Can You Hear Me Now? The Impact of Voice in an Online Gaming Community

This paper reports the results of a controlled field experiment in which voice communication was introduced into an existing online community (online gaming guilds within the popular game ‘‘World of Warcraft’’), comparing a mix of voice and text with text only. Quantitative results suggest increases in liking and trust due to the addition of voice, as well as insulation from unexpected negative impacts of text-only play. The findings are discussed with respect to social capital, cyberbalkanization, and the general computer-mediated communication literature, with special attention paid to social information processing theory.

[1]  Lesley Schulte,et al.  Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community , 2009 .

[2]  D. Annis.  Dyadic Data Analysis , 2007 .

[3]  Ross MacDonald,et al.  Play between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture , 2007 .

[4]  Dmitri Williams,et al.  Groups and Goblins: The Social and Civic Impact of an Online Game , 2006 .

[5]  Brady T. West,et al.  Linear Mixed Models: A Practical Guide Using Statistical Software , 2006 .

[6]  Jeremiah Scholl,et al.  A comparison of chat and audio in media rich environments , 2006, CSCW '06.

[7]  Andrew F. Hayes,et al.  A Primer on Multilevel Modeling , 2006 .

[8]  Constance Steinkuehler,et al.  Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as "Third Places" , 2006, DiGRA Conference.

[9]  Barry Wellman,et al.  The Social Affordances of the Internet for Networked Individualism , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[10]  Nick Yee,et al.  The Demographics, Motivations, and Derived Experiences of Users of Massively Multi-User Online Graphical Environments , 2006, PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.

[11]  Eva-Lotta Sallnäs,et al.  Effects of Communication Mode on Social Presence, Virtual Presence, and Performance in Collaborative Virtual Environments , 2005, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[12]  Erik Brynjolfsson,et al.  Global Village or Cyberbalkans: Modeling and Measuring the Integration of Electronic Communities , 2005, Manag. Sci..

[13]  T. Ranney,et al.  Effects of Voice Technology on Test Track Driving Performance: Implications for Driver Distraction , 2005, Hum. Factors.

[14]  Brian G. Southwell,et al.  The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly? , 2004 .

[15]  Mohan J. Dutta-Bergman.  Interpersonal communication after 9/11 via telephone and internet: A theory of channel complementarity , 2004, New Media Soc..

[16]  James A. Rodger,et al.  Voice says it all in the Navy , 2004, CACM.

[17]  Yvonne Rogers,et al.  Does it matter if you don't know who's talking?: multiplayer gaming with voiceover IP , 2004, CHI EA '04.

[18]  P. Nayar.  The Internet in everyday life , 2004, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[19]  Caroline Haythornthwaite,et al.  Strong, Weak, and Latent Ties and the Impact of New Media , 2002, Inf. Soc..

[20]  Raymond R. Burke.  Technology and the customer interface: What consumers want in the physical and virtual store , 2002 .

[21]  Norah E. Dunbar,et al.  Testing the Interactivity Principle: Effects of Mediation, Propinquity, and Verbal and Nonverbal Modalities in Interpersonal Interaction , 2002 .

[22]  Curtis LeBaron,et al.  Research on the Relationship Between Verbal and Nonverbal Communication: Emerging Integrations , 2002 .

[23]  E. Lister.  The New Handbook of Organizational Communication: Advances in Theory, Research, and Methods , 2002 .

[24]  Thomas A. Ranney,et al.  The Effects of Voice Technology on Test Track Driving Performance: Implications for Driver Distraction , 2002 .

[25]  L. Tidwell,et al.  Computer-Mediated Communication Effects on Disclosure, Impressions, and Interpersonal Evaluations: Getting to Know One Another a Bit at a Time , 2002 .

[26]  L. Kendall.  Hanging Out in the Virtual Pub: Masculinities and Relationships Online , 2002 .

[27]  Lee Rainie,et al.  Getting Serious Online. , 2002 .

[28]  Keith N. Hampton,et al.  Long Distance Community in the Network Society , 2001 .

[29]  T. Postmes,et al.  Social Influence in Computer-Mediated Communication: The Effects of Anonymity on Group Behavior , 2001 .

[30]  Ronald E. Rice,et al.  The Internet, 1995-2000 , 2001, ArXiv.

[31]  Ralph H. Baer,et al.  Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984 , 2001 .

[32]  C. Cramton.  The Mutual Knowledge Problem and Its Consequences for Dispersed Collaboration , 2001 .

[33]  C. Sunstein.  Republic.com , 2001 .

[34]  C. Nass,et al.  Speech interfaces from an evolutionary perspective , 2000, CACM.

