Getting Real About Games: Using Ethnography to Give Direction to Big Data

Shad Gross School of Informatics and Computing Indiana University

ABSTRACT

David Hakken School of Informatics and Computing Indiana University

General Terms

Nic True Interactive Institute Umeaa, S eden

HCI scholars have !een among those attracted to the study of online, computer"supported gaming# $%ig Data& approaches, hich analy'e electronic traces left !y game play, are an increasingly popular ay to study it# This paper identifies !asic epistemological pro!lems in some such approaches, focusing on those that implicitly depend on the assumption that game play is fundamentally the same as other social activity# The paper e(plains hy this and related assumptions are )uestiona!le, and hy these %ig Data approaches cannot esta!lish their validity on their o n# The paper then reports some results of a preliminary ethnographic study of *assive *ultiplayer +nline Games ,**+Gs-, in order to illustrate a ay that ethnography can provide an initial purchase on ho the underlying similarity.dissimilarity issue can !e studied# It concludes !y e(plaining ho methodological triangulation, involving a dialectical discourse !et een ethnography, on the one hand, and %ig Data and similar approaches, on the other, may !e a!le to place Game Studies on a firmer epistemological foundation# It is the attempt to achieve such significant o!/ectives, in particular to /ustify a foundational criti)ue of a ma/or ne development in Game Studies, and to do so in a single paper, that /ustify inclusion of the paper in alt#chi#

Human 6actors0 Design0 *easurement0 Theory#

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The study of online games has given HCI and other scholars a rich source of ideas a!out ho humans interact ith computers# ,,6or a general survey of HCI and HCI" relevant studies of games, see 7e#g# 8, 4, 9, :, ;, <=, <<, <>, <?, <4, <9, <:, ><, >@, ?>, ??, ?8, ?:, ?;, ?@, 8=, 8<, 8>, 8?A- Bmong the reasons that can !e used to /ustify such studies are5 <# To understand ays that interactions hile gaming can !e improved, in order to make !etter games 7e#g# <?, <4, <9, <:, ?=, 8>, 8?A0 To discern ays that pleasura!le aspects of game play can !e leveraged to other arenas0 e#g#, using games to educate people.impart more kno ledge ,e#g#, $serious games& 7e#g# <=, <<, ?=A-0 To use the commentaries and even meta" commentaries on the dynamics of normal life that gaming offers to dra more general design inspiration ,e#g# 7<, >, ?, 8, 4, ;, ><, >@, ?>, ?;, ?@, 8=, 8<A-0 and To understand play in virtual orlds.look into player !ehavior !ecause !etter understanding of player social !ehavior ill have some !roader, more general !enefit for HCI and related fields ,e#g#, 79, <=, <>, <4, <:, >>, >9, >:, ?<, ?8, ?:, ?@, 8=, 8?-

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Author Key or!s

+nline Games0 gaming0 %ig Data0 HCI, 1orld of 1arcraft, 2irtual 1orlds, 3thnography, %ig Data

AC" Classi#ication Key or!s

H#4#m# Information interfaces and presentation5 *iscellaneous#

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This final reason is the one that is central to the concerns of this paper# 1e focus here on some !roader implications of studying game social !ehavior in order to raise a general issue a!out hat it tends to presume# +ur !asic )uestions are, $1hy in general should e study games and gamingC Is it !ecause such !ehavior is reflective of general human !ehavior, or is gaming !ehavior uni)uely important precisely !ecause of ho it differs from other !ehaviorC& 1e !elieve that a return to such !asic )uestions is made necessary !y the recent prominence among digital technology researchers of a particular kind of $%ig

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Data&.&Data Science& approach to study of digital technology"mediated !ehavior# 1hen applied to gaming, the %ig Data approach typically focuses opportunistically on the traces left !y players in gamesD virtual orlds, such as avatar action data and chat logs# ,Such traces, gathered normally !y soft are during game play, have !een availa!le to scholars to varying degrees and under diverse auspices, !ut these pro!lems are not our focus here#- %y placing these data en masse into a data!ase, the traces are reframed as player action data points that can !e manipulated )uantitatively# 3ven these %ig Data approaches to the general dynamics of gaming are held to !e desira!le for several reasons# +ne is !ecause they afford a numerical ,and therefore more $scientific&approach to the study of human !ehavior# Bdditionally, it is !elieved that, !ecause of the character of virtual orldsD design, all playersD actions are recorded in at least some form, so the data!ase can !e seen to yield an inclusive, more or less complete record of activity# Conse)uently, some ma/or pro!lems of sampling ,!ut !y no means all- are !elieved to !e o!viated# In sum, %ig Data analyses of traces from virtual orlds make for an easy, complete, and )uantitative approach to the understanding of social phenomena 7>8A# There are many forms of %ig Data research on games, !ut a fe scholars 7?4, 8>A have !egun to raise )uestions a!out the epistemological presumptions that inform some of them# 6or e(ample, data!ases may !e simply tra led for statistically significant correlations ,one form of $data mining&- among the traces"turned"into"varia!les, and yet some of the correlations are then treated as providing general e(planations for social !ehavior# Such practices may raise several issues, including a- e(actly ho one is to separate valid correlations from, e#g#, those that are artifacts of data!ase construction0 that is, ho such separations are epistemologically /ustified0 !hether these post hoc e(planations of correlations are different from the <@th Century rank empiricism re/ected !y science long ago0 and c- the dangers of confusing a correlation for a causation# 3ven more !asically, using game data in these %ig Data ays involves an additional )uestiona!le assumption# To use game studies to make inferences regarding general !ehavior in the real orld, !ehavior in games must !e representative of !ehavior in the non"game, $real& orld# Ho ever, gaming !ehavior may instead !e primarily a function of the social form in hich it is recorded or framed ,that is, a derivative $Ha thorne& effect-# To assume that game !ehavior simply reflects general !ehavior is suspect on its face, !ecause hat makes a game a game is precisely that is different from the real orld# This is the essence of $ludism,& the interpretative perspective dominant in the general study of games 7<=, ><, >4, ??, ?@A That is, e kno e are in a ludic orld !ecause the rules governing

