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Unpublished PDF Available here

Abstract

Players form meaningful communities via online games. Game developers can retain players if they support online communities.
However, existing literature often does not provide actionable advice on how to build online communities and insights gathered
may only be relevant for one game or one genre of games. Through consolidating existing literature, we found that it may be the
behaviours that emerged (Emergent Behaviours) that create online communities. To determine if Emergent Behaviours can directly
lead to online gaming communities, we conducted seven semi-structured online interviews with players of World of Warcraft and
StarCraft. Our interviews revealed seven Emergent Behaviours that can help form online gaming communities and the 13 Feature
Categories (with example features) developers can build to foster the Emergent Behaviours in their games