When Code Governs Community

We present a qualitative study of governance in the community of League of Legends, a popular Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game developed by Riot Games. To cope with toxic behaviors such as griefing and flaming, Riot Games initially implemented a crowdsourcing system inviting players to participate in governing their own community. However, in May, 2014, they automated the system, relying heavily on code while minimizing the level of human participation. We analyzed both players’ and Riot Games’ narratives to understand their attitudes towards the relationship between human judgment and automation, as well as between alienation and community. We found stark differences between players and Riot Games in terms of attitudes towards code and value in designing online governance. We discuss how the design of governance might impact online community.

我们对《英雄联盟》社区的治理进行了一项定性研究，《英雄联盟》是由拳头游戏公司开发的一款热门多人在线战斗竞技（MOBA）游戏。为了应对诸如恶意破坏和言语攻击等不良行为，拳头游戏最初实施了一个众包系统，邀请玩家参与管理自己的社区。然而，在2014年5月，他们将该系统自动化，严重依赖代码，同时将人工参与程度降至最低。我们分析了玩家和拳头游戏双方的叙述，以了解他们对人工判断与自动化之间以及异化与社区之间关系的态度。我们发现玩家和拳头游戏在对代码的态度以及在线治理设计中的价值方面存在显著差异。我们讨论了治理设计可能如何影响在线社区。