!ehavior are e(plicitly different from those of normal life, the $not gaming,& that is the rest of human activity# Since the distinctive feature of games is their difference from the real orld, simple or direct inference from game life to real life is not /ustified# +f course, inference from game !ehavior is less pro!lematic if our primary interest is in, say, improving game e(perience, as in the first reason for studying games that e discussed a!ove# In contrast, and this is our primary contri!ution to games studies in HCI, the value of using an understanding of game play dynamics to illuminate general human !ehavior must !e esta!lished0 it cannot !e assumed# Nor can any amount of $%ig Data& analyses of corpora of online !ehavioral traces !e used on their o n to address this issue# Ho much one can infer from traces must logically !e esta!lished before and independently of their analytic use for this purpose# 1e in HCI need a much more e(act understanding of the specific nature of the game.real life relationship !efore kno ledge gained from Game Studies can to !e presumed to illuminate social !ehavior in general# ,B similar point is valid ith regard to using %ig Data analyses of game play for, say, user e(perience design inspiration0 !ut this use is not our focus in this paper#- 3sta!lishing ho much gaming parallels living is no simple matter, as e need to find some other ay to esta!lish more precisely /ust ho much game activity deviates from $normal& activity# In contrast to the !rute %ig Data approach e have focused on thus far, one com!ined ith ethnography could provide su!stantial help in studying the e(tent to hich game !ehavior is different from.similar to real orld !ehavior# 3sta!lishing this is our second contri!ution to the HCI" relevant literature on gaming# +f course, ethnography as a means of e(amining !ehavior in virtual orlds is not ne to HCI# +ur third, more particular contri!ution is to illustrate ho , through a preliminary ethnography of massive, multi" player online games.gaming ,**E+Gs-, e ere a!le to develop a procedure that moves us su!stantially closer to !eing a!le to ans er the $1hy study gamesC& )uestion# This research e(perience led us to argue that ethnography can !e of more general help to HCI scholars in differentiating out aspects of game !ehavior that follo from fictional, virtual orlds, like those depending on the characteristics of the gameDs physics engine or deli!erate design decisions !y the gameDs creators# Bt the same time, it helps us to identify game activity that is like that in real life, such as actions that carry notions a!out real life over into a gameDs virtual orld# +ur final, ultimate contri!ution is to sho ho it should !e possi!le to com!ine initial ethnography, like hat e illustrate here, ith other approaches, hether interpretive coding or %ig Data# 3(ploratory ethnography can inform these approaches0 that is, provide them ith a clearer sense of hat to look for5 In our case, kinds of electronic traces

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that can !e connected to irreal and real life, respectively# 1hile ethnography can esta!lish that some game play is like action in real life, and some isnDt, it can on its o n only ith great difficulty esta!lish the relative fre)uency of each type# Doing this re)uires analyses of representative corpora of game play, !ut such analyses can !e given theoretical direction !y preliminary ethnography# In our conclusion, e descri!e in more detail hy e !elieve that the triangulation of multiple methods in dialogical ,and dialectic- interaction offer the !est promise of !eing a!le to ans er the necessarily preliminary )uestion in HCI game studies5 1hy study games, or, more particularly, to hat e(tent does it make sense to study games in order to infer something a!out typical human !ehaviorC
RE'E(A%T RESEARC)

