How Belonging to an Online Group Affects Social Behavior – A Case Study of Asheron’s Call

The aim of this study was to investigate how group membership in an online game affects online and offline social interaction. Our main questions were: 1. Do people in online groups socialize more online and offline than people not in groups? 2. Do people in online groups have a different attitude towards bad behavior online? We surveyed Asheron’s Call users and logged online game observations to compare the subjective reports with objective measures. The results indicate that group members interact with other players online and offline more than non-group members, and that group members have a different attitude towards bad behavior online than non-group members.