Naturally occurring data in the study of virtual teams in working life – Challenges and opportunities

Previous research on virtual teamwork heavily relies on experiments conducted in laboratory settings, frequently utilizing zero-history university student groups, and drawing conclusions with regard to working life. While such studies can give some preliminary insights into the characteristics of distributed teamwork, they lack a methodological ingredient which is too often neglected in research on human interaction: authenticity. Such findings, consequently, are not easily applicable to what people do in real work life contexts. Earlier pleas to focus more on what is going on outside the laboratory, however, have been widely disregarded. This article takes a stand for including more natura…

Leadership in an online multiplayer strategy game: case – Illuria

This paper looks at leadership communication in the context of online multiplayer games and the groups that operate within them. In multiplayer games promoting teamwork and long-term cooperation, issues of management and leadership are prevalent. The study explores the experiences that members of multiplayer communities have towards leadership in multiplayer games by looking at one specific case of organised team play within the framework of a turn-based online strategy game. The data utilised in this study consist of themed player interviews conducted via e-mail. The analysis proposes three central dimensions that emerged from the data. These were labelled: (1) the leader as primus motor, …

Identity and Online Groups

Questions related to identity have been central to discussions on online communication since the dawn of the Internet. One of the positions advocated by early Internet pioneers and scholars on computer-mediated communication was that online communication would differ from face-to-face communication in the way traditional markers of identity (such as gender, age, etc.) would be visible for interlocutors. It was theorized that these differences would manifest both as reduced social cues as well as greater control in the way we present ourselves to others. This position was linked to ideas about fluid identities and identity play inherent to post-modern thinking. Lately, the technological and …

Vuorovaikutus verkkopeliyhteisöissä

Lectio praecursoria puheviestinnän väitöskirjan ”Social interaction in Online Multiplayer Communities” tarkastustilaisuudessa Jyväskylän yliopistossa 22.9.2007. Vastaväittäjänä tilaisuudessa oli yliassistentti Tony Manninen (Oulun yliopisto) ja kustoksena professori Maarit Valo.

Exploring the experiences concerning leadership communication in online gaming groups

This paper looks at leadership communication in the context of multiplayer computer games and the groups that operate within them. In multiplayer games promoting teamwork and long-term cooperation, issues of management and leadership are prevalent. The paper explores the experiences that members of multiplayer communities have towards leadership communication in multiplayer games by looking at one specific case of organized team play within the framework of a turn-based online strategy game. The data utilized in this study consists of themed player interviews conducted via e-mail. The analysis proposes three central dimensions that emerged from the data. These were labeled: 1) the leader as…

Avoimen tiedon virrassa

Why Do Players Misuse Emotes in Hearthstone? : Negotiating the Use of Communicative Affordances in an Online Multiplayer Game

This paper examines player-to-player interaction in Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 2004). The game designers have attempted to limit what they see as negative interaction by forcibly limiting player-to-player social interaction. Based on an analysis of forum discussions, this empirical study illustrates how players utilize Hearthstone's restricted communication affordances for negative and insulting purposes, and how players negotiate their shared symbolic reality concerning this type of interaction, labeled "Bad Manner(s)" or "BM". The continuous debate over an issue which ultimately cannot be solved shows that players care deeply about the game and the surroundin…

A decade of research into player communities in online games

The social dynamics of player communities in online games have been the subject of much research during the last decade. Following a systematic review of empirical research publications from 2000–2010, this article synthesizes the key methods and concepts researchers have used to study and characterize player communities. It also synthesizes the key aspects and operationalizations researchers have concentrated on. The analysis shows that qualitative approaches have been more common than quantitative ones. The concepts used to characterize player communities were often not clearly defined or overlapped in meaning. Yet they revealed a prevalence of micro (groups or teams), meso (guilds or org…

Social interaction in online multiplayer communities

Verkkopelit synnyttävät pysyviä vuorovaikutussuhteita Monen pelaajan verkkopelit tyypillisesti joko rohkaisevat pelaajien välistä vuorovaikutusta tai suorastaan vaativat sitä. Pelissä etenemisen vaatimuksena saattaa olla yhteistyö muiden pelaajien kanssa, tai peli voi perustua pelaajien väliselle kilpailulle.- Tyypillisiä verkkopelejä voi pelata melko itsenäisesti, hakematta syvempää kontaktia pelikumppaneihin. Sosiaalisuus on kuitenkin voimakas motiivi paitsi pelata verkkopelejä, myös muodostaa pysyvämpiä vuorovaikutussuhteita niiden piirissä, Siitonen kertoo.Verkkopelit perustuvat tietoverkkojen tarjoamiin tiedonsiirron mahdollisuuksiin. Tämä näkyy myös pelien tarjoamissa viestintämahdoll…

Puheen ja vuorovaikutuksen puolesta

Playful approaches to news engagement

From crossword puzzles and quizzes to more complex gamification strategies and serious newsgames, legacy media has long explored ways to deploy playful approaches to deliver their content and engage with the audience. We examine how news and games fit together when news organizations, game creators and news audiences welcome gameful forms of communication and participation. Moreover, we reflect on the theoretical and empirical significance of merging news with games as a way to reformulate normative assumptions, production practices and consumption patterns. As a result, the boundaries between journalism and game’s logics start to erode, and they begin to find new ways of converging.

