• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.69-98
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• 2009

We investigated what factors motivate gamers to participate in a guild and why they continue to be engaged as members of the guild. We find that, based on the result of focus group interviews with MMORPG gamers, social support and self-esteem factors play important roles. Considering both prior research and the focus group interviews we have conducted, we define social support and character control as independent variables. Character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem are proposed as mediating variables while guild flow and game loyalty as dependent variables. Accordingly, we develop the research model and hypotheses, and verify them empirically. Based on our experiences of playing the WoW game, we proposed a research model and conducted focus-group interviews (FGIs). FGIs involve formulating a hypothesis and then collecting some relevant data. FGIs were conducted face-to-face with students of C University in Korea. We formulated structured interview schedules, and the questions were based on our research variables and personal experiences. The questions for the interviews encompassed the following areas: (a) the demographic characteristics of the focus group; (b) the number of years for which respondents had played online games; (c) the motive for starting a game; (d) the number of game-characters assumed by each gamer; (e) the type of game played; and (f) other issues such as the reasons for involvement in the play, the willingness to reuse the game in case new versions were released, etc. On average, it took two hours to interview each of three groups. A primary set of FGIs was conducted with three groups on the premise that there would be some differences caused by character race (Horde vs. Alliance) or by playable server (Normal vs. Combat). With respect to the manner of playing, we found that guild members shared information, felt a sense of belonging, and played computer games for quite a long time through the guild; however, they did not undergo these experiences when playing alone. Gamers who belonged to a specific guild helped other players without expecting compensation for that, freely shared information about the game, gave away items for free, and more generous with other members who made mistakes. The guild members were aware of the existence other members and experienced a sense of belonging through interactions with, and evaluations from, other players. It was clear that social support was shown within the guild and that it played an important role as a major research variable. Based on the results of the first FGIs, a second set of in-depth FGIs was carried out with a focus on the psychology of the individual within the guild and the social community of the guild. The second set of FGIs also focused on the guild's offline meetings. Gamers, over all, recognize the necessity of joining a community, not only off-line but also online world of the guild. They admit that the guild is important for them to easily and conveniently enjoy playing online computer games. The active behavior and positive attitudes of existing guild members can motivate new members of the guild to adapt themselves to the guild environment. They then adopt the same behaviors and attitudes of established guild members. In this manner, the new members of the guild strengthen the bonds with other gamers while feeling a sense of belonging, and developing social identity, thereby. It was discovered that the interaction among guild members and the social support encouraged new gamers to quickly develop a sense of social identity and increase their self-esteem. The guild seemed to play the role of socializing gamers. Sometimes, even in the real world, the guild members helped one another; therefore, the features of the guild also spilled over to the offline environment. We intend to use self-esteem, which was found through the second set of FGIs, as an important research variable. To collect data, an online survey was designed with a questionnaire to be completed by WoW gamers, who belong to a guild. The survey was registered on the best three domestic game-sites: 'WoW playforum,' 'WoW gamemeca,' and 'Wow invent.' The selected items to be measured in the questionnaire were decided based on prior research and data from FGIs. To verify the content of the questionnaire, we carried out a pilot test with the same participants to point out ambiguous questions as a way to ensure maximum accuracy of the survey result. A total of 244 responses were analyzed from the 250 completed questionnaires. The SEM analysis was used to test goodness-of-fit of the model. As a result, we found important results as