for democratic rationali'ation ithin all systems of social rationality& rather than merely a $technological divertissement& 7><A# Still others have treated gaming more as reflecting rather than commenting on real life# Some of the ork of T#I# Taylor has e(plored such issues as5 $notion of assem!lage for computer game studies&, $comple( nature of player" produced culture and its relation to technical game artifacts&, $player cultureH in tensionH ith the kinds of controls designers often feel o!liged to enact#&, and issues of autonomy $need to develop more comple( ideas a!out the life of digital cultural artifacts, collective authorship, and the autonomy of user e(perience& 7?;, ?@, 8=, 8<A# Similarly, Grimes and 6een!erg )uestion the relation of games to rational social systems in the real orld5 $ho play comes to operate as a source of institutional order, enacting the same principles found ithin other more commonly recogni'ed rationali'ing processes such as technologi'ation, !ureaucrati'ation and commodification#& 7><A In such ays, interpretations of gaming are generali'ed outside of games into larger concepts, finding, for e(ample, hat implications social interactions in games have for online socia!ility 7:A, or even, general interaction5 $Bs interaction designers, e might ask ho the stages, or interactive ecologies, e create regulate or encourage identity performance& 7?A# Jesearchers have long !een fascinated ith the link !et een online identity and offline self#& 7<9A# There are also )uestions regarding the source of interactions5 $Bt the center of it all is the tension !et een hether intimacy is a phenomenon of the WoW orld, of the real orld, or !oth& 7??A# Bs Ducheneaut et# al say, $The relationship !et een online games and $real orld& !ehavior in organi'ations is clearly an opportunity for future research& 7<:A# In addition to the different reasons for investigating virtual orlds, HCI has also adopted a num!er of different methods to investigate games# These have included using surveys and logs to !uild up a $census of a virtual orld& artifact analysis to understand the importance of items in games 79A, and ethnography 7>@A# In some investigations, a num!er of different methods are used together Such multi" disciplined approach opens up a num!er of different possi!ilities for ays of approaching virtual orlds# It also can make it difficult hen trying to determine hich method should !e employed in a given situation, and ho it should !e employed# To e(pand upon this, e ill e(amine one of the more ro!ust means of e(amining virtual orlds5 ethnography#
Revie o# current ethnographic approaches

To frame our discussion of the !ig )uestion of ho games relate to the real orld, e discuss here some e(amples of the different ays HCI and HCI"relevant research has approached the study of virtual orlds# The nuanced and emergent nature of interaction in the virtual orlds created !y games, especially **+Gs, cries out for scholarly e(amination, and scholars have responded# HCI has had an interest in games and the virtual orlds they create for a num!er of reasons# 6or e(ample, Ducheneaut and Fee e(amined hat $gaming communities can teach us a!out the social dynamics of online groups, as ell as the potential for creating ne tools to help understand and manage these uni)ue online social spaces#& 7<:A# Similarly, Gu et al# investigate social relationships in the conte(t of online 6ES games to see $Hho players manage these relationships to en/oy their game e(perience !etter& 78>A# The framings of HCI"relevant $improvement& studies of gaming vary su!stantially in terms of idth# Some e(aminations look at games e(clusively as gaming alone# These have included making games more usa!le for different levels of players 7<?A# They also seek to find ays to make games more en/oya!le !oth in terms of social interactions5 $socia!ility may imply for the design of game mechanisms, as ell as comparing the forms and impact of social relationships across different game genres#& 78>A +ther HCI scholars have approached gaming as something like an art for, as containing commentaries on real life# Eace has e(amined $ho racial stereotypes, or preferences for dominant stereotypes, are created and represented in the virtual orld avatar creation process#& 7?>A# Still others have looked into topics such as cheating 7:A and adoption 7<<A# Grimes and 6een!erg applied critical theory to gaming in an attempt to rationali'e play and attempt a $!roader understanding of ho play practices may themselves come to reproduce the larger processes of rationali'ationH& and $situate digital games ithin the larger socio"historical tendency to ard rationali'ation that continues to shape modern play practices#& 2ie ing games as $opportunities

The nuance of social !ehavior in games has certainly encouraged e(ercise of the ethnographic imagination ,e#g#,

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7;, <>, >@, ?@, 8=A-# %efore presenting the specific ay that e used ethnography to situate the study of social !ehavior in games, e ill e(amine ho that it has already !een applied# Bs a!ove, e do not limit our survey only to e(plicitly HCI literature, !ut rather included perspectives from anthropology, game studies, and other related discourses# In creating a fuller map of the applications of ethnography, our aim is not to find a single $right& ay of applying ethnography, !ut rather to illustrate ho it can !e used to foster !etter understandings of the ays that game play relates to real life !ehavior# Interestingly, the reasons for doing ethnography of gaming parallel those given for the more general studies discussed a!ove# 6or e(ample, G is concerned to improve game e(perience, F e(plores serious games ethnographically, and K looks for design inspiration# *oreover, like %ig Data study of **E+Gs, the ethnography of online game activity is not ithout its pro!lematic aspects# 6or e(ample, as $professional outsiders& ne to the orlds they are o!serving, game ethnographers may fail to capture ho more e(perienced players actively co"constructors the game orld, as in the 1orld of 1arcraft ,1o1- play analy'ed !elo # This pro!lem is particularly relevant to our concern in this paper, to specify ho much of hat all playersLneophyte $ne !ies& and e(periencedLactually do hen playing reflects real life# *oreover, as %oellstorff o!serves, $too often, virtual orlds are descri!ed in terms of !reathless futurism and capitalist hype& 7;A# 1e !elieve that research on games is especially prone to fall victim to hype hen care is not taken to specification of /ust hy gaming is !eing studied# 1hen such care is not present, analysts are prone implicitly to take aiding game designers as the point of such research5 3#g#, Ducheneaut et al# descri!e avatars as !eing a $visual representation of the user, a Mtangi!leD em!odiment of their identity& 7<9A# The avatar may indeed !e in some sense a representation of the player, !ut at hat level of fidelity to hat the player is like are such representation constructedC +r consider the contrasting pro!lems of NardiDs $hyper" play& description of video games as $uni)uely digiti'ing rules of play, encoding them in a soft are artifact& 7>@A# The notion $play,& specifically, heavily frames Game Studies, presenting video games, for e(ample, as not life !ut a recreational foil for, even the diametric opposite of, the su!stance of it# Bgain, rather than assuming that games must necessarily !e approached $strongly ludically,& it is important to esta!lish first ho much and hich significant aspects of activity in game play is.are actually carried over, al!eit perhaps unconsciously, from the playerDs, and collectively the societyDs, real social !ehaviors# If su!stantial, they /ustify $ eak ludism& instead# This issue has !een addressed !y 7<=A regarding the design of ne **+Gs, !ut e think it is e)ually relevant to the study of currently e(isting games#

