I’ve played online games ever since joining the world of Ultima Online back in tenth grade. For most of that time, I’ve been a part of an online group of players (known as a “guild” in the terminology of UO and other similar games). These groups are incredible case studies in the concept of the Leviathan, the theoretical 800-lb. gorilla in the room that forces all people around it to conform to certain accepted norms. For this post, I won’t be talking about my own guild, but about a “clan” (same concept, different game) that one of my friends belongs to.
There are two incidents that particularly stand out in my mind as notable reproach episodes. The first concerns the norm of typing out a “salute” emoticon into the in-game chat box whenever a fellow clan member joins the game. Now, my own guild has a similar practice (in my experience, it’s a fairly common practice amongst online gaming groups to have some such “secret handshake”), so this wasn’t so shocking to me. However, this clan took their salute very seriously; if any guild member didn’t offer or return a salute, they were verbally rebuked in front of the whole group. Conversely, if any non-guild member made the mistake of giving the salute, they were also reproached.
This particular incident was one of those latter cases. An outsider joined the server, and noticed everyone typing out these particular emoticons any time a clan member would join. After participating in the game for several rounds, this player’s visual anonymity and increasingly salient group identity asserted themselves, causing the player to join in and give the salute when a clan member joined the group. He was given Wallace’s “arched brow” in the form of a verbal reproach from the clan leaders.
Another norm for this clan is the use of a microphone for clan members to communicate with one another. Prospective member cannot even be admitted unless they own and actively use their mics, and when a player uses a low-quality microphone or “goes silent” for whatever reason, this earns a reproach. Such an incident occurred while I was observing my friend playing. One of the players was not participating in the voice chat group, and because of this he was rebuked by all of his clan mates—my friend included!
The two incidents turned out very differently. In the first case, when the outside player was rebuked for using the clan salute without being a member, he reverted to his salient individual identity and said some not-so-nice things to the server admin before either quitting or being kicked and banned. In the second case, though, the mic-less clan member eventually (with relatively little pressure) conformed to the groups’ Leviathan and activated his microphone. I believe these episodes demonstrate the differing intensity of two closely-related group identities: “game participant” in the former and “clan member” in the latter. In the former case, the player mistakenly identified the salute as a norm for the “game participant” role, and when he was rebuked, his far stronger individual identity asserted itself. In the latter case, though, the member had already read the “sign on the door” in the form of his membership agreement, and had developed a very strong identity as a member of the clan. When the Leviathan rebuked him for going against those norms, he conceded and fell back into line with the rest of his clan members. These results are entirely consistent with both Wallace and the SIDE theory’s predictions.
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1 comment:
You make some very interesting observations about the Leviathan in gaming. While I’ve played a variety of MMORPGs, I’ve never been an active member of a guild. So the internal norms of guilds are foreign to me. The first example you gave of the non-guild member performing the “handshake” is particularly noteworthy as that’s the Leviathan from two different angles. The individual felt the need to conform and fit in, but rather than promote conformity, the guild members looked down upon the individual and preferred to keep themselves separate. It’s almost like they wanted control of their own Leviathan; it gives them more authority within the game world.
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