Loyalty or profit? Early evolutionary dynamics of online game groups

The life and evolution of a social group — its birth, growth, decline, and possible demise — have long been the focus of social science research. The birth and the early growth patterns of social groups, in particular, have been studied relatively little because of the lack of detailed data that describe the trajectories of groups during their early lives. In this paper, we report the major factors that govern the early dynamics of the evolution of social groups that are found in the complete data about user behaviors and activities for ArcheAge, a large-scale Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG). We find that in the early stages of a game where uncertainties prevail regarding the stability of a group, prospects for benefit are the more important factor in a group's growth than personal or social loyalty.