follows: First, according to the statistics, social support had statistically significant impacts on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Second, character control had significant effects on character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity shows its clear impact on self-esteem and game loyalty. Fourth, guild identity affected self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Fifth, self-esteem had a positive influence on the guild flow. These days, the number of virtual community is rising along with its significance largely because of the nature of the online games. Accordingly, this study is designed to clarify the psychological relationship between gamers within the guild that has been generally established by gamers to play online games together. This study focuses on the relationships in which social support influences guild flow or game loyalty through character control, character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem, which are present within a guild in the MMORPG game environment. The study results are as follows. First, the effects of social support on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem are proven to be statistically significant. It was found that character control improves character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Among the seven variables, social support, which is derived from FGIs, plays an important role in this study. With the active support of other guild members, gamers can improve their ability to develop good characters and to control them. Second, character identity has a positive effect on self-esteem and game loyalty, while guild identity has a significant effect on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Self-esteem affects guild flow. It was found that the higher the character and guild identities become, the greater the self-esteem is established. Contrary to the findings of prior research, our study results indicate that the relationship between character identity and guild flow is not significant. Rather, it was found that character identity directly affects game players' loyalty. Even though the character identity had no direct effect on increasing guild flow, it has indirectly affected guild flow through self-esteem. The significant relationship between self-esteem and guild flow indicates that gamers achieve flow, i.e., a feeling of pleasure and excitement through social support. Several important implications of this study should be noted. First, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to conduct this study. Through FGIs, it was observed that both social support and self-esteem are important variables. Second, because guilds had been rarely studied, this research is expected to play an important role in the online community. Third, according to the result, six hypotheses (H1, H5, H6, H7, H8, and H11) setup based on FGIs, were statistically significant; thus, we can suggest the corresponding relationships among the variables as a guideline for follow-up research. Our research is significant as it has following implications: first, the social support of the guild members is important when establishing character control, character identity, guildidentity and self-esteem. It is also a major variable that affects guild flow and game loyalty. Second, character control when improved by social support shows notable influence on the development of character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity and guild identity are major factors to help establish gamers' own self-esteem. Fourth, character identity affects guild flow through self-esteem and game loyalty. The gamers usually express themselves through characters; the higher character identity is, the more loyalty a gamer has. Fifth, guild identity, established within the guild, has clear effects on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Sixth, qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to conduct this study. Based on the results of focus group interviews and SEM analysis, we find that the social support by guild members and psychological factors are significant in strengthening the flow of guild and loyalty to the game. As such, game developers should provide some extra functions for guild community, through which gamers can play online games in collaboration with one another. Also, we suggest that positive self-esteem which is built up through social support can help gamers achieve higher level of flow and satisfaction, which will consequently contribute to minimizing the possibility for the players to develop negative attitude toward the guild they belong to.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.397-408
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• 1995

