Video game and augmented-reality game players can
spontaneously build virtual teams and leadership structures without special
tools or guidance, according to researchers.
Players in a game that mixed real and online worlds
organized and operated in teams that resembled a military organization with
only rudimentary online tools available and almost no military background, said
Tamara Peyton, doctoral student in information sciences and technology, Penn
State.
"The fact that they formed teams and interacted as well
as they did may mean that game designers should resist over-designing the
leadership structures," said Peyton. "If you don't design the
leadership structures well, you shouldn't design them at all and, instead, let
the players figure it out."