Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

A Case Study of How a Reduction in Explicit Leadership Changed an Online Game Community

  • Published:
Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Leadership is considered critical to virtual community success. Leaders engage in important community activities such as encouraging members and building social structure. These potential benefits, however, have rarely been empirically tested. We were presented with an opportunity to explore this issue while studying an online board-and-card-game community. During our study, the community experienced a major change in leadership when the founder – and formal leader – decided to substantially reduce his involvement in the site. This provided us with the rare opportunity to carry out a case study of leadership reduction in a real-world community. To look at the effects of leadership on community behaviour, we analysed 16 months of activity logs, supported by interviews, to compare the community before, during, and after the founder’s withdrawal. We observed strong variability in the effects of a leadership reduction – some results were in line with the “leadership hypothesis,” but others were unexpected. In some cases, we found evidence that reducing formal leadership can have negative effects on the success of the community; but in other cases, we found surprising sources of resilience to the reduction in leadership activities. Our study is the first to look at the details of how leadership (and a reduction in this role) affects several types of sub-community within a board-and-card game site, and the first to consider some of the factors that lead to differences in the effects of leadership reduction. Overall, we found that negative effects on sub-communities were closely tied to the specific activities that the leader provided, and the degree to which he was the only person able to provide those roles. The broad strokes of this finding agree with the leadership hypothesis, but there are several unexpected elements within the main story: the negative effects were less drastic than we anticipated, and all of the sub-communities (even the most dependent) survived the transition. The strong resilience of some of the sub-communities seems to be connected to their ability to “fall back” to a foundation of shared activity (i.e., game play) – an idea that has been introduced in earlier work but never studied empirically. This research helps designers to understand the complexities of leadership in online communities, providing an important foundation for developing and supporting online groups.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9
Figure 10
Figure 11
Figure 12
Figure 13
Figure 14
Figure 15
Figure 16
Figure 17
Figure 18
Figure 19
Figure 20

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arguello, Jaime; Brian S. Butler; Elisabeth Joyce; Robert Kraut; Kimberly S. Ling; Carolyn Rosé; and Xiaoqing Wang (2006). Talk to me: foundations for successful individual-group interactions in online communities. In CHI’06. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems, Montréal, Canada, 24 April – 27 2006. New York, NY, USA: ACM Press, pp. 959–968.

  • Bateman, Scott S.; Carl A. Gutwin; and Gordon I. McCalla (2013). Social Navigation for Loosely-coupled Information Seeking in Tightly-knit Groups Using Webwear. In CSCW'13. Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, San Antonio, USA, 23 February – 27 February 2013. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 955–966.

  • Blanchard, Anita L. (2008a). Definition, antecedents, and outcomes of successful virtual communities. In N. Kock (ed): Encyclopedia of E-Collaboration. Hershey, PA, New York: Information Science Reference, pp. 126–132.

  • Blanchard, Anita L. (2008b). Testing a model of sense of virtual community. Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 24, no. 5, September 2008, pp. 2107–2123.

  • Blanchard, Anita L.; and M. Lynne Markus (2002). Sense of virtual community-maintaining the experience of belonging. In HICSS'02. Proceedings of the 35th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, USA, 7 June −10 June 2002. IEEE, pp. 3566–3575.

  • Blanchard, Anita L.; and M. Lynne Markus (2004). The Experienced ‘Sense’ of a Virtual Community: Characteristics and Processes. SIGMIS Database, vol. 35, no. 1, February 2004, pp. 64–79.

  • Blanchard, Anita L.; Jennifer L. Welbourne; and Marla D. Boughton (2011). A Model of online trust. Information, Communication & Society, vol. 14, no. 1, February 2002, pp. 76–106.

  • Brown, Barry; and Marek Bell (2006). Play and sociability in there: Some lessons from online games for collaborative virtual environments. In R. Schroeder and A.-S. Axelsson (eds): Avatars at Work and Play. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, vol. 34, pp. 227–245.

