Creating and measuring good communities in games  Community is
arguably the one defining factor that sets MMOs aside from any
other type of game. You adventure in a virtual world and in that
virtual world you can build a virtual community.  Oh, other
games certainly have associated communities but they
traditionally have been less of a part of the core experience. 
This is now changing. We’re seeing a convergence with online
games in which MMOs are getting less virtual world/ virtual
community centric and other multiplayer games are picking up MMO
conventions like in-game guilds and character progression.  This
just means that in game and cross game communities are getting
more important, not less.  It’s also well known that being part
of a strong community (or social network, which is the other
phrase that gets used a lot) is a big factor in people
continuing to play a game. It also happens to be a big factor in
the real world for social cohesion in a geographical area. There
are theories that a strong socia