Indeed, the !asic am!iguity regarding fundamental o!/ectives lurking ithin e(iting general study of online games is also evident in some ethnographic studies5 Bre they to !e studied !ecause they are indicative of $normal& human !ehavior, or are they rather orthy of study !ecause, as suggested !y $strong ludism,& they are in essence meta" commentaries on $normal& lifeC %efore one can choose hich of these !asic orientations makes most sense, the degree of underlying similarity of $game& and $life& must !e esta!lished# 3specially if strong Iudism makes more sense, ethnographic approaches to game research may !e no more valid than those of art or literary criticism# Indeed, ethnographic approaches to gaming can !e seen to have their o n special version of the pro!lem of hy study games, as reflective of life or as related to life dialectically, as interpretations hose meanings contrast ith lifeC Bn important strain of ethnographic research, encouraged in particular !y Geert' 7>=A, may !e modeled more on aesthetic that empirical sources of inspiration0 that is, more like art criticism or film revie than straightfor ard description# +ne ay to understand the different ays in hich ethnographers approach gamingLthat is, to seen hen eak and hen strong ludic approaches in ethnographic ork on games is /ustifiedLis to distinguish !et een $doing ethnography& and $appropriating the ethnographic ga'e& 7>?A# In the former case, the point of game research ould !e to understand holistically the orld of the gamer Lthat is, the parameters of that orld, including ho gamers conceive of hat they are doing, as ell as, pace %oellstorff , ho gaming fits into the rest of their life# To appropriate the ethnographic ga'e, in contrast, means to adopt temporarily the pose of the participant o!server, in order to make one or more analytic points# Such a posture, for e(ample, is often struck !y philosophers as they conceptuali'e a culture ith a specific dynamic in order to clarify their argument# Their ha!it, on occasion, of identifying some occurrence as a $real e(ample& serves to underline ho such philosophically posited anthropologies are not to !e confused ith empirical ones# 1e do not point out ho ethnography can !e approached in these t o ays in order to claim that one is necessarily more important or !etter than the other, to distinguish !et een fulsome ethnography and appropriating the ethnographic ga'e in order to support the former and $dis& the latter# Indeed, !eing a!le to adopt temporarily the position of the field orker is increasingly seen as a necessary skill for HCI professionals# Indeed, each is appropriate in its place# +ur point is to argue that full ethnography should !e the priority no # This is !ecause of the central issue raised a!ove, that !efore e can proceed further e need to !e a!le to !e much more specific a!out the relationship of game life to real life, to !e a!le to strike an empirically"grounded !alance !et een inference and commentary, !et een strong and eak ludism#

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Bnother helpful set of lenses through hich to vie play ethnographically are the forms of e(perience 7>;A# Csiks'entmihalyi descri!es optimal e(perience as !eing rooted in the en/oyment gained from the completion of something that is difficult 7<8A# 2ie ed e(perientially, optimi'ing play means incorporating elements of difficulty# %eyond understanding the rules that have !een designed into the game, manipulating these $rules of the game play& is often characteristic of especially e(pert play# Such manipulation is !oth a recognition of and a response to, even a commentary on the gameDs design# Identification of points of such manipulation may indicate ays to improve play0 indeed such manipulations can !e incorporated into play, !ut as player $mods& or via e(plicit changes in the rules# Such manipulations com!ine the strongly and the eakly ludic, in that they !oth recogni'e the uni)ue rules of the game and counter them, often argua!ly via imitation of hat actually happens in the real orld# In addition to rules designed in, actual play also depends on the physics engine that makes up the !asic aspects of game $places,& as ell as playersD e(pectations carried over from reality and the implications derived from them# 1ithout having teased apart these general influences on **+G play, the analyst can only strike an ethnographic ga'e, provide an $as if,& plausi!le description# To treat these as a !asis for inferring things a!out more general social !ehavior is highly du!ious#
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inclinations regarding ho factors e(ternal to the orld of the game affect gameplay# These t o games are similar in content ,!oth fantasy Jole Elaying Games-, !ut different in player !ase, cost, and level of development# Bfter some initial attempts to e(amine entire games, e decided that this approach got in the ay of reaching our desired o!servational depth# ,$Total analysis& is in any case precluded !y the ever"changing nature of live **+Gs#- Bs e ere using multiple investigators, in addition to determining field sites collectively, e decided that it as also important to develop a shared frame of analysis# 2ia continuing talk, e arrived at a useful initial unit of analysis5 The event# 1e defined an event as a specific and discrete interaction that occurred !et een a player and.or players and the virtual orld#
*$%D$%GS (irtual +hysical Space