  • Brush, A. J. Bernheim; Xiaoqing Wang; Tammara Combs Turner; and Marc A. Smith (2005). Assessing differential usage of usenet social accounting meta-data. In CHI’05. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, Portland, USA, 2 April -7 April 2005. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 889–898.

  • Burke, C. Shawn; Kevin C. Stagl; Cameron Klein; Gerald F. Goodwin; Eduardo Salas; and Stanley M. Halpin (2006). What type of leadership behaviors are functional in teams? A meta-analysis. The Leadership Quarterly, vol. 17, no. 3, June 2006, pp. 288–307.

  • Cheung, Gifford; and Jeff Huang (2011). Starcraft from the stands: understanding the game spectator. In CHI’11. Proceedings of the 2011 annual conference on Human factors in computing systems, Vancouver, Canada, 7 May -12 May 2011. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 763–772.

  • Dibbell, Julian. (1994). A rape in cyberspace or how an evil clown, a Haitian trickster Spirit, two wizards, and a cast of dozens turned a database into a society. Annual Survey of American Law, vol. 1994, pp. 471.

  • Driskell, Robyn Bateman; and Larry Lyon (2002). Are Virtual Communities True Communities? Examining the Environments and Elements of Community. City & Community, vol. 1, no. 4, December 2002, pp. 373–390.

  • Ducheneaut, Nicolas; Robert J. Moore; and Eric Nickell (2007a). Virtual ‘Third Places’: A Case Study of Sociability in Massively Multiplayer Games. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), vol. 16, no. 1/2, February 2007, pp. 129–166.

  • Ducheneaut, Nicolas; Nicholas Yee; Eric Nickell; and Robert J. Moore (2006). ‘Alone Together?’ Exploring the Social Dynamics of Massively Multiplayer Online Games. In CHI’06. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems, Montréal, Canada, 24 April -27 April 2006. New York, New York, USA: ACM Press, pp. 407–416.

  • Ducheneaut, Nicolas; Nicholas Yee; Eric Nickell; and Robert J. Moore (2007b). The life and death of online gaming communities: a look at guilds in world of warcraft. In CHI’07. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, San Jose, USA, 28 April -3 May 2007. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 839–848.

  • Ellonen, Hanna-Kaisa; Miia Kosonen; and Kaisa Henttonen (2007). The development of a sense of virtual community. International Journal of Web Based Communities, vol. 3, no. 1, January 2007, pp. 114–130.

  • Ghuman, Davinder; and Mark Griffiths (2012). A Cross-Genre Study of Online Gaming. International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning, vol. 2, no. 1, January 2012, pp. 13–29.

  • Ginsburg, M.; and S. Weisband (2002). Social capital and volunteerism in virtual communities: The case of the Internet chess Club. In HICSS’02. Proceedings of the 35th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, USA, 7 January −10 January 2002. Los Alamitos, CA, USA: IEEE computer society, vol. 7, p. 171b.

  • Hillery Jr, George A. (1955). Definitions of community: Areas of agreement. Rural Sociology, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 111–123.

  • Ho, Shu-Hsun; and Chiung-Hui Huang (2009). Exploring success factors of video game communities in hierarchical linear modeling: The perspectives of members and leaders. Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 25, no. 3, May 2009, pp. 761–769.

  • Hogan, Bernie; and Barry Wellman (2011). The immanent Internet redux. In P. H. Cheong, P. Fischer-Neilsen, S. Gelfgren, and C. Ess (eds): Digital religion, social media and culture: Perspectives, practices and futures. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang, pp. 43–62.

  • Hsiao, Cheng-Chieh; and Jyh-Shen Chiou (2012). The effect of social capital on community loyalty in a virtual community: Test of a tripartite-process model. Decision Support Systems, vol. 54, no. 1, December 2012, pp. 750–757.

  • Huang, Yun; Wenyue Ye; Nicholas Bennett; and Noshir Contractor (2013). Functional or social?: exploring teams in online games. In CSCW'13. Proceedings of the 2013 conference on Computer supported cooperative work, San Antonio, USA, 23 February -27 February 2013. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 399–408.

