Building and sustaining large, long-term online communities: family business and gamifying the game

Abstract

This work examines how leaders of guilds, a type of community found in many online multiplayer games, build and sustain large online groups of 400 to 500 people, considerably larger than previous work has suggested is possible. Using a sequential mixed-method design that focused on interviewing guild leaders of large guilds in the game The Elder Scrolls Online, several items were realized. Guild leaders found community management tools and methods unremarkable, reflecting the importance of their ease of use. Leaders need the ability to exclude unwanted persons and perhaps to include wanted members. Non-redundant channels of communication are needed, these included ephemeral voice for immediacy, and text and photos for a longer-lasting record of communication. Keeping members active increases engagement, but members, as human beings, only have so much capacity for strong ties: many in large groups will be loosely tied to others in the group.