An analysis of social gaming networks in online and face to face bridge communities

Online social games are Internet-based games that use the social networks formed by players to extend in-game functionality. For example, gamers participating in the BBO Fans community combine online bridge play with social networking. Despite an increase in the popularity of online social gaming - -currently, there exist over one million online bridge players - -, and of decades of research on social networks, the activity characteristics and the community structure of online social gaming remain relatively unknown. In this work we investigate and contrast these aspects for two bridge communities, BBO Fans (online) and Locomotiva (face to face). We propose the use of playing relationships instead of traditional social relationships such as friends and friends-of-friends. Using long-term, large-scale data we have collected from both the online and face to face bridge communities, we analyze user behavior, social network structure, and playing style in bridge communities. We find many similar characteristics in the two studied communities, but we also find more variation in the activity levels and fewer stable partnerships for the face to face bridge community.