  • Huffaker, David. (2010). Dimensions of leadership and social influence in online communities. Human Communication Research, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 593–617.

  • Jang, Yei Beech; and Seoung Ho Ryu (2009). Exploring Game Leadership and Online Game Community. In VS-GAMES ‘09. Proceedings of the Conference in Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications, Coventry, UK, 23 March −24 March 2009. IEEE Computer Society. pp. 178–181.

  • Jones, Quentin. (2006). Virtual-Communities, Virtual Settlements & Cyber-Archaeology: A Theoretical Outline. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 3, no. 3, June 2006, pp. 0–0.

  • Koh, Joon; and Young-Gul Kim (2003). Sense of virtual community: A conceptual framework and empirical validation. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 75–94.

  • Koh, Joon; Young-Gul Kim; Brian Butler; and Gee-Woo Bock (2007). Encouraging participation in virtual communities. Communications of the ACM, vol. 50, no. 2, February 2007, pp. 68–73.

  • Kushner, David (2015). 4chan’s overlord reveals why he walked away. Rolling Stone, March 2015. http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/4chans-overlord-christopher-poole-reveals-why-he-walked-away-20150313. Accessed 24 April 2017.

  • Lampe, Cliff; and Erik Johnston (2005). Follow the (slash) dot: effects of feedback on new members in an online community. In GROUP’05. Proceedings of the 2005 international ACM SIGGROUP conference on Supporting group work, Sanibel Island, USA, 6 November – 9 November 2005. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 11–20.

  • Lampe, Cliff; Rick Wash; Alcides Velasquez; and Elif Ozkaya. (2010). Motivations to participate in online communities. In CHI’10. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Atlanta, USA, 10 April – 15 April 2010. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 1927–1936.

  • Luther, Kurt; and Amy Bruckman (2008). Leadership in Online Creative Collaboration. In CSCW’08. Proceedings of the 2008 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, San Diego, USA, 8 November – 12 November 2008. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 343–352.

  • Luther, Kurt; Casey Fiesler; and Amy Bruckman (2013). Redistributing Leadership in Online Creative Collaboration. In CSCW’13. Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, San Antonio, USA, 23 February – 27 February 2013. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 1007–1022.

  • Lynch, Sarah. (2016). Twitter finally empowers users to block trolling. CBS News, November 2016. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/twitter-finally-empowers-users-to-block-trolling/. Accessed 11 March 2017.

  • Madisetti, Dylan. (2016). Scrapping Reddit’s Robin. Postmodern Technology, April 2016. http://blog.postmodern.technology/scrapping-robin/. Accessed 14 March 2017.

  • Malacria, Sylvain; Joey Scarr; Andy Cockburn; Carl Gutwin; and Tovi Grossman. (2013). Skillometers: Reflective Widgets That Motivate and Help Users to Improve Performance. In UIST’13. Proceedings of the 26th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, St Andrews, UK, 8–11 October 2013. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 321–330.

  • Mamykina, Lena; Bella Manoim; Manas Mittal; George Hripcsak; and Björn Hartmann (2011). Design lessons from the fastest q&a site in the west. In CHI’11. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Vancouver, Canada, 7–12 May 2011. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 2857–2866.

  • McEwan, Gregor; and Carl Gutwin (2016). Chess as a conversation: Artefact-based communication in online competitive board games. In GROUP’16. Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Supporting Group Work, Sanibel Island, USA, 13–16 November 2016. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 21–30.

  • McEwan, Gregor; Carl Gutwin; Regan L. Mandryk; and Lennart Nacke (2012). ‘I’m just here to play games’: social dynamics and sociality in an online game site. In CSCW’12. Proceedings of the ACM 2012 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Bellevue, USA, 11–15 February 2012. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 549–558.

  • Minecraft Wiki. (n.d.). Griefing. http://minecraft.wikia.com/wiki/Griefing. Accessed 14 March 2017.

