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The constitution of collective memory in massive multiplayer on-line game virtual communities: conceptual foundations and design implications for collective memory systems
Papargyris, Anthony A.; Παπαργύρης, Αντώνιος Α.; Athens University of Economics and Business, Department of Management Science and Technology; Doukidis, George I.; Kyrtsis, Alexandros-Andreas; Poulymenakou, Angeliki
The virtual game worlds of Massive Multiplayer On-Line Games (MMOGs) have attracted much attention over the years, mainly due to their capacities for supporting educational or business related activities. Active research on organizational and Information Systems studies and Knowledge Management strongly suggests the importance of communities in the processes of knowledge sharing and organizational/collective memory constitution. However, the lack of studies on massive non-organizational communities in the virtual is evident. More specifically, little is known on the relation of virtuality to collective action, to practices of knowledge sharing, and to collective memory constitution. The starting point of this research is the argument that MMOGs are community building arenas. These communities of players are virtual in nature but due to the sandbox type and task accomplishment scenario of the game, they are in continuous mobilization collectively negotiating the diverse meanings of virtuality and renovating their habitualized practices of knowledge sharing. In this vein, the research interest in this thesis is on how virtuality shapes knowledge sharing practices. The research focuses especially on the constitution of collective memory in virtual communities. As a result, the overall research aim in this dissertation is to address the following: “how do virtual communities share their collective knowledge and constitute their collective memory?”. To this end, the objective of this thesis is to explore the dynamics of virtuality in relation to the capacities of virtual communities in the virtual game worlds for collective memory constitution. The research annotates the transformative character of the virtual, as providing the capability for the renovation of habitualised practices. The thesis of this research is that collective memory is the collective action of remembering and forgetting, virtuality is the experience of the virtual, and hence collective memory constitution in the virtual warrants a fresh conceptual foundation as well as a reconsideration of design options for collective memory systems. More specific, the research sets-off by critically reviewing the core literatures on knowledge sharing and collective memory. It departs from organizational and Information System studies on Knowledge Management, and then proceeds to the importance of communities (such as Communities of Practice) in the cultivation of collective knowledge. The review is then enriched by introducing studies on collective memory constitution. The pluralism of interdisciplinary views of collective memory highlights the distinction between memory as an object (‘images of the past’) and memory as a process (of remembering and forgetting). The review suggests that collective memory is framed by the concepts of history, identity, and imagination, while the role of technology (such as Information and Communication Technologies - ICT) is also addressed. Additionally, it conceives collective memory as a social activity of negotiations of meaning, towards the sense of objectification of collective knowledge. Following this, conceptual affinities between collective memory as action and the virtual are explored. To this end, the research espouses the theory of social action as proposed by Alfred Schutz (1932), and adopts the descriptive framework of existential phenomenology as proposed by Martin Heidegger (1962), in an ambitious effort to understand the ‘intertwining’ (S. Sassen, 1991) of the virtual and action. The review concludes on two critical points. First, it proposes an understanding of virtuality as the very experience of interacting with a ‘technology of the virtual’ (such as virtual worlds). Second, it highlights the transformative character of virtuality, which through the virtualisation of action stimulates the renovation of habitualised practices, the redescription of narrative identities, and the reinterpretation of individuals’ lifeworld. These conceptual constructions frame the theoretical thesis that virtuality implies three critical challenges for collective action: the challenges of cultural heterogeneity, of ‘mediated’ experience, an of envisioning Others. In tandem with these two areas of conceptual work, the researcher ‘went out into the filed’ (Hammersley & Atkinson, 1995; Van Maanen, 1988; Weick, 1995) and through intensive participant observation over a considerable period of time, gathered rich data on the thematic of collaboration, decision making, and knowledge sharing in virtual communities. The relevance and use of ethnographic research methods, in general and in particular in the virtual has been addressed. The ethnographic experience and field work in virtual communities in two MMOGs is presented in (typical for ethnography) narrative form. Following the empirical field work, narratives (tales) from the field have been interpreted reflexively vis-à-vis the conceptual propositions already defined. This concludes on addressing several critical conceptual propositions. These propositions concern the collective memory construction in the virtual and depart from the theoretical formulations regarding collective knowledge and memory, as well as the relations between collective action and the virtual. These propositions underscore that virtual game worlds are clusters of evolving narratives and the experience of immersion in one of these settings prompts a play of imagination, which in turn affords the ground for the emergence of new collective actions of knowledge sharing and memory constitution. In this sense, the experience of a technology of virtuality (such as a virtual game world) sustains a significant sense of freedom and playfulness that can fuse a renovation of practices and a reinterpretation of the lifeworld, albeit in a creative manner. In terms of collective memory constitution, this study suggests that in virtual game worlds, virtual communities value four genres of collective knowledge to be part of their collective memory: a) historical archives of past events, b) personality checks, c) mental schemes, and d) repertories of ideas. In sum, these propositions suggest that while the virtualization of collective action (knowledge sharing and collective memory constitution), entails significant challenges, agents in the virtual mitigate the lack of familiarity through the play of imagination, by creatively exploiting the strangeness of the virtual, and by renovating their habitualised practices, memories, and identities. Subsequently, several design considerations on the construction of collective memory systems are elaborated upon. These design considerations are in multiple areas different from our current conception for Knowledge Management and collective memory systems as these applied particularly to organizational concepts. In this vein, these implications are consolidated and propose a concept (scenario) for a collective memory system architecture supporting knowledge sharing in the workplace. This architecture provocatively suggests a radical transformation of the workplace and a renovation of the embedded habitualised practices, towards virtualisation of collective memory and knowledge sharing in the workplace environment.