1e !egan our analytic ork !y focusing ethnographically on space and spaces in game play 1e had early on noticed that e ere often invoking notions of space hen characteri'ing events in the orlds of our selected games# In **+Gs, three"dimensional notional spaces are constructed hich heavily dra metaphorically on hat things are like in the real orld# These spaces include o!/ects that construct the e(perience of space !y affecting player movement and creating a visual $feel#& Such spaces have !een previously addressed !y a num!er of researchers 7>9, 4, >:, <A# In terms of space, Barseth descri!es World of Warcraft as $not a proper orld, or even a fictional one, !ut a M orldD in the theme park or 'oo sense, a conglomerate or parkland )uilt of connected playgrounds !uilt around a common theme& 7<A# The orld of WoW surely does include such recreational spaces, in hich all aspects have !een deli!erately designed ith the intent of manipulating playersD actions via, e#g#, the virtual environment# Ho ever, e dou!t that such intentionality is characteristic of all the special phenomena connected to play events# Jather, virtual orlds also include spaces of $mundane creativity, conversation, intimacyHeven tedium#& 7;A# 3ven hen a space in an **+G guides the player in the manner Barseth descri!es, this guidance is at the very least imperfect, re)uiring some additional mental ork !y the player and there!y allo ing everyday aspects of mundaneness to slip in# These everyday aspects carry over from the real orld, either in that space is re)uired to affords designed activities or space to allo their insertion 7<A# 1e also recogni'ed ho a spaceDs characteristics ere virtual renderings constructed in part !y the gameDs physics engine# This led us to see ho space as an aspect of game e(perience rooted partly in the physics engine, partly in design decisions made deli!erately !y the gameDs makers, and partly carried over, often unconsciously from real life# Seeing ho these all are com!ined in specific events as essential to understanding game sociality#

Jecogni'ing many of the pro!lems cited a!ove, e carried out a preliminary ethnography of gaming in hopes of laying a firmer !asis for game studies, one that ould afford additional ethnographic as ell as other approaches, including %ig Data# Here e descri!e this study, our main goal !eing to illustrate ho e came to frame events occurring in **+G play so that they might !e might !e properly parsed !et een those like real life and those different from it# ,See also 7>>A#To get at such dynamics, e first assem!led a group of researchers that included e(perienced players as ell as those less familiar ith the culture of gamers# 1e then chose sample of **+Gs as field sites, stratified in terms of age and type# This initial sample as )uite large, covering games that ere online and offline, single and multiplayer, and three"dimensional and t o"dimensional# Bfter identifying several features, our team selected an array of games that e felt ould foster a ide variety of different kinds of social interactions, give us a managea!le su!"set of **+Gs, and !e large enough to insure that e ould !e e(amining many of the moves that take place in virtual orlds# 1e !egan ith t o5 World of Warcraft and Argo, as they appeared to contain contrasting

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Objects that restrict player movement

In **+Gs, Bvatar movement is often affected !y o!/ects that are $solid&Lthat is, hen playerDs avatars collide ith them, they prevent it from moving any further# In addition to large o!/ects, such as mountains and massive alls, spaces can also !e divided !y partitions# In addition to partitioning spaces, invisi!le !arriers can also prevent access to some specific spaces in the game orld, especially those that mimic real orld spaces !ut present difficult design challenges# Blong ith ramps and stairs, there are other invisi!le !arriers at many of the entrance ays to !uildings# %uildingsD interior spaces also have a high potential for collisions# Inactive Non"Elayer Characters ,NECs- are located near !uildings rather than inside# These locations may follo from )uest completion, an intuitive time for a $!reak,& or !ecause they appear to !e $normal& places to congregate# In all these ays o!/ects are po erful formers of social interaction#
Visual objects that do not restrict movement

from the path, it can !e difficult or impossi!le to return# This underlines the linear nature of the game and ho goals need to !e completed in a specific order to maintain reasona!le progress#
Time Dynamics as a Secon! Aspect o# Games

The paths of play that make up **+Gs involve time as much as space# The length of the path determines not only its visuals !ut also ho long it takes to traverse it# 3ven in games here the focus is on fighting monsters and other players, the !ulk of the time is spent ay finding# 1hile each game creates its o n, uni)ue sense of time, some common patterns nonetheless still map to the orld outside the game#
Shortcutting

In addition to !uildings and partitions, other, non"collision elements guide players# These three dimensional o!/ects do not restrict movement like alls or partitions, !ut they do restrict the playersD visual path# This acts as a compromise, reflecting the real orld e(istence of such things ithout the prohi!itively difficult task of faithfully 7@A mimicking such interactions via code# 1hile the visual o!structions created !y these o!/ects may direct player movement, these t o dimensional te(tures are more commonly used as a method of suggestive guidance, e#g#, serving to identify path type# 1hen nearing its destination, a path may change from natural grass or dirt into manufactured co!!lestone or tiles#
Way-finding

