"Hey guys? there's been a change in the raid": information use and social change in World of Warcraft

This study examines public sources of information, their usage and how these factors fect social change in virtual communities, specifically in the MMORPG World of Warcraft. Using the concepts of the "public" and the "public sphere" as developed by Jürgen Habermas, Robert Park, and John Dewey and the weak-tie theory by Granovetter, this study used a loose ethnography coupled with forum monitoring and in-depth interviews to determine public sources of information and information usage by players in in-game decision making. Also, the study seeks to clarify how players use information, and how this information sparks social change both at micro, meso and macro levels within the game and meta-game. This study found that players use internet forums and in-game social tools as their sources of public information to engage in free discussion about issues in the game, their lives and their community. This study also found that social change is influenced by information players retrieve from the forums and that weak ties are often generated in the forums. Guilds that frequently engage in the forums are in the public eye and subject to instability from external pressure. Guilds that do not interact regularly in the forums are less subject to external pressures, but subject to stagnation. These results support that WoW does have a function public sphere, public information sources and weak ties within the game often transmit more information, and with this information a chance for innovation and social change. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries