Effect of Different Communication Affordances on the Emergence of Collaboration Strategies in an Online Multiplayer Game

Abstract

In a group, the collective dynamics is governed by the interactions between individuals, which can manifest differently depending on the available means of communication. In this paper, we compare 3 conditions of communication affordances (global chat, local chat and no chat) in an online multiplayer game and investigate their effect on team performance. An experiment involving a total of 108 participants (grouped in teams of 6 players) revealed that while the three conditions allow for the emergence of different communication systems, they yield no significant difference on the time taken to complete the task.