contact: sivwbook@gmail.com
[1] 2014 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry, http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2013.pdf (accessed on July 27th, 2014)