This paper summarizes results of the participative ethnographic researchi nto a warlike community (so-called “guild”) that occurs in the virtual settings of the game Guild Wars 2. The attention is paid especially to the organization and adaptation mechanisms of the players as well as to the analysis of their functional modus operandi (sophisticated organization of so-called “rushes” and emergency mechanisms of offensive group formation). The article deals also with the analysis of cultural production of virtual communities (so-called “machinima”, guides/gameplays“ and playing modification of electronic encyclopaedias), which significantly falls outside the inter-subjective scope in the form of (theoretical and practical) correlation with the development of contemporary warfare - in particular with the conception known as “swarming”.
The Research Centre of the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences at Academia Sinica in Taiwan (RCT) was established on December 3, 2015. It is designed to act as a branch office of the Oriental Institute of the CAS and is intended to serve as a platform facilitating and strengthening academic exchanges between Czech and Taiwanese scholars as well as institutions. The Centre is a part of a long-term interdisciplinary research project entitled Power and Strategies of Social and Political Order. Czech research fellows are expected to participate in conferences and hold colloqiums with their Taiwanese colleagues. In cooperation with the Academia Sinica, the Institute plans to organize annual joint workshops and publish their proceedings. It will concomitantly continue building the network of patner institutions and thus create a solid foundation for further scholarly exchanges. In cooperation with Charles University in Prague it will also support doctoral students wishing to conduct research at the Centre. and Táňa Dluhošová.