This study was conducted to analyze the breeding bird community by using guild concept in Mt. Baekwoon Research Forest of Seoul National University. Bird Community was studied by line transect method during the breeding seasons of birds in 1982 and its results were compared and analyzed with the Park et al. Work in 1993. Guilds were characterized by nesting and foraging sites as follows: nesting guild - (H) hole, (C) canopy, (B) bush, (E) edge; and foraging guild - (o) outside, (c) canopy, (b) bush. Bush-nesting guilds such as Tricolor Flycatcher (Ficedula zanthopygia), Blue-and-White Flycatcher (Cyanoptila cyanomelana), Stonechat (Saxicola torquata), Bush Warbler (cettia diphone) and Skylark (Alauda arvensis) had disappeared after ten years. Outside-foraging guilds such as Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo), sparrow Hawk (Accipiter nisus) and Carrion Crow (Corvus corone) also were not observed. There was a sharp decrease of species richness of bush-nesting guild, canopy-foraging guild and bush-foraging guild compared to ten years ago. These decreases indicate that forest environment of this area has been changed for the ten years, and guild concept in this study can be used usefully to elucidate the change of bird community according to the change in forest environment.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.253-261
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• 1996

This study was conducted to clarify the relationship between bird community and forest structure from early May to mid June, 1988 in two sites which had different forest structures due to silvicultural practice, located in the Tomakomai Experimental Forest of Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan. Quantitative ahbitat analysis was applied to elucidate difference between the two study sites, and territory mapping method and guild analysis were used for assessment of the bird community. Dominant tree species were Quercus mongolica, Magnolia obovata, Prunus sargentii, Acer mono and Tilia japonica. Unithinned site had more foliage coverage in upper and middle layers, but in lower layer had less coverage than thinned site. Thirty four species of birds were recorded and of them only 21 species occupied territories within the study area. Dominant species were Ficedula narcissina, Phylloscopus occipitalis, Parus major, Passer rutilans, Sitta europaea and Parus palustris in the study area. The unmber of breeding species of the two sites were equal, but the species composition of breeding bird communities was different between the sites. The number of species and pairs on hole-nesting guild were greater in the unthinned site, but those on ground-nesting guild were greater in the thinned site. Canopy-nesting guild showed no significant difference between the two sites. Silvicultural practice such as proper thinning appeared to be not inadequate to all of the forest birds, probably good to bush and ground nesting guild, and to tree & bush and ground foraging guild. The silvicultural practice also did not considerably affect the hole and canopy-nesting guild.

• Journal of Korea Game Society
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.49-61
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• 2010

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of users guild system on game community activation. For the analysis, the paper used 2,876 users data of online game 'Gunju(Monarch)'. Social support between gamers who belong to guilds was more influential to community activation than that of gamers who doesn't belong to guilds. Especially, the fact was found that social support between guild members (internal social support) plays more important role on community activation than that between guild members and non guild members (external social support).

• Journal of Cadastre & Land InformatiX
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.151-164
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• 2014

This study research how beginner utilization guild is made of beginner utilization guild for expanding the V-World. We classified the subjects and investigated the purpose of the visit through satisfaction surveys, Depending on the purpose of the visit, we categorize a beginner, intermediate and advanced user of the V-World visit. This paper studies making beginner utilization guild in the majority of visitors of using map-based services. We carried out analyzing function of the V-World, configuration beginner utilization guild, creation contents, making guild. The V-World is a public service that the spatial information of having built of the country provide to Citizens.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.335-343
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• 2016

Of the Nak-dong Jeongmaek, five mountains, viz. Mt. Baek-byeong, Mt. Chil-bo, Mt. Baek-am, Mt. Un-ju, Mt. Go-heon, which are considered to well represent the natural environmental characteristics of Nak-dong Jeongmaek as well as its various terrain, were selected for this study. Two fixed plots were selected as sample study areas of each type of bird habitats and surveyed from May to October in 2015. According to the results of the survey conducted in the five mountains of Nak-dong Jeongmaek, a total of 47 species with 1,163 individuals birds was identified. The largest variety of species occupying a particular habitat type was found in the forest road and the ridge with 31 species. Also, the number of individuals was highest in the valley with 471 individuals. According to the results of nesting guild analysis of the vein (Pearson Chi-Square test, ${\chi}^2=13.377$, p = 0.037) by each Nak-dong Jeongmaek habitat type, the communities that belong to the canopy nesting guild showed a high frequency in development land and the valley while the communities that belong to the hole nesting guild showed a high frequency on the forest road and ridge. The results of Pearson Chi-Square test (${\chi}^2=15.555$, p=0.004) showed that the communities that belong to Bush foraging guild were most frequent in the development area and the community that belong to canopy foraging guild were most frequent inthe valley, the forest road and the ridge. These findings show that different habitat types of Nak-dong Jeongmaek support a great variety of birdlife by providing diverse and excellent resources.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.283-295
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• 2002

The number of species and individvals of birds observed in Bibong, Chinju-castle, Nosan and Saho parks were 49 and 4,349, 46 and 6,453, 37 and 2,817, and 33 and 6,014, nespectively The dominant species in all survey areas were shown in the order of Passer montanus(21.8%), Aegithalos spp.(20.7%), Pica pica(8.7%), Hypsipetes amaurotis(7.6%), Parus major(6.4%), Carduelis spp.(4.6%). Migration of birds was the order of residents, summer visitor, winter visitor, and passage migrant. The number of bird species appeared was the fewest in winter as 40 species and the most in spring as 53 species. Species diversity was the highest in Bibong park as 1.3256 and followed in the order of Sanho park, Nosan park, and Chinju-castle park. The nesting guild was higher at outside and artificial nesting guild(7-15 species) compared with hole, canopy, bush nesting guild(1-7 species) in all survey areas. The breeding forage guild was higher at canopy and bush(12-25 species) than that at outside, artificial, and air forage guild(2-8 species).

