Team knowledge with motivation in a successful MMORPG game team: A case study Shan-Mei Chang a, b,1 , Sunny S.J. Lin b, * a Division of Health Service, National Tsing Hua University,101, Sec. 2, Kuang-Fu Rd., Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan, ROC b Institute of Education, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 Ta-Hsueh Rd., Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, ROC article info Article history: Received 19 April 2013 Received in revised form 18 September 2013 Accepted 24 September 2013 Keywords: MMORPG Core gamers Team mental model Motivation Autonomy abstract We studied the content of the team mental model with a case study about a successful online game team. This team was formed by high-ranking managers in a large raid guild to conduct a raid in War of Worldcraft. They were interviewed with a set of 5-W questions developed according to the conceptu- alizations of team mental model (Levine & Moreland, 1991). Toward the interview protocol, a content analysis was conducted with two-cycle coding method from exploratory to explanatory and a hierar- chical framework from code, category, theme, to theory were generated to describe the team mental model. In the first cycle, 17 codes were extracted from participants’ own wording for concepts that were shared by whom controlled various gaming characters. These codes are knowledge convergence about the problem at-hand, actors, events, affects and outcomes – what the core gamers have experienced through the collaborative gaming process. In the second cycle, coding was guided by learning theories. Six categories, mingled from 17 codes, showed collective knowledge of co-work process, leaders’ works, work under supervision, seeking joint fun, relationship oriented, and balance between extrinsic-intrinsic motivations. From 6 categories, two themes were synthesized: the team (1) performed “joint hard work” for (2) seeking “joint hard fun.” The first theme comprised declarative and procedural knowledge rep- resentations and we consider it to be the commonality between this game team and ordinary work/ learning teams. The second theme was composed of affective and cognitive evaluation components about intrinsic motivation which is in accordance with Self-determination theory (SDT, Deci & Ryan, 2000). In general, “Jointly hard work for hard fun” is the gist content of the team mental model. We found ample evidences that members explicitly recall shared motivational beliefs of team mates and emotional–motivational events in gaming. Based on the results of this study, several implications have been addressed for teachers to enhance students’ intrinsic motivation in conducting quality Computer- Supported Collaborative Learning. Future studies are needed to further explore the relationship between the quality of team mental models and team-level performance. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction A team of MMORPG players is composed of guerrillas, logistical troops, and the main artilleries that assemble the constitution of many action teams (DeChurch & Mesmer-Magnus, 2010; Sundstrom, De Meuse, & Futrell, 1990), such as a military team or a project team (Edmondson, 2003) in high-tech companies. When a game team prepares for raiding, someone needs to lead, organize, and communicate with peers, and the members need to work interdependently to achieve team goals (usually to win at combat during the raid journey). Current online game development involves major human social functions, such as developing interpersonal relations and business transactions, cooperating, organizing manpower, and even learning and training. In addition, the members of an online game team need to invest considerable time to complete tasks. Yee (2006a) reported that, on average, members of online game teams spent more than 20 h per week actively gaming. * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ886 3 5712121x31714; fax: þ886 3 5738083. E-mail addresses: smchnag.nctu@gmail.com (S.-M. Chang), sunnylin@mail.nctu.edu.tw (S.S.J. Lin). 1 Tel.: þ886 3 5731053; fax: þ886 3 5724140. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers & Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compedu 0360-1315/$ – see front matter Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.09.024 Computers & Education 73 (2014) 129–140