Abstract
We present an overview of a series of results obtained from the analysis of human behavior in a virtual environment. We focus on the massive multiplayer online game (MMOG) Pardus which has a worldwide participant base of more than 400,000 registered players. We provide evidence for striking statistical similarities between social structures and human-action dynamics in real and virtual worlds. In this sense MMOGs provide an extraordinary way for accurate and falsifiable studies of social phenomena. We further discuss possibilities to apply methods and concepts developed in the course of these studies to analyse oral and written narratives.
Keywords
- Virtual World
- Cluster Coefficient
- Node Degree
- Preferential Attachment
- Multiplex Network
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
We use the word “real” due to lack of a better term. Certainly human behavior, emotions, and decisions in online worlds are as “real” as in the offline world—they might only be biased differently depending on the context.
- 2.
Editors’note: See Robin Dunbar’s chapter in this volume.
- 3.
Here we take into account all actions as listed at the beginning of section “Database and Networks”, discarding for technical reasons the ‘bounties’ B.
- 4.
In this case, the events correspond to consequent edits of Wikipedia articles.
References
Barabási, A. (2005). The origin of bursts and heavy tails in human dynamics. Nature, 435, 207.
Barabási, A., & Albert, R. (1999). Emergence of scaling in random networks. Science, 286, 509.
Bohorquez, J. C., Gourley, S., Dixon, A. R., Spagat, M., & Johnson, N. F. (2009). Common ecology quantifies human insurgency. Nature, 462, 911.
Castronova, E. (2005). Synthetic worlds. The business and culture of online games (332 pp.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Clauset, A., & Gleditsch, K. S. (2012). The developmental dynamics of terrorist organizations. PLoS ONE, 7(11), e48633.
Corominas-Murtra, B., Fuchs, B., & Thurner, S. (2014). Detection of the elite structure in a virtual multiplex social system by means of a generalised K-core. PLoS ONE, 9(12), e112606.
Dunbar, R. (1993). Coevolution of neocortical size, group size and language in humans. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 16(4), 681.
Fuchs, B., Sornette, D., & Thurner, S. (2014). Fractal multi-level organisation of human groups in a virtual world. Scientific Reports, 4, Art 6526.
Fuchs, B., & Thurner, S. (2014). Behavioral and network origins of wealth inequality: Insights from a virtual world. PLoS ONE, 9(8), e103503.
Goh, K., & Barabási, A. L. (2008). Burstiness and memory in complex systems. Europhysics Letters, 81, 48002.
Granovetter, M. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360.
Heider, F. (1946). Attitudes and cognitive organization. Journal of Psychology, 21(2), 107–112.
Jo, H.-H., Karsai, M., Kertész, J., & Kaski, K. (2012). Circadian pattern and burstiness in mobile phone communication. New Journal of Physics, 14, 013055.
Kenna, R., & Berche, B. (2010). The extensive nature of group quality. Europhysics Letters, 90, 58002.
Klimek, P., & Thurner, S. (2013). Triadic closure dynamics drives scaling laws in social multiplex networks. New Journal of Physics, 15, 063008.
Leskovec, J., Kleinberg, J., & Faloutsos, C. (2007). Graph evolution: Densification and shrinking diameters. ACM Transactions on Knowledge Discovery from Data, 1(1), 2.
Lim, M., Metzler, R., & Bar-Yam, Y. (2007). Global pattern formation and ethnic/cultural violence. Science, 317, 1540.
Mac Carron, P., & Kenna, R. (2012). Universal properties of mythological networks. Europhysics Letters, 99, 28002.
MacCarron, P., & Kenna, R. (2013). Network analysis of the Islendinga sogur - The Sagas of Icelanders. European Physical Journal B, 86, 407.
Malmgren, R. D., Stouffer, D. B., Campanharo, A. S. L. O., & Amaral, L. A. N. (2009). On universality in human correspondence activity. Science, 325, 1696.
Mryglod, O., Fuchs, B., Szell, M., Holovatch, Yu., & Thurner, S. (2015). Interevent time distributions of human multi-level activity in a virtual world. Physica A, 419, 681.
Oliveira, J. G., & Barabási, A. (2005). Darwin and Einstein correspondence patterns. Nature, 437, 1251.
Pardus. (2015). Web-page of the Pardus game. Retrieved May 14, 2015, http://www.pardus.at
Rapoport, A. (1953). Spread of information through a population with socio-structural bias. I. Assumption of transitivity. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 15(4), 523–533.
Sinatra, R., Szell, M. (2014). Entropy and the predictability of online life. Entropy, 16, 543.
Statista. (2015). Web-portal Statista (2015). World of WarCraft subscribers by quarter. Retrieved May 14, 2015, http://www.statista.com/statistics/276601/number-of-world-of-warcraft-subscribers-by-quarter/
Stiller, J., Nettle, D., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2003). Human nature (Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 397–408). New York: Walter de Gruyter, Inc.
Szell, M., Lambiotte, R., & Thurner, S. (2010). Multirelational organization of large-scale social networks in an online world. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107, 13636.
Szell, M., Sinatra, R., Petri, G., Thurner, S., & Latora, V. (2012). Understanding mobility in a social petri dish. Scientific Reports, 2, 457.
Szell, M., & Thurner, S. (2010). Measuring social dynamics in a massive multiplayer online game. Social Networks, 32, 313.
Szell, M., & Thurner, S. (2013). How women organize social networks different from men. Scientific Reports, 3, 1214.
Thurner, S., Szell, M., & Sinatra, R. (2012). Emergence of good conduct, scaling and Zipf laws in human behavioral sequences in an online world. PLoS ONE, 7(1), e29796.
Vazquez, A., Oliveira, J. G., Dezso, Z., Goh, K. I., Kondor, I., & Barabasi, A. L. (2006). Modeling bursts and heavy tails in human dynamics. Physical Review E, 73(3), 036127.
Wasserman, S., & Faust, K. (1994). Social network analysis: Methods and applications (pp. 37–48). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wu, Y., Zhou, C., Xiao, J., Kurths, J., & Schellnhuber, H. J. (2010). Evidence for a bimodal distribution in human communication. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107, 18803.
Yasseri, T., Sumi, R., & Kertész, J. (2012a). Circadian patterns of Wikipedia editorial activity: A demographic analysis. PLoS ONE 7(1), e30091.
Yasseri, T., Sumi, R., Rung, A., Kornai, A., & Kertész, J. (2012b). Dynamics of conflicts in Wikipedia. PLoS ONE 7(6), e38869.
Acknowledgements
We want to express our thanks to the Editors of the book, Ralph Kenna, Máirín MacCarron, and Pádraig MacCarron, for the invitation to write this chapter and for useful suggestions and to Anita Wanjek for helpful comments on the manuscript. This work was supported in part by the 7th FP, IRSES project No. 612707 Dynamics of and in Complex Systems (DIONICOS) and by the COST Action TD1210 Analyzing the dynamics of information and knowledge landscapes (KNOWSCAPE). ST acknowledges support by the EU FP7 project LASAGNE no. 318132.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Holovatch, Y., Mryglod, O., Szell, M., Thurner, S. (2017). Analyses of a Virtual World. In: Kenna, R., MacCarron, M., MacCarron, P. (eds) Maths Meets Myths: Quantitative Approaches to Ancient Narratives. Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39445-9_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39445-9_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-39443-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-39445-9
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)