  • Muramatsu, Jack; and Mark S.Ackerman (1998). Computing, social activity, and entertainment: A field study of a game MUD. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 87–122.

  • Park, Robert Ezra (1936). Human ecology. American Journal of Sociology, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 1–15.

  • Pearce, Craig L.; and Henry P. Sims, Jr. (2002). Vertical Versus Shared Leadership as Predictors of the Effectiveness of Change Management Teams: An Examination of Aversive, Directive, Transactional, Transformational, and Empowering Leader Behaviors. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, & Practice, vol. 6, no. 2, June 2002, pp. 172–197.

  • Preece, Jenny. (1999). Empathic communities: Balancing emotional and factual communication. Interacting with Computers, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 63–77.

  • Preece, Jenny; Diane Maloney-Krichmar; and Chadia Abras (2003). History of emergence of online communities. In B. Wellman (ed.): Encyclopedia of Community . Sage, USA: Berkshire Publishing Group, pp 1–11.

  • Ren, Yuqing; Robert Kraut; and Sara Kiesler (2007). Applying Common Identity and Bond Theory to Design of Online Communities. Organization Studies, vol. 28, no. 3, March 2007, pp. 377–408.

  • Rheingold, Howard. (1993). The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.

  • Siitonen, Marko (2009). Exploring the Experiences Concerning Leadership Communication in Online Gaming Groups. In MindTrek’09. Proceedings of the 13th International MindTrek Conference: Everyday Life in the Ubiquitous Era, Tampere, Finland, 30 September – 2 October 2009. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 90–93.

  • Thaler, Richard H.; and Sunstein, Cass R. (2008). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, (Vol. 1).

  • Tönnies, Ferdinand.; and Loomis, Charles P. (trans.) (2002). Community and society. New Haven, CT: Courier Dover Publications.

  • Ung, Hang; and Jean-Michel Dalle (2010). Project Management in the Wikipedia Community. In WikiSym’10. Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration, Gdańsk, Poland, 7–9 July 2010. New York, NY, USA: ACM, p. 13:1–13:4.

  • Wellman, Barry; and Milena Gulia (1999). Net Surfers Don’t Ride Alone: Virtual communities as communities. In M. Smith and P. Kollock (eds): Communities in cyberspace, Routledge, pp. 167–194.

  • Williams, Dmitri; Nicolas Ducheneaut; Li Xiong; Yuanyuan Zhang; Nick Yee; and Eric Nickell (2006). From Tree House to Barracks: The Social Life of Guilds in World of Warcraft. Games and Culture, vol. 1, no. 4, October 2006, pp. 338–361.

  • Yee, Nick. (2006). Motivations for play in online games. CyberPsychology & Behavior, vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 772–775.

  • Yukl, Gary. (1997). Leadership in organizations. Upper Saddle Creek, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

  • Zhu, Haiyi; Robert E. Kraut; Yi-Chia Wang; and Aniket Kittur (2011). Identifying Shared Leadership in Wikipedia. In CHI’11. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Vancouver, Canada, 7–12 May 2011. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 3431–3434.

  • Zhu, Haiyi; Robert Kraut; and Aniket Kittur (2012). Effectiveness of shared leadership in online communities. In CSCW’12. Proceedings of the ACM 2012 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Bellevue, USA, 11–15 February 2012. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 407–416.

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Arty Sandler for making available the logging data from GameCenter and answering our many questions. We also thank the members of the GameCenter community, especially those that participated in the survey and interviews to provide insight into the community.

This work was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Prince Edward Island, 550 University Avenue, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, C1A 4P3, Canada

    Gregor McEwan

  2. University of Saskatchewan, 110 Science Place, Saskatoon, S7N 5C9, Canada

    Carl Gutwin

Authors
  1. Gregor McEwan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Carl Gutwin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gregor McEwan.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

McEwan, G., Gutwin, C. A Case Study of How a Reduction in Explicit Leadership Changed an Online Game Community. Comput Supported Coop Work 26, 873–925 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-017-9282-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-017-9282-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation