線上遊戲玩家團隊的共享心智模式

Abstract

線上遊戲已是目前青少年主要的休閒活動之一 (Ang, Zaphiris, & Mahmood, 2007)，甚至有學者稱線上遊戲為家庭與工作場所之外獨特而重要的第三場所 (Steinkuehler & Williams, 2006)。本研究者觀察到有些玩家在線上遊戲中投資極大的心力去經營、組織團隊，以正規的形式進行經驗傳承，其中工作與娛樂的界線似乎逐漸泯沒了。因此對線上遊戲的核心玩家來說，遊戲或許已經轉變成另一個類似上班工作的場所(work place like) (Yee, 2006a)。 本研究以共享心制模式 (Cannon-Bowers & Salas, 1990, 1993) 為理論基礎，觀察大型多人線上角色扮演遊戲「魔獸世界」的玩家團隊，其團隊知識、團隊的建立，觀察方向有三：關於團隊的知識、關於遊戲角色的知識、以及關於團隊成員的知識。受訪者均來自同一玩家團隊，彼此間有深度共事經驗。以深度訪談收集資料，進行內容分析，目的為了解成員間所形成具有相似性和分佈性的共同知識，以描繪團隊成員共享心智模式的內涵。 在線上遊戲、該團隊屬於特定公會的脈絡下，研究者發現藉由共享心智模式的結構來分析線上遊戲團隊是可行的，遊戲玩家對彼此的共享心智模式具有相當程度的了解。以共享心智模式分析各成員所描述的團隊，此團隊的有幾項特性：(1) 該團隊是穩固的公會團隊(相對於沒有參加公會，暫時性自由組合的團隊)，是公會中能力最佳者的團隊，因地位穩固、資源完整，才能以歡樂氣氛為團隊追求的方向。因此也以歡樂遊戲的氣氛有別於大部分遊戲團隊。這是本團隊的核心特性，此氣氛主導了團隊的演變歷程與何謂成功的概念。在魔獸世界遊戲中，嚴謹的團隊才是常態，大部分玩家在線上遊戲中要求取晉級與技能，需要努力工作、配合團隊要求，求取歡樂玩耍反而是少見的，這項觀察意味著在線上遊戲中，所謂的遊戲與工作的界線是模糊化的。本研究發現領導人(RL及主坦)在團隊功能及共享心智模式的建立均居重要關鍵。(3)本研究資料也顯示團隊中的次團體對個別成員知識的影響力。(4)線上遊戲團隊中的社會網絡包含兩個層面: 成員與成員之間，各成員在遊戲中扮演的角色與角色之間，這兩個社會網絡會彼此穿透。(5)每位成員會對自我角色是有所期待的，對其他成員的角色也有期待，各角色的定義與成員對角色的期望包含有真實的成員與虛擬的角色兩個層面。 此研究結果能幫助我們了解一個特殊的團隊之運作與各成員所習得的團隊知識結構，由於遊戲玩家團隊並非現實生活中的團隊類型，因此對於正式的組織如公司、政府或學校等機關的團隊，提供了對於團隊組織進行反思的新角度。

Most of the researchers regard online gaming as a major leisure activity for the youth (Ang, Zaphiris, & Mahmood, 2007). Some researchers regard online games as the third space (Steinkuehler & Williams, 2006) in addition to the first and second spaces, family and job. However we have observed some game players who do not play in causal manner; instead, they invest tremendous mental efforts and play games as serious as working for a paid job, especially for those in MMORPGs. Serious gamers were also called core gamers by Yee (2006a) and he suggests that games seem more and more like workplaces. This study investigated online gamers of World of Warcraft, especially their knowledge of teamwork, team building, and shared mental models (Cannon-Bowers & Salas, 1990, 1993).We aimed at exploring the shared mental models of a very successful WOW team through in-depth interview and conducted content analysis toward their comments. We analyze the quality of members’ shared mental models, the similarity and distribution of the knowledge among members. Gamers’ shared mental model could be categorized as three separate sets, knowledge of teamwork, knowledge of role, and knowledge of teammate. We found that the shared mental model of core gamers are high in consensus and are highly coherent among various elements of knowledge (display an orderly, logical, and aesthetically consistent relations), and elaborated. The results were listed in below. (1) The team selected in this study has some special features. It was a stable team in a well-organized guild and the members were long-term core gamers in this guild. Their gaming capacity and stability, excessive resources supported by the guild provided them chances to pursue playfulness instead of hard works. They regard this playfulness pursuing as the central trait of the team compared with other player teams. It implies that playfulness is not a regular trait/aim of the online game teams and further more most of the online game teams focus on hard working, training, and specific achievement goals. The boundary of working and fun seeking (play) is unusually vague in online game teams. (2) The coordinator (called raid leader) and leader in the raid battles (called main tank) played critical roles in team function and in the formation of shared mental models. (3) There were several subgroups in the team and the subgroup affiliation could be identified by members’ comments and shared mental model. (4) The social network of the team was composed by two layers, among members and among avatars. Two layers were independent with interesting to-and-fro connections. (5) Shared mental models provided insights about roles and role expectations among team members and avatars. The results could contribute to the understanding of a special team operation that is not typical seen in working space. Therefore the generalization of current results should be made carefully. However, the shared mental models revealed in this study might offer critical reflections about team functions, effectiveness traning, and management for formal organizations such as companies, governments and schools.