Playing online entails far more than dragon-slaying, identity experimentation, communication, and elaborate synchronized aggression. Letting other players affect your experience means placing yourself—if ever so slightly—at their mercy. In other words, you need to trust them, evoking a concept that has divided philosophers for millennia. This article describes how trust is an important factor in multiplayer gaming, how it can be approached theoretically, and how it may be favorably affected by game design.
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