Vuorovaikutus pelaajayhteisöissä

Technology-Mediated Communication in the Workplace

Technology-mediated communication has become an integral part of work and the workplace. Since the early days of digital communication technology, views of both the affordances and uses of communication technology have become more varied and complex. Understanding the reality of communication technology at work means taking into account its ubiquitous and ever-changing nature as well as the interpersonal relationships and social networks in which it is used. This chapter explores the ways in which communication technology relates to building mutual understanding and trust as well as managing networks and coworker relationships. Knowledge of these key issues is used to present ideas about ho…

Russian speakers’ media engagement and acculturation in Finland and Latvia

AbstractThis comparative study looks into Russian speakers’ acculturation in Finland and Latvia by contrasting their cultural involvement and cultural preference Carlson and Güler (J Int Migr Integr 19:625–647, 2018. 10.1007/s12134-018-0554-4) with their self-reported news media use. Drawing on survey data collected from both countries (N = 224), the findings show that participants in both countries scored closer to biculturalism than monoculturalism. Majority of the respondents report predominantly engaging with non-Russian news media sources. However, regardless of the societal context, respondents who were more engaged with Russian news media sources also scored higher on cultural prefer…

Aivan tavallista opetusta

A Time to Lead : Changes in Relational Team Leadership Processes over Time

This study analyzes how team members perceive changes in relational leadership processes over time. Interview data from three virtual teams ( N = 18) were analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. The findings illustrate how ideals of well-functioning leadership and teamwork communication can differ both between and within teams at different times. Team members may perceive benefits of the passage of time in teamwork, including experienced closeness, adjustment, and clarification of practices, as well as challenges such as rigidity and historical baggage. Organizations and teams may experience a shift in the ideals of leadership, but adapting to and adopting new forms of leadership over…

Utilizing games in the co-production of mental health services

This study analyses the application of a co-production approach in utilizing digital games and game-related methods in mental health services. The goal is to offer a real-world experiment on co-production, focusing on mental health service users, active gamers and mental health practitioners who worked together in equal ways and valued each other’s unique contributions during the experiment. The implications of a co-production approach for applying digital games in the field of mental healthcare are somewhat limited and under-explored. In this case study, seven workshop sessions were held involving service users, gamers and professionals. Participants were interviewed concerning their exper…

“A Shameless Ideology of Shameless Women”: Positioning the Other in Social Media Discourse Surrounding a Women’s Rights Movement in Pakistan

This study analyzes social media (YouTube) discourse related to Aurat March 2019, a women’s rights movement in Pakistan. Using a discourse analytical approach that draws on the premises of Positioning theory, the analysis reveals the following two major storylines from the data: “The women who stray from the path, and the men who will return them to it,” and “Islam under threat from the outside.” Social media platforms allow their users to express opinions in online spaces, often resulting in polarization and clustering of like-minded people in so-called echo-chambers. This study demonstrates how social media users actively participate in the discursive construction of the “other,” and how…

A Pilot Study on Developing Newsgames in Collaboration between Journalism and Computer Science Students

Abstract Producing digital and interactive journalistic products offers unique and important new learning opportunities for journalism education. This study analysed the experiences of two pilot courses on so-called ‘newsgames’ in a Finnish university in 2015 and 2017. The data consisted of the newsgames and other materials produced by the students, student feedback concerning the course and observations of teachers throughout the project. Our analysis demonstrates how producing newsgames in the context of higher education may foster project-based learning experiences, something that has been relatively rare in traditional journalism education. Collaboration with media companies also offere…

Tieto- ja viestintätekniikka ja yhteydenpito yläasteikäisten perheissä

Looking ahead in games research

This thematic issue presents a number of emerging scholarships into the study of digital gaming. The articles are based on a 2019 symposium on game studies hosted by the Digital Games Research section of ECREA. As the phenomena related to digital gaming keep on evolving and emerging, so must research keep up with the times and constantly challenge itself. Whether speaking about validating previously developed research methods, imagining totally new ones, or even challenging the whole philosophy of science on which research is being done, there is a constant need for reappraisal and introspection within games research. As a cultural medium that has become deeply embedded into the social fabr…

I am right here with you - Constructing presence in distributed teams

Based on a naturalistic research approach and observational data from real-life distributed teamwork, this paper illustrates how members of virtual teams in today's knowledge-intensive work places can construct and negotiate (social) presence together. Instead of seeing presence as an individual's interpretation and linking it with perceptual illusion of non-mediation or the assumed traits of chosen communication media, this paper sees presence as being socially constructed in interaction. The paper offers critique towards existing models of computer-mediated presence and offers new directions for research.

