TUTCRIS Research Portal

TY - JOUR

T1 - Seek, share, or withhold

T2 - information trading in MMORPGs

AU - Harviainen, J. Tuomas

AU - Hamari, Juho

PY - 2015/10/12

Y1 - 2015/10/12

N2 - Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ways in which information acts as a commodity in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), and how players pay for items and services with information practices. Design/methodology/approach – Through meta-theoretical analysis of the game environment as a set of information systems, one of retrieval and one social, the paper shows how players’ information practices influence their access to game content, organizational status and relationship to real-money trade. Findings – By showing how information trading functions in MMORPGs, the paper displays the importance of information access for play, the efficiency of real money trade and the significance of information practice -based services as a relatively regular form of payment in virtual worlds. Players furthermore shown to contribute to the information economy of the game with the way in which they decide not to share some information, so as to prevent others from a loss of game content value due to spoilers. Originality/value – The subject, despite the popularity of online games, has been severely understudied within library and information science. The paper contributes to that line of research, by showing how games function as information systems, and by explaining how they, as environments and contexts, influence and are influenced by information practices.

AB - Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ways in which information acts as a commodity in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), and how players pay for items and services with information practices. Design/methodology/approach – Through meta-theoretical analysis of the game environment as a set of information systems, one of retrieval and one social, the paper shows how players’ information practices influence their access to game content, organizational status and relationship to real-money trade. Findings – By showing how information trading functions in MMORPGs, the paper displays the importance of information access for play, the efficiency of real money trade and the significance of information practice -based services as a relatively regular form of payment in virtual worlds. Players furthermore shown to contribute to the information economy of the game with the way in which they decide not to share some information, so as to prevent others from a loss of game content value due to spoilers. Originality/value – The subject, despite the popularity of online games, has been severely understudied within library and information science. The paper contributes to that line of research, by showing how games function as information systems, and by explaining how they, as environments and contexts, influence and are influenced by information practices.

KW - Games

KW - Information economies

KW - Information practices

KW - Information systems

KW - Social information

KW - Virtual worlds

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84942322777&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1108/JD-09-2014-0135

DO - 10.1108/JD-09-2014-0135

M3 - Article

VL - 71

SP - 1119

EP - 1134

JO - JOURNAL OF DOCUMENTATION

JF - JOURNAL OF DOCUMENTATION

SN - 0022-0418

IS - 6

ER -