Life, EverQuest and the Mafia
Interesting paper on how important relationships are in multi-payer online games:
From ou comparison between why and how the social networks are formed in the mafia and in EQ, we have seen that there are some striking similarities....Lappainen[13, p. 74] suggests that the mafia initially grew out of an ancient honor system where elders were entrusted to negotiate in conflicts and pass judgements that the others were obliged to adhere to. The fact that Sicily historically hs been targeted by outside interests such as the Spanish and fascists has also contributed to a need for organized resistance against outside oppression. The transition into a criminal organization came later, possibly more or less because the mafia realized that they could use their powerful organization to achieve fortune for themselves. This pattern is repeated in EQ. The strong emphasis on reputation in the creation of social networks grows out of a need from the players to self-govern their gaming environment in order to secure a positive experience in the presence of potential disturbance and a simultaneous absence of an effective and reliable governing system. But ultiimately these networks are also used to take shortcuts through, or trick, the formal rules of the system.