The Effects of Gameplay on Leadership Behaviors: An Empirical Study on Leadership Behaviors and Roles in Multiplayer Online Battle Arena Games

This paper seeks to establish how games can be used as a didactic tool for leadership development. Two multiplayer online battle arena games (MOBA) known as Defense of the Ancients (DotA) and Heroes of Newerth (HoN) are studied together with the leadership models of Fred E. Fiedler (1967) and Kurt Lewin (1939). A close-ended survey was conducted to determine the game player's game role (carry, support or ganker) and his leadership style (authoritarian, democratic, laissez-faire). A positive correlation was established between the game player's game role and leadership style. Furthermore the causal relationship behind this dynamic was explored through propensity score matching and logistic regression. The study concludes that exercising specific roles in MOBA games lead to the development of certain leadership styles.