Thursday, April 21, 2011

Social network analysis of The Left Claw*

I've always been intrigued by the social networking aspect of this little game of ours. And perhaps since I took a number of managerial and organizational behavior courses in business school, I decided to do a little bit of social network mapping/analysis to show how our little guild came to be.

Names in blue denote current raiders and names in red denote folks who no longer play this game. Where I knew the relationship between two people, they have been noted.

Couple things you see here. Jess and Rap were the two main intergral hubs in terms of bringing in future Left Claw folks. Also you see that we would have never met Rap if it wasn't for Wut pugging healers for heroics back in the BC days. In those days I was the only healer in the guild and if I wasn't on or in the mood to run a heroic, Wut would have to find someone else on the server.

This is how he met both Rap and Heidi. I'm telling you, the whole cross server feature of LFGs these days has had a significant effect on how people meet new folks on their servers. While pugging runs the old way definitely took more work, the results of it were much richer, in that it allowed for deeper relationships to form.

The other thing you see is that most of the people who came in the guild were people who knew each other in RL or through a past guild. You also see that I really haven't done much in terms of bringing people in the guild (though I must get credit for bringing in awesome pally healer Nico!).

But look at sad slacker little old me on the left there. But perhaps this isn't too surprising since I'm not a particularly friendly person with people I don't know, plus I've really only been in this guild, for over 4 years now, so it's not like I know anyone from a previous guild.

It's also nostalgic to look at some of these old names of past guildies who no longer play this game... and to think about how they introduced us to some pretty awesome folks. It's interesting to look at it all this way though.

I met Adamas questing in Darkshore, who then introduced me to Jess... Jess who already knew Wut from real life... Wut who randomly pugged a healer for a BC heroic and happened to meet Rap... and Rap who was in a previous guild with Nkm and Kal. You take out just one person from that equation and its quite likely that I wouldn't know Nkm or Kal today.

Hmmm maybe I'm being particularly sappy and sentimental or maybe I'm just a geek that this social network stuff intrigues me. :p

*Edited 4/22: Lorosia and Chanti tell me that they did find us through Jess and I's blogs. So now my box doesn't look so sad anymore.

10 comments:

  1. You are such a dweeb.

    I'm reminded of networks that epidemiologists use to study the transmission of diseases.

    We may have recruited Lorosia and Chanti through our blogs rather than the forums. If so then I'm not sure if it was yours and/or mine.

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  2. @Jess: The fact that you still use the word "dweeb" makes you twice as much one as I. Seriously who uses that word past middle school?

    Anyways... really? Didn't Lorosia and Chanti come to us through your forum post?

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  3. ... THAT is some astute social network mapping! I got a real kick out of it, K!

    "Awesome pally healer Nico", eh? You give far too much credit, my friend. I may have to ask Chanticleer about paladin tanking too, when I get back.

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  4. @Kal: Hehe. I use it as a term of endearment. She may even be a neo-maxi-zoom-dweebie.

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  5. @ Jess: "Neo-maxi-zoom-dweebie"??? Pardon me whilst I go prepare a shot of Toradol for the pain you have just caused me.

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  6. wow Jess.. wow

    I miss Claws. :( I remember how excited I was to get invited to Kara. Then how happy I was to be around all of you funny humans. I always looked forward to spending time with you. I'm so glad I could bring the good people I know to a great guild and everyone is so happy together!! Nice job K :) Loves!

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  7. Just remembering all those BC heroics and raids. Great times, inappropriate convo, lots of fun.

    Seeing all those names makes me all nostalgic. Hope to see yall soon.

    Wut

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  8. It was Daihiro that started all this insanity. He was running around Darkshore getting signatures for the guild. That's how we met Jess. Daihiro asked Jess around the same time as well as Skywise our "Original" hunter. Remember Kenthalas our other hunter?

    And the name "The Left Claw", WTF? we thought, or I did. That has Daihiro all over it, crazy dude. I didn't even know what I was signing until the guild went live and we had that guild badge under our names.

    Adamas and Keredria met at around level 9 just outside the Druid starting zone with some other toon. A cave mission, first of 1000s. Both of you were the first people I ever talked to in the game.

    We quested together up until we went to Darkshore and met Daihiro, Jess, Skywise and boom... The Left Claw was born.

    Ahh.. the good old days. Now I'm a Mercenary and Pirate in EVE... but I remember very fondly the game that introduced me to MMOs, and especially my original online friends.

    And yes I still read your blog and reminisce.

    - Adamas (Paradise, Ricochet... etc.)

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  9. @Adamas: Awww... Hi there you! How much havoc are you causing in Eve Online? I'm sure a lot!

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