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.21 no.5_3
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• pp.665-673
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• 1998

This study was conducted to clarified the relationship between bird community and forest structure and present the counterplan for protection and management of bird community from February 1993 to July 1995 at deciduous and coniferous forest within Mt. Nam area, Seoul, Korea. DBH distribution has not significant differences in each study site. Deciduous forest had more foliage coverage in all layers than coniferous forest. Total 41 species of birds, which were 16 species of resident, 14 species of summer visitor, 4 species of winter visitor, and 7 species of passage migrant were recrded in two study sites. Leaf use rate of birds was increased the increase of coverage. The number of breeding species and pairs, breeding density, and diversity index were greater in deciduous forest than coniferous forest. The number of species and pairs on bush-nesting and foraging guild were greater than other guilds. And the nuber of species and pairs on hole nesting guild were the fewest in nesting guild. Use rate of artificial nests for improvement of habitat quality was greater in coniferous forest than deciduous forest. Maintenance of bush layer, increase of coverage and leaf layer diversity, supply of artificial nests, management of large trees, and control of natural enemy were necessary for protection and management of bird community in Mt. nam area.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.22-33
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• 2002

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of fragmentation on the bird community in Seongduck-ri and Hanggum-ri agricultural landscapes of Kangha-myon, Yangpyong-gun, Kyonggido. We analyzed the composition of tree species, forest environmental structures, structures of agricultural landscapes, avifaunas and guild structures. Number and density of tree species ranging from 6 to 10cm in D.B.H. were high in Seongduck-ri, but basal area was high in Hanggum-ri. Coverages of foliage layers under two meters and over 12 meters were high in Hanggum-ri. Meanwhile, Seongduck-ri agricultural landscapes consisted of twelve patches, dominated by Larix leptolepsis and Robinia pseudoacacia Hanggum-ri landscapes was composed of eleven patches, and dominated by Pinus rigida, Castanea crenate, Larix leptolepsis and paddy field. Dominant bird species showed the same order in two study areas, thirty-six species of birds were observed in Hanggum-ri landscapes, but twenty species were in Seongduck-ri landscapes. Number of species and density belonging to hole-, bush-, ground-nesting and water-, bush-, ground-foraging guild were high in Hanggum-ri landscapes. Number of species and density belonging to hole-nesting guild showed the high value in Hanggum-ri landscapes that was not fragmented. It could be attributed to the low human disturbance and relative high density of medium and large trees in D.B.H. Also, number of species and density belonging to bush-, ground- and water- foraging guild showed the high value in Hanggum-ri landscapes that had the high foliage amounts in the foliage layer under two meters. It will be related with the paddy field, dry field and brook, which patches covered the 28.4% of Hanggum-ri landscapes. Therefore, road not only dominate the heterogeneous patch in agricultural landscapes, but also easily cause the human disturbance. Thus, road construction would decrease the natural patch diversity and edge effects that are important for sustaining the diverse avifauna in agricultural landscapes.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.415-423
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• 2016

Numerous studies have been made on the negative effects of online games, as the negatives effects of the usage of online games have been recognized as social issues. However, this is a study on the positive functions of online gaming; more specifically, on how the guild activities on online games affect the user's leadership. This study has conducted in-depth interviews with online games, and drew the result using Giorgi's phenomenological analysis as for the methodology. 3 people participated in the research - a high school student, a university student, and an adult office worker - all of whom with experiences of guild leading on online games. To achieve the goal of this study, this study based the subjects' experience to analyze how online game guild activities have affected leadership on the subjects' real lives. As a result, timidity turned into initiation; not only leadership, but also decision making ability and coworking ability, as well as problem solving ability have shown improvement. Through this study, one can see that among the elements of online game, experience in guild activities is providing opportunities for enhancing leadership and possibilities for improving various other abilities. I hope more researchers continue studying interesting and diverse powers of online games based on this study.