6or o!/ects to define and create space ithin virtual orlds, they must e(ert governance over the interactions that occur# It follo s, then, that time spent interacting ith o!/ects is also governed# The !ulk of game space is open, !ut traversing open space is a considera!le time sink in gameplay# Nuests re)uire the player travel some here, do something, and often return to the original )uest giver to collect a re ard# Cities, the hu!s of social interaction, are often located far from areas containing )uests and monsters that yield level appropriate e(perience# Travelling to a ne area grants e(perience gain !ut re)uires time spent travelling# This is one important aspect of ay finding# Elayers may move their avatar in any direction along the ground, !ut the player has to have a sense of ho to navigate through the open# Jace"!ased visually distinctive environments are one form of assistance, hile another is forming game"space is formed !y repetitive o!/ects and environmental tiles## This reuse creates uniformity, !ut ithin the game it can o!fuscate landmark use# Identifying the path can have increased importance as means of progression ithin the game# If a player deviates too far

Games introduce $paths& as a means of giving players the a!ility to shorten travel times across open space !et een important nodes hile still allo ing freedom to deviate# *eandering from more overt paths, one deviation is called $shortcutting&# 1hile there are dra !acks to taking shortcuts in the real orld ,in/ury or death-, their a!sence in"game means players can save time using this method, as long as, e#g#, one is /umping from points that are not high enough to kill the playerDs character# ShortcuttingDs !reak of immersive realism is at an intersection point for game ith real time# Game re ards are tied to travel time, hich is a function of distance and speed# +ther means to increase speed include modification of the playerDs character, mounts, and location"specific flights, all of hich cost game currency or other resources# Still, !eing a!le to achieve the same result in less time is generally advantageous# +nce a method of time reduction is found, the social nature of **+Gs mean it )uickly spreads and !ecomes a part of playing the game# Blong ith $physical& shortcuts like those descri!ed a!ove, there are also shortcuts accessi!le via real orld money# Underground trade in game currency ,only gained in game through time"consuming processes- may violate game makersD rules, !ut it still e(ists# +ne $free to play& game offers players the a!ility to spend real currency to !uy points that may !e redeemed for in"game resources Blong ith the illicit money trade, there is a more direct ay to increase a player avatarDs fitness " the outright purchase of an up"leveled and geared character# *oreover, !ots e(ist that ill play the game for a player# This means that the real time of the player can !e spent doing other things hile the !ot increases the playerDs level in game#
Translation of Time into Fitness

The differences in ays to reduce a playerDs $real orld& time mark a !asic division in game type# In some, a playerDs a!ility to in a fight is tied )uite directly to her a!ility, ithin each game event, to out"maneuver her rival Thus, her a!ility to play the game also depends on time spent playing, since ho a player performs depends upon her a!ility to move in game space, hich is generally only

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improved !y playing the game, e#g# moving up levels via e(perience and e)uipment gained through engaging in specific fights# In such games, a player $plays the game,& hereas in others, a player very often $plays the interface#& $Elaying the game& means immersion in the characters, conte(ts, and even in stories of the game one learns !y interacting ith other players# $Elaying the Interface& means focusing on pressing !uttons in properly timed se)uences, at hich one gets !etter !y a!stracting from the orld ithin the game# The a!ility to in the fight depends more on repetition of finite actions than on a more open process of strategic on"the"fly movement through space#
Same time, different version of the same space

Blso relevant to time in play is the fact that it can !e important to create a ne version of an e(isting space, enclosed sections that are different from the normal, more open environments# These special spaces are descri!ed ith terms like $dungeons& and $instances,& the difference !eing ho time is handled# In a normal dungeon, all players interact in the gameDs normal flo of space# B ne player entering the space ill encounter others there already# In contrast, an instance is a dungeon in hich a uni)ue space is created each time a player enters it, either alone or in a group# If a group of players enters an instance at one time, they ill e(perience the space as if they ere alone# Su!se)uent individual or groups of player,s- that enter ill have the same special e(perience, ithout the players ho entered earlier# This means that hile time continues to flo , players occupy uni)ue versions of the same space, each ith their o n time flo # Different versions of the same space co"e(isting !ut ith different time flo rates create a logical schism !et een the space.time of the game and the space.time of the real orld# This schism is often !uilt in via game mechanics, the so" called physics engine# There are also play events in hich the game orld diverges from the real orld as a result of player intent# Elayers can /ump do n, suffering non"lethal fall damage, rather than take the e(tra time re)uired to use a ramp# Thus, an interesting relationship e(ists !et een player !ehavior and the sense of time ithin a game, hich led us to conceptuali'e space.time#
Simultaneity o# Time an! Space

likely to !e directly related to the amount of time spent playing the game, increased time ill also pro!a!ly raise recognition !y the community# ,This is true even though, as descri!ed a!ove, there are ays to increase perceived e(perience and ealth that do not involve actual, real orld time playing the game#- Games can e(plicitly encourages reputation through re arding players, as they play, ith points and special a!ilities# Time spent playing also increases the time hen a player can interact ith other players# This interaction, in turn, can translate into something like hat social scientists call 7@A $social capital&# Jaiding in groups often re ards a player ith !etter items, !ut these items are limited in num!er# Thus, the same raid group ill have to raid the same dungeon repeatedly in order for everyone in the party to get the items they ant# In order to travel through an area that is full of particularly high"level monsters, a lo er"level $ne !ie& player may need the assistance of a higher level player to act as a guide# This all leads to creation of $communities& that manifest comple( systems of social interaction during efforts to reach goals#
"hanges of Space#Time $ased on Social Interaction

