Study of MMOG Proves Human Interaction Theory

An anonymous reader writes "A new study analyzing interactions among 300,000+ players in an online game universe, called Pardus, has for the first time provided large-scale evidence to prove an 80-year-old psychological theory called Structural Balance Theory. The research, published in PNAS, shows that individuals tend to avoid stress-causing relationships when they develop a society, resulting in more stable social networks."

If you can call that a "society".

[khasim]

I'd describe it more as a "social group" and then it is obvious that, given the option, people will gravitate towards groups that cause them the least social stress / most social support.

I played wow for a few years

[TheRealRainFall]

And i seem to recall most people absolutely loving drama and being controlled by irrational desires. This sounds stressful to me.

Re:I played wow for a few years

[Luckyo]

It's not really. The only one stressed by drama is usually the person with responsibility to hold stuff together, i.e. guild master, raid leader. The participants themselves are usually venting, and letting out steam.

So what is "distinctive" about those "societies"?

[khasim]

So what is distinctive about Group A that is not the same in Group B in that MMO?

Other than the name and colours they choose, they are exactly the same as almost every other grouping in those MMO's.

So what makes them "distinctive"?

Re:Obvious

[mwvdlee]

It's obvious that the earth is flat -- how else would we stay on it? -- but science seems to deny that.

Of course

[wanax]

Yes, they are 'biased' in the sense that they ask a 'within population' rather than 'whole population' question. There seems to be this idea percolating around /. that 'perfect studies' are possible (demanding TOTAL explanation of the variance). They are not. This study, analyzes the sample: Players of the game "Pardus" on "Artemis" who have interacted with at least one other player during the first 445 days of the game's existence. They make no claim about the general population, but merely remark upon the social interactions measurable within the population of their data set. The specious speculation you provide is outside of the purview of the study.

Re:No

[Sky Cry]

We can't tell if membership of these groups results in the behavior or if the behavior results in people becoming members of these groups.

Or if people behave differently online... or when playing games. One might even think that people actually play games to relax and get away from the usual problems they are facing, and therefore try to avoid stressful situations when gaming. Hard to believe, I know.

Re:So what is "distinctive" about those "societies

[somersault]

Some of these guys will be traders, others will be pirates, possibly bounty hunters and so on. It seems rather obvious the regular traders would not be trading, making alliances with or having positive interactions and communication with pirates, though pirates probably have some of their own traders who sell stolen goods back to the real market, if the game mechanics are that advanced.

But really all the conclusions they drew here shouldn't surprise anyone. Not that such tests are not worth conducting in case they show any interesting deviations from your expectations, but I think that a few more tests need to be carried out in less extreme environments - like a workplace or a marketplace where killing and outright stealing are frowned upon - to actually draw any useful conclusions.