Building Online Communities: A Case Study of Reddit Interactions

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the social aspect of a popular online card game called Hearthstone. Specifically, the Reddit community is observed in its duality: r/hearthstone and r/hearthstonecirclejerk. The former is a more official channel, even though both are not directly used by the developers of the game, while the latter is used by a niche part of the community, mainly composed of trolls or members with a similar attitude. Considering the almost non-existent research and academic scholarship on this topic the study seeks to provide an overview of this part of the online world, and also to provide the heuristic tools to understand the references found in this community. The study provides insight on how communication occurs inside the subreddit and how the community builds itself through memes and inside jokes. At the same time, it demonstrates the differences in communication dynamics between the two subreddits mentioned above. r/hearthstone is a third place for players who want to discuss about the game they love and related topics, such as the meta, upcoming sets, patch notes and accomplishments achieved. On the other hand, r/hearthstonecirclejerk focuses on memes, mocking the players and sometimes mocking the game itself. Here members often reference to other games, pop culture and to content creators who play the game on Twitch or other streaming services. Understanding the inside jokes and references of this community gives an insight into memetics, showing that sometimes memes are born for no reason, but nonetheless they play an important role in social interactions.