[MUD-Dev] Social Networks

[Koster]

From: Dave Rickey

> It may be that people are just naturally social creatures, and
> that the main effect of T/H/N is indirect, it simply keeps the
> *same* group of people together long enough to form the social
> ties.  It strikes me that pure chat spaces would create random
> networks, not the clustered "scale free" networks that
> characterize stable social fabrics.

Humans are indeed naturally social creatures, in up to tribe-sized
groups.

Pure chat spaces create scale-free networks, not random ones. What
determines the growth of a scale-free network is whether there are
differences between nodes that make some nodes more "fit" than
others. In the case of social networking, it's those people who are
connectors, who have big Rolodexes. Not only do they tend to know
more people, they also tend to acquire more friends.

It's a game of player skill, in other words. Near as I can tell,
power law distribution curves are common to all "skill" based
groups.

Scale-free networks do have one notable weakness: if you take out
the hub nodes, the entire network can collapse. This is clearly
evidenced by all the anecdotes of guild leaders leaving and the
entire guild collapsing.

-Raph

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