Exploring Game Leadership and Online Game Community

Online games have become a major leisure activity in recent years. Players go through a variety of social experiences, building up game communities such as guilds, blood pledges, and other small teams in virtual worlds. Game communities offer similar organizational experiences to those in real life. The game environment works as the third place where we can learn and develop our leadership skills. However, so far, not much research has been done in this area. This study examines the relationship between game players' usage behavior focusing on game community participation and game leadership. A total of 808 South Korean online game players participated in an online survey during one week. The results show that game community participation, team play, and the active attitude in accomplishing the mission of a game were positively related with game leadership. The outcome of this study provides a new perspective on the online game community to expanding our social experiences and improving game leadership in the virtual world.