Eractices like adopting shortcutting techni)ues should !e recogni'ed as part of a larger aspect of ho space and time are related in **+Gs# The re ards in the game vary directly in relation to the num!er of trips !ut inversely to the amount of time spent in transit# B shortcut is one aspect of a strategy to increase re ard hile decreasing loss#
Intersection of Social spects !ith Time and Space

1hile there are many metrics of success in **+Gs, one important metric is reno n# Ho ell kno n a player is depends particularly on her a!ility to complete the goals of the game# Oust as a playerDs a!ility to in any given !attle is

+ver time, an **+G orld may !e e(perienced as $smaller#& This may follo from any of a num!er of factors5 Bn increase in playersD a!ility to travel, a lessening of the amount of e(perience at lo er levels re)uired to advance, added flight paths, shortened duration of flight paths, introduction of flying mounts, etc# 1hatever the reason, this $smallerness& is another aspect of the relationship !et een space.time and social interaction# In such games, social interactions assume increasing importance# +ver time, areas of social interaction are kept hile the spaces in !et een them !ecome smaller# 1hile this has the !enefit of increasing the points of social interaction, it has the side effect of reducing the value of travelling in space.time# This results in hat players have deemed $*UD"flation& " the decreasing value of in"game assets# Bs the orld gets smaller, each playerDs a!ility to access resources increases, so the value of individual resources decreases# This is another illustration of ho intimately considerations of space and time are tied !oth to in"game resources and to reputational $capital#& B final aspect of game space.time is a specific developmental tra/ectory of the game# This $grand narrative& tra/ectory leads to a further separation in the gameDs social structure# B player ho has !een playing since the !eginning of the game may !e )uickly trumped !y a ne er player ith more ra po er !ecause of money spent or game change# Still, the $founding father& playerDs longer e(perience translates into a form of reputational value# In a similar sense, players ho circumvent normal methods of advancement in favor of rapid po er gain ,eg# account !uyers, gold !uyers- are 7<:A spurned !y players ho have gained e(perience, gold, items, and class mastery through more conventional use of game space.time#

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D$SCUSS$&%

These relationships of space and time, and their simultaneous space.time manifestations, are part of the fundamental, lo "level structure of virtual orlds# Bs such, their specific aspects form the social interactions that occur ithin those orlds# Consider, for e(ample, cooperative action !y more esta!lished, e(perienced players ,those ho have traveled more of the space of the game and spent more time playing- and to ard ne er players, hich is sometimes fostered , ith more e(perienced players helping ne er ones- and other times undermined ,through the idea of $ne !ies& and the creation of a hierarchy ithin the game-# Such in"game relationships are related, su!tly, to discrete aspects of the space and time created ithin the virtual orld# That game events are so structured means that analyses of space, time, and space.time can provide a starting point for comparative $grounded theory& of gaming# Such a frame is not only valua!le for the analysis of virtual orlds in video games0 e think it necessary to carry out the analysis of degrees of similarity !et een gaming and life# %y virtue of their analogous relationship to the real orld, it is difficult to imagine any virtual orld that does not manifest aspects of space and time# 3ven the most a!stract e(amples, such as the active area of interaction in pu''le games, can still !e e(plicated in this ay# In the case of **+Gs, to ignore ho space is formed increases the chances of misinterpreting the social interactions that gaming facilitates# 3ven things not allo ed are artifacts of intentional design decisions0 thus, any characteristic of interaction is likely to !e related to such decisions# The social interactions that occur follo from physics engine, from ho players relate to the gameDs designersD decisions, and from ho these intersect ith ideas of social interaction carried over !y players from in the real orld# Taken collectively, conte(tual space, time, and space.time illustrate the holistic nature of game play, one reason they are suscepti!le to ethnographic analyses# Identifying and analy'ing these foundational elements allo s one to understand large chunks of the gameDs social activities# Not only do such analytic actions afford richer and more nuanced understandings of ho social interactions in games relate to interactions in the real orld# Bt the same time, one can often distinguish among the physics engine, design, and carryover aspects of specific events in game play# The !ehavior of shortcutting, for e(ample, makes time loom larger in the game, !ut it does so in a specific ay# 1hile necessitated travelling and the si'e of the constituted game orld are largely functions of design decisions, the playersD practice of reducing the time spent playing the game is an element that is !est understood as something taken from similar events in real life# In this ay, the game"defined elements ,strong ludic- and the playersD innovations , eak ludicork together to construct the specific events as ell as the overall culture of

