Gaining more than experience points: Learning social behavior in multiplayer computer games. Position paper for the CHI2004 Workshop on Social Learning Through Gaming

Online multiplayer games have become complex social worlds. As such, playing these games requires more than simply accomplishing the games ’ objectives: it is also a process of socialization into a community of gamers. Through our observation of players activities we begin to outline where, when and how social learning occur in these games. We show how playing multiplayer games can teach valuable interpersonal skills, some of which may translate to the real world. These observations could form the basis for the design of future games that purposefully encourage social learning. Author Keywords Online games, computer-mediated communication, ethnography, socialization, social behavior, social learning