Exploring the experiences concerning leadership communication in online gaming groups

Abstract

This paper looks at leadership communication in the context of multiplayer computer games and the groups that operate within them. In multiplayer games promoting teamwork and long-term cooperation, issues of management and leadership are prevalent. The paper explores the experiences that members of multiplayer communities have towards leadership communication in multiplayer games by looking at one specific case of organized team play within the framework of a turn-based online strategy game. The data utilized in this study consists of themed player interviews conducted via e-mail. The analysis proposes three central dimensions that emerged from the data. These were labeled: 1) the leader as a primus motor, 2) the necessity of authority, and 3) the discourse of leadership as work. At the end of the article, directions for future research are outlined.

Designing leadership and soft skills in educational games: The e‐leadership and soft skills educational games design model (ELESS)

“…The ELESS A game-based e-leadership model not only needs to be contextualised with current literature and leadership models, but must also acknowledge that soft skills development and assessment in-game requires a different approach and perspective from traditional approaches in order for it to be most effective. Towards defining a model for e-leadership in the educational game context, it is worth considering the findings from the literature review undertaken above, as well as reflecting some of the key game design parameters such as motivation (eg, Garris, Ahlers & Driskell, 2002); increased engagement of learners through immersion and fidelity (eg, de Freitas, Rebolledo-Mendez, Liarokapis, Magoulas & Poulovassilis, 2010); importance of game rules, competition, reward system, role play and narrative for effective game design (eg, Järvinen, 2008); the role of social skills and social learning in games (eg, Ducheneaut & Moore, 2005); team work and long-term cooperation (Gorlinsky & Serva, 2009;Siitonen, 2009); and the importance of immediate feedback for ensuring learning (eg, . In earlier work, games design models have been linked with pedagogic models to improve the efficacy of game-based learning approaches, eg, the exploratory learning model (eg, de Freitas & Neumann, 2009), the "four dimensional framework" (de Freitas & Oliver, 2006) and the "gamebased learning framework" (see Figure 1: Staalduinen and de Freitas 2011).…”

Online Communities, Gen Y and Civic Engagement: An Investigation of Youth Leadership Development Potential in the Context of Social and Democratic Issues

“…While 17 young people indicated interest in participating in the study only seven attended the focus group sessions. This confirms a similar result in an online gaming and leadership study undertaken by Siitonen (2009), where 15 players were approached for an email interview but only 6 players elected to participate. The challenge of recruitment can be attributed to the many activities that young people are involved in during school holiday breaks.…”

'Every group carries the flavour of the admins': leadership on Flickr

“…Activity seemed to be heavier in Award type groups and in this context tended to be editorial. Perhaps authority here should be understood as mirroring that in games, where firm leadership is welcomed by players (Siitonen 2009). In contrast the Admin in learning groups acted out the role of expert or simply of participant.…”

“…Similarly, Gray (2004) argues that "the presence of an online moderator helped the community evolve from a forum for sharing information to a community of practice where knowledge was constructed through shared learning." Siitonen (2009) found MMOG players saw the leaders as providing much of the energy of the community, as "primus motor". Ho and Huang (2009) also found that leadership was among group success factors in video game communities.…”