Information Behavior and the Formation and Maintenance of Peer Cultures in Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games: A Case Study of City of Heroes

Abstract

Within Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) players have the ability to create anonymous personae that do not have to adhere to the social conventions of the offline world. Nevertheless, small groups, with their own rules and mores (such as guilds, clans and teams), are clearly created and maintained within game worlds. The purpose of the research to be conducted is to examine how the conflation of play theory and information behavior theory, predominantly meaning-making, serve to explain the development and maintenance of peer cultures within the virtual world of the game or games. This paper is a brief conceptual framework for this research. Included in this framework are sections on various conceptualizations of MMORPGs, role vs. identity, play theories, and information behavior and meaning-making theories. All of these pieces of the framework will, I believe, ultimately aid in the final analysis of the research now being conducted.