Introduction to Group Dynamics

Group dynamics is simply the social process in which people interact and behave in a group environment. Understanding this can be an important component to designing your game in a way that allows communities to thrive.

Big takeaways

Companies need to establish the community-level standards for groups to set their individual norms.
Companies need to use appropriate group sizes for the function of the groups in-game.
Companies need to establish mechanisms that allow group members to interact, be creative, achieve recognition/status, and help one another better master the game.

Social vs. task-oriented groups

Groups can be formed for a few different purposes. The most common ones seen in gaming are social groups and task-oriented groups. In addition, you may see guild / clan structures used for both social and task-oriented purposes, where the goal of the guild / clan is to complete the hardest tier of content, celebrate a particular aspect of the game, or be a safe space for certain identities to play together.

Social spaces, and having mechanisms for players to find the spaces that speak to them, are an important part of a game. These spaces allow players to fully be themselves and feel a sense of belonging in-game, but aren’t always the most effective way to complete in-game objectives. In contrast, a task-oriented group is more structured, designated by the environment, and contains only the appropriate number of players and roles (e.g., using a dungeon finder tool to ensure that a dungeon is completed with the appropriate number of tank, DPS, and support heroes).

One key difference in these groups is often the amount of cohesiveness and trust present from the beginning. Social groups are likely (but not always) going to start with slightly more cohesiveness and trust because they start out knowing that they have something in common. This gives them an immediate advantage of thriving, but there is no guarantee that these weak links won’t break down, either over time or as the shared purpose gets harder to achieve.

While task-oriented groups can be random, they may be better set up for success by having some level of trust in each other / the leader(s) of the group. Thus, companies should take the elements of a successful group into account when designating groups.

Five steps of group development

Regardless of how well a group is put together, they need to go through five steps of group development before they can truly start to thrive. In doing so, individual personalities and needs are assessed and they can truly start working and thriving as a group.

The five steps are:

Forming — The group starts learning about each other and the objectives / tasks they will need to complete together to be successful. This is an area where developers should be more hands-on, by guiding what the expectations of the group are and what success for the group looks like.
Storming — Members start to plan out how they will achieve their objective / tasks: what the “right” approach is, and who will take on what role. This is often a source of conflict. Again, in games we can help this part of the process by having clear tasks to complete objectives and clearly defined roles for the players. However, some conflict in this stage is expected and healthy, as it will help the group feel more established as they work through this and into the next stage.
Norming — This is an extremely important stage where members resolve their conflicts and begin to develop their social agreements and norms for the group. While it’s important that the group has some autonomy in setting their social agreements and understanding their interdependency, companies should set up a baseline of expectations that these social agreements are built upon. Learn more about group norms and their importance in the four types of group functions section below.
Performing — The group has made their social agreements, understands their roles, and actually sets out to complete their objectives / tasks. At this point, the company will be able to see if they were successful in helping to set up healthy social agreements.
Adjourning — This is the last stage right before the group disbands. It’s important that the group has a moment to celebrate what successes they had in completing their objectives / tasks, learn what they could have done better, and have an opportunity to plan to group again. While game companies have been good at doing this on an individual level, creating truly thriving communities will require the games to celebrate successes and learnings at the group level. Also, allowing the same players to easily group again will increase social agreements, norms, and trust, leading to more positive experiences in-game in the future.

Method Designing a Culture of Teamwork

How to design environments where players support each other, celebrate diverse contributions, and ultimately build a thriving community.

Four types of group functions

There are a few different functions a group may have: setting norms, social emotional support, status recognition, and meeting transactional needs.

Setting norms — An important aspect of groups is setting norms, the collectively held expectations of how a group will function. While it’s important that groups have some autonomy to set norms that work best for that group, it is the responsibility of the company to set the community expectations that become the baseline of group norms. If a group is to thrive and be psychologically safe, then it needs to start with community expectations of inclusion, sportsmanship, kindness, etc. to establish its individual group norms. This also makes it easier for new players to come into a group and feel like they belong. In order to maintain these social norms, the groups need to have mechanisms for self-governance.
Social-emotional support — Groups can often provide the social-emotional support players need in-game. Humans are by their nature a social species — if they are to spend a decent amount of time in game worlds, they need to have their social needs met. Groups and gaming communities are set up for success in this area when there is a community attitude of inclusion, belonging, and sportsmanship, as well as ways for groups to form around similar identity and purpose.
Status recognition — Groups also help serve players’ needs by giving them status and, in turn, recognition. Being part of a prestigious group can give higher status and recognition. Also, holding status within the player’s personal group can give feelings of recognition, which helps to serve the intrinsic motivations players have to play games. It also sets groups up to be successful in helping each other grow and obtain better mastery of the game.
Meeting transactional needs — There are times when players just need to have a transactional need met, and groups provide an opportunity to have this need met in a safe environment. Someone looking to trade within their guild / clan is less likely to feel like they are being taken advantage of than someone trading with a relative stranger in the game.

What does group dynamics mean to game companies?

Understanding group dynamics will not only help companies better understand the needs of players in group situations, it can help them avoid groups with negative influences in their game environments as well. Companies can benefit from having thriving groups that keep players engaged in the game by:

Meeting players’ social-emotional needs in-game.
Giving players a greater sense of belonging through being part of a group.
Meeting players’ intrinsic motivations of status and recognition.

What does good look like?

What can hurt group dynamics and how to improve it?

Lack of community-level expectations by company — Have a well thought out code of conduct (CoC) that is visible to all players and in an easy to understand language. Have players agree to the CoC to add extra validity to it, and have the principles of it repeated and visible throughout the game world. Enforce the CoC both positively and negatively.
Inappropriate group size — Utilize Dunbar’s layers for social groups (see Youngblood, et al.), and have task-oriented groups as small as possible without compromising success or overburdening each member of the group.
Lack of mechanisms for groups to work through conflict — Ensure groups have mechanisms for communication and self-governance.
Role conflict and ambiguity — Ensure roles have specialized and recognized contributions to the group objectives.
Lack of opportunity for recognition — Have mechanisms for celebrating both individual and group contributions.
Lack of opportunity to meet players’ needs — Ensure there are mechanisms for players to be creative, show off who they are individually and as a group, interact with each other, recognize each other, and better master the game.

	Success signs	Warning signs
Individual	Display status Engage in recognition behaviors Conform to norms Participate in groups Show off creativity	No group participation Limited group participation
Group	Share an identity or purpose Have engagement Complete group objectives Group communication tools utilized Self-governance tools utilized	High reporting after group activities Low group activity participation
Community	Prosocial expectations Self-governance tools utilized	No community standard expectations Communication tools utilized by bad actors

Now what?

See all articles on Group Dynamics.

References

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Eagly, A. H. & Carli, L. L. (2007). Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders.
Gastil, J. (2009). The Group in Society.
Hart, P. T., Stern E. K., & Sundelius, B. (Eds.). (1997). Beyond Groupthink: Political Group Dynamics and Foreign Policy-making.
Janis, I. L. (1972). Victims of Groupthink.
Johns, G. (1996). Social behaviour and organizational processes. Organizational Behaviour: Understanding and Managing Life at Work.
Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to Authority.
Youngblood, A. et al. (2018). Social design practices for human-scale online games. Lost Garden.