No Place for Old Memes: Large-scale Collective Dynamics in the Three Iterations of Reddit r/place

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the collective dynamics of Reddit's r/place experiment, revealing patterns of engagement, collaboration, and competition that mirror broader social decision-making processes.

Contribution

It is the first study to characterize r/place's collective behavior using computational social science tools, providing insights into online community interactions.

Findings

Evidence of group coordination costs

Detection of social loafing behaviors

Increased cooperation in competitive contexts

Abstract

Is there something akin to geopolitics for online communities? One could think of communities as nations formed around shared interests of individual users. Friendly borders capture similar interests, but conflicts could emerge due to ideological differences or competition for attention (as for land). Over time, new coalitions could emerge, others could crumble, and many could disappear as casualties of online wars with highly unpredictable and often devastating outcomes. The r/place experiment is the most ingenious attempt at reproducing this complex collective dynamics as a series of three social games hosted by Reddit. The result is not only an accurate picture of the diverse interests on Reddit -- one of the most popular social media platforms in the world -- but also fine-grained traces of sequential actions taken by millions of players during the game. In this paper, we are the first to characterize the collective behavior during r/place in terms of engagement, collaboration, and competition using tools from computational social science and data science. Our analysis shows that r/place reflected many patterns found in other relevant group decision-making processes, including empirical evidence for group coordination costs, social loafing, and increased cooperation as a response to competition. We discuss how our findings can support the development of new theoretical models, tools, and mechanisms to optimize collaborative-competitive processes in social networks.