Playing with Trust:
The Role of Trust in World of Warcraft
Joshua Murphy
Anthony Giddens:
Hypothesis
• Social interaction in World of Warcraft
discourages anonymity and emphasizes
interpersonal trust over “modern” forms of
trust (e.g. institutional trust, system trust).
World of Warcraft:
Data Collection
•
Three sources:
1. Personal experience and observation while
playing WoW
2. Surveys
3. In-depth interviews
Interpersonal Trust
• “A psychological state involving positive confident
expectations about the competence, benevolence, integrity
and predictability of another person and willingness to act
on the basis of these expectations. Issues of trust arise in
contexts that involve risk, vulnerability, uncertainty and
interdependence.”
- ADAMS & WEBB, 2003. “Model of Trust Development in Small Teams”.
Evolution of In-Game Trust:
• “Guilds in World of Warcraft or other MMOGs have such
a strong presence in players’ lives that they frequently
talk about their guilds as homes or families, even though
most of the players may never have met one another
face to face.”
- THOMAS & BROWN, 2009. “Why Virtual Worlds Can Matter”.
Simulated Re-embedding
Representative Trust
Institutional Trust
Transfer of Trust
Hey guy, my friend
is really
trustworthy.
Who the hell
are you?