Constructing co-presence through shared VR gameplay

This study analyzes how participants playing VR games construct co-presence and shared gameplay. The analysis focuses on in­stances of play where one person is wearing the VR equipment, and other participants are located nearby without the ability to directly interact with the game. We first show how the active player using the VR equipment draws on talk and embodied activity to signal their presence in the shared physical environment, while simul­taneously conducting actions in the virtual space, and thus creates spaces for the other participants to take part in gameplay. Second, we describe how other participants draw on the contextual config­urations of the moment in displaying co-presen…

Participant Observation in Online Multiplayer Communities

This chapter discusses participant observation as a method of data collection for studying social interaction in online multiplayer games and the communities within them. Participant observation has its roots in the social sciences, and especially in the field of anthropology. True to a natural inquiry approach, studies utilizing participant observation try to understand the actual habitat or “lifeworld” of those participating in the study. This chapter looks at various practical issues connected to conducting participant observation in online multiplayer communities. Examples of data collection are presented, including saving log files, capturing images and video, and writing field notes. …

Mediated communication as an entryway into interculturality

In this chapter, the authors discuss how utilising mediated communication may open new possibilities into exploring and understanding intercultural communication in education. Set in the context of Finnish higher education, the chapter follows a social constructionist viewpoint into mediated communication. The chapter argues for the prevalence of media and technology-mediated communication as a tool with which citizens of a globalised world make sense of themselves as well as the other. The authors present and discuss practical examples of how learners’ own media use practices may be drawn upon in teaching, and how focusing on the everyday affordances of media allows for strengthening learn…

Social Inclusion and Exclusion in the Life Stories of Deported Asylum Seekers from Finland to Iraqi Kurdistan

This study explores how social inclusion and exclusion manifest as a dynamic continuum in the everyday lived realities of irregular migrants. Based on narratives of Iraqi Kurdish asylum seekers, who were eventually deported from Finland, the analysis depicts the ways in which societal structures, personal negotiations as well as relationships and social networks interplay in lives characterized by multiple locations, transitions and positions. Establishing and maintaining social contacts, belonging to various networks and being able to decide and act are primary factors that help us understand how the narrators relate to the continuum. The participants construct narratives illustrating seve…

Mental health service users' and professionals' relationship with games and gaming

Background Games and elements of gamification can be utilized in mental healthcare to provide customized interventions for the service users. However, very little evidence exists as to what kind of experiences service users and professionals have towards games and gaming, and what their perceptions of the phenomenon are. This sort of information is needed to help professionals put game-based interventions actively into practice in mental health services. Research objectives The objective is to describe the experiences and perceptions of digital games and gaming from the perspectives of mental health service users and mental health professionals. Methods In this qualitative study, data consi…

Lankoski, Petri ja Staffan Björk, toim. (2015) Game Research Methods: An Overview [Kirja-arvio]

Immersive gaming as journalism

This chapter discusses immersion and how it may be applied to journalism. It begins by unraveling the concept of immersion itself as a reminder that it is not only connected to virtual reality or augmented reality technologies, but rather that it is a multifaceted concept that may be understood in many ways. The chapter turns specifically to the theorizing done in the context of digital games research, where immersion and some related concepts have been explored in detail over the last decades. This theorizing helps us see how immersion can be understood and in what way the concept may be problematic. The chapter maps out some of the historical precedents for immersion, discusses alternativ…

“KKona where’s your sense of patriotism?” : Positioning Nationality in the Spectatorship of Competitive Overwatch Play

AbstractThis chapter analyzes the discursive construction of nationality and ethnicity in the context of the Overwatch World Cup 2019 and especially among the discussions of the world cup’s spectators on the live-streaming platform Twitch. Drawing on the positioning theory and the concept of banal nationalism, our study demonstrates how esports fans are active negotiators and co-creators of the esports discourse. The analysis illustrates what kind of role nationality and ethnicity take in this environment, in other words what they come to mean for those participating in the discourses defining them.

Exploring the Anatomy of an Academic Myth

This paper contributes to the discussion on so-called academic myths by analysing the idea of silence as characteristic of a Finnish communication style. By reviewing contemporary research literature and earlier sources, we illustrate how the concept of the silent Finn has emerged and how it endures, reproduced in both public and academic discourses while lacking empirical evidence. Our analysis proposes six key characteristics to academic myths: that they are built on shaky grounds, widely circulated, used as an expedient, intuitively appealing, resistant to change, and self-replicating. The paper addresses possible reasons behind the persistence of such myths and their implications for ac…

Yhteisö ja ryhmä verkko-opiskelussa

Yhteisöllisyyttä korostavien, toisiaan sivuavien oppimiskäsitysten ja -teorioiden mukaan vuorovaikutus oppijoiden kesken on oppimisen edellytys. Yhteisölliseen oppimiseen on myös vahvasti liitetty opetusteknologian ja verkkoympäristöjen hyödyntäminen. Mutta kuinka tukea yhteisöllistä oppimista silloin, kun oppijat eivät ole vuorovaikutuksessa kasvokkain, vaan teknologian välityksellä? Kuinka ohjata ja edistää osallistujien vuorovaikutusta niin, että yhteistoiminnallisen oppimisen ehdot täyttyvät?