the game Eractices like these, in hich game"sourced and life" sourced elements are integrated, are manifest in many skilled playersD normal practices## That this is the case canD e !elieve, serve as an important, even necessary starting points for further investigations That is, hile integrated in practice, these elements can !e separated analytically# If such distinctions could !e made in regard to specific events0 and further, if the num!er and typical fre)uency occurrence of event types could !e ascertained0 it might !e possi!le to say something more definitive a!out our main concern# This can no !e phrased as the e(tent to hich events in gameplay are similar to or are different from those in real life# 1hile e think ethnography can provide us ith e(amples of particular events that can !e parsed in this manner, and may!e even a typology of events, it is not very good at esta!lishing eventsD relative fre)uency, let alone the fre)uency of, say, events in hich game"sourced strong ludism as more important to their dynamics than ere life"sourced eak ludism# It may, ho ever, !e possi!le to carry out such analyses of game events $!y hand& in enough cases to allo some inference# In addition, the digital records created during game play offer the possi!ility of analy'ing automatically large amounts of data# No that ethnography has helped us esta!lish hat to look for, the )uestion !ecomes, are there traces in automatically generated gaming data that can !e linked to physics engine and game design, on the one hand, and carryover from the real orld on the otherC 1ere this the case, a $%ig Data& approach to game analysis certainly could !e useful for the !ehavioral analyst# Indeed, the ideal kind of analysis ould !e the one in hich ethnography, hand coding, and %ig Data are !rought into colla!oration hen !ig )uestions, like $1hy study gamesC& are at issue# Such a colla!oration, descri!ed as methodological triangulation in the social science literature, is hat e ould hope for in the long run# In contrast, much current %ig Data analyses proceed ithout grounding analysis conte(tually in the specific game play and culture# Instead, a $data mining& approach means the process of parsing the data is compromised, !ecoming possi!ly even the analytic e)uivalent of $thro ing data at the all until it sticks#& This approach could confuse interpretation of particular findings# In this approach, activity that is actually a reaction to the designed nature of the game, or to the characteristics of its physics engine, is impossi!le to separate from that hich a player !rings to the game from outside, and thus it is also impossi!le to use such analyses to esta!lish the e(tent to hich strong and eak 7ludism are /ustified#
C&%C'US$&%

Unlike %ig Data, e !egan our analysis ethnographically, !y listening to skilled players and the language they used to talk a!out play# This led us to seeing the nature of space,

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time, and space.time as important aspects of social interaction in game play# Such grounded analyses afforded useful hypothesis creation# In future ork, e hope to com!ine out ethnography ith other approaches, including $!ig Data,& to give the study of gaming on a sounder foundation# That is, hile identifying the locations of players throughout a particular episode of play is likely to !e suggestive of the areas of congregation and the paths that players take through the virtual orld, additional aspects of interaction, such as hat is done hile at those locations and hile traversing those paths, are also likely to !e meaningful# Ho precisely to use these analyses hen approaching the large data sets of game play traces typically used in $%ig Data& analyses should in our vie !e ne(t on the agenda for such approaches# Ho ever e come to e(ecute this ne(t stage, e are confident that aspects of space, time, and space.time ill !e relevant to in"game social interactions and thus to more ro!ust understandings of game play# 1ith regard to ethnography, e identified a particular conception of $space&Le#g#, in terms of virtual o!/ects, geographic elements, and other aspects of the $idea& of spaceLas framing fundamentally ho humans interact hen playing these games# Bs e e(plored ays to talk a!out space, $time& emerged as an e)ually necessary analytic category, a prime medium ithin hich spatial interactions take place# Third, e recogni'ed the tight coupling of these t o dimensions of interactionLi#e#, that play.social interaction takes place in particular forms of $space.time#& 6ourth, through analyses of **+Ging in terms of space, time, and space.time across platforms, the team came to recogni'e !oth the possi!ility of and the necessity to differentiate among various aspects of these three factors# In particular, e came to !elieve that it ould !e possi!le to account discursively for the manifestations of space, time, and space.time in terms of various com!inations of the follo ing factors5 <# ># ?# The specific characteristics of the $physics engine& deployed !y the game !y hich play is visuali'ed0 The deli!erate choices made !y game designers to encourage or !an particular actions0 and The presumptions a!out space, time, and space.time carried over !y players from their $real orld& e(perienceL that is, the elements of cultural $pre"consciousness,es-& necessarily, ha!itually, fre)uently, or occasionally manifest in game play#

simplistic empiricism that is underlies so much $data mining#& In contrast, ethnographically grounded analytic framings can provide a ay to frame hypotheses a!out the similarities and differences !et een computer"mediated and non"computer mediated sociality# Indeed, it should !e possi!le to synthesi'e ever more satisfactory analyses via reciprocal movement !et een the various ethnographies of **+Gs and efforts at analy'ing %ig Data from gaming# In our vie , such an analytic practice provides the !est hope for constructing a via!le theory of the relationship !et een computing and change in things like sociality#
RE*ERE%CES

The remaining parts of this paper ere devoted mostly to a description of the discussions a!out **+G play that led us to articulate these as the grounded analytic notions that e found most useful# In general, e contend that such ethnographic framings provide starting points for theoretically informed hypothesis formation, to replace the

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