Generalizer's Dilemma: Social Network in MMOG's vs. ''Normal'' Social Networks

Over the last decade or so, a set of commonalities have been discovered in a large number of social networks which have led researchers to make generalizations regarding the structure and nature of social networks in general. To this end, a number of generative models of social networks have been proposed which can replicate the global properties of a large set of social networks. We describe a class of social networks, exclusively present in MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) which do not exhibit the properties present in most other social networks e.g., non-monotonic changes in diameter over time, anomalous behaviors with respect to the growth of the largest connected components, periodicity in network growth etc. Our work encompasses different social environments (adversarial, cooperative, neutral) and even cross-cultural setting (Europe vs. US vs. China). It is discovered that the social elements do effect the growth and the evolution of these networks. Based on our observations we propose alternative models of network evolution and validate our results with ERGM/p* models. Lastly we connect our results to social science theories to explain network evolution in different social and cross-cultural settings.