File:Making sense of community in RuneScape Notions of community in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game MMORPG.pdf

English: This study looks to detail the notion of community and social structures that support RuneScape as a social entity. This is accomplish using a survey of around 1200 players, semi-structured interviews with over 40 of the respondents. The two limitations of this approach are bias towards the 'main' version of the game, RuneScape3, and the lack of direct comparative ethnography through participant observation. However, comparative ethnography by proxy was achieved through the structure of interviews. The main findings of the study are that the overall community of RuneScape is like that of a nation, with an 'imagined' notion of itself. In actuality the community is fragmented into thematic sub-community groups catalysing around the RuneScape clan system, which closely parallels communities of practice structures. Players are bound to these communities and RuneScape as a whole through a messy assemblage of bondage, comprising of gameplay and social bonds. Therefore, RuneScape, as an MMORPG, is not addictive in and of itself, because of a mix of gameplay and social factors binding players to it. Game designers need to appreciate that MMORPGs represent messy assemblages combining gameplay and social elements, meaning that changes they make impact on players lives.