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I'll Play on My Other Account: The Network and Behavioral Differences of Sybils

Published: 06 October 2021 Publication History

Abstract

This article studies the effects and implications of sybils (secondary accounts created by a person in an online platform) through the game World of Tanks from interdisciplinary, mixed-methods perspectives. Considering sybils allows us to access a "person based'' network, instead of an "account based" network, revealing formerly undetected patterns. We move on to behavioral differences between the "parent" (the initial account) and "child" (those created afterwards) accounts in a sybil relationship. We explore the behavioral patterns of sybils using network, chat, and gameplay data. We find that sybils represent players experimenting with new roles or features without damaging their play record. We find that there are significant behavioral differences between different sybil accounts, and we leverage them to build a machine learning classifier to differentiate sybils. This classifier is able to identify sybil accounts with over 95% accuracy for sybil/non-sybil, 61% for parent/child. This study demonstrates the underexplored but rich potential for sybils to improve research and industry practitioners' understandings of user practices and experiences.

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Cited By

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  • (2024)Deepfake Sockpuppets: The Toxic “Realities” of a Weaponised InternetGothic Nostalgia10.1007/978-3-031-43852-3_5(61-79)Online publication date: 31-Jan-2024

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cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction  Volume 5, Issue CHI PLAY
CHI PLAY
September 2021
1535 pages
EISSN:2573-0142
DOI:10.1145/3490463
Issue’s Table of Contents
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Association for Computing Machinery

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Publication History

Published: 06 October 2021
Published in PACMHCI Volume 5, Issue CHI PLAY

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Author Tags

  1. machine learning
  2. massively multiplayer online game (mmog)
  3. self-presentation
  4. social networks
  5. sybils
  6. topic modeling

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View all
  • (2024)Deepfake Sockpuppets: The Toxic “Realities” of a Weaponised InternetGothic Nostalgia10.1007/978-3-031-43852-3_5(61-79)Online publication date: 31-Jan-2024

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