[35]  T. Postmes,et al.  The Formation of Group Norms in Computer-Mediated Communication , 2000 .

[36]  Steven M. Drucker,et al.  The effect of communication modality on cooperation in online environments , 2000, CHI.

[37]  Clifford Nass,et al.  Does computer-generated speech manifest personality? an experimental test of similarity-attraction , 2000, CHI.

[38]  W. Galston.  Does the Internet Strengthen Community , 1999 .

[39]  Ray Oldenburg,et al.  The Great Good Place , 1999 .

[40]  Robert E. Kraut,et al.  Internet paradox. A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being? , 1998, The American psychologist.

[41]  S. Turkle.  Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet , 1997 .

[42]  Joseph B. Walther.  Computer-Mediated Communication , 1996 .

[43]  David W. Park,et al.  Interpersonal Effects in Computer-Mediated Interaction , 1994 .

[44]  J. Walther.  Anticipated Ongoing Interaction Versus Channel Effects on Relational Communication in Computer-Mediated Interaction , 1994 .

[45]  Craig Locatis,et al.  Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology , 1994, J. Comput. High. Educ..

[46]  J. Walther.  Impression Development in Computer-Mediated Interaction. , 1993 .

[47]  J. W. McCormick,et al.  Computer friends and foes: Content of undergraduates' electronic mail , 1992 .

[48]  S. Kiesler,et al.  Connections: New Ways of Working in the Networked Organization. , 1992 .

[49]  J. Beniger.  Personalization of Mass Media and the Growth of Pseudo-Community , 1987 .

[50]  G. Miller,et al.  Handbook of Interpersonal Communication , 1985 .

[51]  R. Daft,et al.  Information Richness. A New Approach to Managerial Behavior and Organization Design , 1983 .

[52]  D. Russell,et al.  The revised UCLA Loneliness Scale: concurrent and discriminant validity evidence. , 1980, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[53]  Richard R. Lau,et al.  Attributions in the Sports Pages , 1980 .

[54]  E. Rogers.  Diffusion of Innovations , 1964 .

[55]  Dmitri Williams,et al.  On and Off the 'Net: Scales for Social Capital in an Online Era , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[56]  Joseph B. Walther,et al.  Nonverbal Dynamics in Computer-Mediated Communication or: (And the Net: ('S with You, :) and You :) Alone , 2006 .

[57]  M. S. Poole,et al.  20 Virtual Teams , 2005 .

[58]  Stacey L. Connaughton,et al.  Long Distance Leadership: Communicative Strategies for Leading Virtual Teams , 2004 .

[59]  Lionel C. Briand,et al.  Guest Editor's Introduction , 2004, Empirical Software Engineering.

[60]  K Hew,et al.  Usability and sociability of the Xbox Live voice channel , 2004 .

[61]  Mark D. Griffiths,et al.  Breaking the Stereotype: The Case of Online Gaming , 2003, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[62]  Malcolm R. Parks,et al.  Cues Filtered Out, Cues Filtered In: Computer-Mediated Communication and Relationships , 2002 .

[63]  C. Cramton.  Attribution in distributed work groups. , 2002 .

[64]  D. S. Hillygus,et al.  The impact of internet use of sociability: time-diary findings , 2002 .

[65]  R. Rice,et al.  New Media and Organizational Structuring , 2001 .

[66]  Thomas Schoberth,et al.  Virtual Communities , 2001, Wirtschaftsinf..

[67]  N. Nie,et al.  Internet and society: a preliminary report , 2001 .

[68]  Robert D. Putnam,et al.  Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community , 2000, CSCW '00.

[69]  S. Utz.  Social information processing in MUDs: The development of friendships in virtual worlds. , 2000 .

[70]  B. Wellman,et al.  Studying On-Line Social Networks , 1999 .

[71]  C. Nass,et al.  The media equation - how people treat computers, television, and new media like real people and places , 1996 .

[72]  Nicholas Negroponte,et al.  Being Digital , 1995 .

[73]  R. Spears,et al.  Paralanguage and social perception in computer‐mediated communication , 1992 .

[74]  R. Spears,et al.  Social influence and the influence of the 'social' in computer-mediated communication. , 1992 .

[75]  Claudia Biermann,et al.  Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology , 1992 .

[76]  Maureen S. Battistella,et al.  Connections: New Ways of Working in the Networked Organization , 1991 .

[77]  Ray Oldenburg,et al.  The great good place : cafés, coffee shops, community centers, beauty parlors, general stores, bars, hangouts, and how they get you through the day , 1991 .

[78]  Linda L. Putnam,et al.  Handbook of Organizational Communication: An Interdisciplinary Perspective , 1987 .

[79]  Steven Levy,et al.  Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution , 1984 .