The Social Behaviors of Experts in Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games

We examine the social behaviors of game experts in Everquest II, a popular massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMO). We rely on exponential random graph models (ERGM) to examine the anonymous privacy-protected social networks of 1,457 players over a five-day period. We find that those who achieve the most in the game send and receive more communication, while those who perform the most efficiently at the game show no difference in communication behavior from other players. Both achievement and performance experts tend to communicate with those at similar expertise levels, and higher-level experts are more likely to receive communication from other players.