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narrative environments vs social spaces
Game style worlds World of Warcraft, Lineage (I & II), City of
Heroes, Everquest (I & II), Star Wars Galaxies, etc.
Strong central narrative Social spaces
Second Life, A Tale in the Desert, Project Entropia, There, etc.
No central narrative – free form
publishers care about games
market value for MMOs in the West hit $1bn for the first time in 2006 (screendigest)
WoW accounted for 54%, revenue: USD$471m
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10824
economists care about games
Castronova on Everquest in 2001: Nominal wage USD$3.42/hour GNP per capita USD$2,266
77th in the world, between Russia and Bulgaria
Project Entropia, Second Life real currencies, real exchange rates booming virtual real estate business
Not just money!
Social relationships people live, love, learn in these spaces play, trade, socialise – no real limit to
motivations of participants
“Virtual worlds are entitled to respect because real people care about them
and come together in them.” -- Grimmelmann
what are the rules?
Governed by contract (EULA, ToS) Blizzard may terminate this Agreement at any
time for any reason or no reason. In such event, you must immediately and permanently destroy all copies of the Game in your possession and control and remove the Game Client from your hard drive. Upon termination of this Agreement for any reason, all licenses granted herein shall immediately terminate. (WoW EULA, cl 6)
The virtual world is the property of the platform owner a (mostly) benign dictatorship
near-term tensions
Real Money Trades (RMTs) Virtual crimes Virtual liberties Intellectual property – copyright Privacy
Tension: Real Money Trades
MMORPGs are boring Time-poor players pay others to grind for
them money, items, status
Game-based worlds often prohibit RMTs seen as a breach of the magic circle potentially harms subscription model –
removes grind, and lowers barriers to exit players dislike both 'eBayers' and 'farmers'
eBayers obtain benefits without labour; farmers cause inflation
RMTs (cont)
Blizzard banned 114,000 EU accounts in April 2007
Actively encouraged by other worlds Everquest, Ultima Online – centralised trading Project Entropia, Second Life – fluid economy
Selling property of the publisher, or buying the labour of the participant?
what happens if the rules change?
Expect virtual environments to adopt a services based economy power-levelling, custom designs, etc
Economy based primarily on artificial scarcity vulnerable to inflation, flooding by platform
owner or participants Detinue and Conversion of virtual wealth? Suits against platform owner for unfair
competition?
Should we ever prevent platform owners from making changes which
affect perceived value?
(Bartle warns that admins must have the power to make changes)
Question
Tension: Virtual liberties
Freedom of expression Freedom of the press Freedom of association
As more of our interactions occur in these virtual environments, who controls our relationships?
Public activities in private spaces Who has rights of exclusion?
Are these places going to be countries or country clubs? -- Prokofy Neva, upon being banned
from a 'public library' in SL
Freedom of the press
Anshe Chung, self proclaimed Second Life millionaire, has had a lot of publicity over the past year
Second Life's first Property Magnate
Organised a Q&A session for CNET in December 2006
Freedom of the press
Anshe claimed copyright in videos of the attack, and made a DMCA complaint against reporters
Complaint withdrawn after advice from the EFA that the videos were fair use
Freedom of the press
Video removed from YouTubehttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5387867190768022577&q=Anshe+Chung
To what extent should the press be able to report on incidents in a VE without being sued for copyright
infringement?
Question
Freedom of expression
Participants unable to represent their environments machinima game guides (Kopp v
Vivendi)
Image: Tristan Pope
When everything a participant can see is a digital copyright work, it
becomes impossible to represent their environment without infringing
copyright.
Should we allow people this ability?
Question
Freedom of expression – political protest
Protest at Le Pen's Front National's SL HQ NWN <http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2007/01/stronger_than_h.html>
Freedom of expression – political protest
Neighbouring land used to erect protest signs NWN <http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2007/01/stronger_than_h.html>
And the protest degenerates into days of violence NWN <http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2007/01/stronger_than_h.html>
Community reactions
SL Left Unity group “will be manning a protest [...] until FN go or are ejected. Wherever fascists are we will ensure they get no peace to corrupt and lie to decent people.”
"With this persons we can't debate or ignored. We can't because it's not acceptable."
"They're a bunch of losers, [...] We're gonna tighten security and come back." - FN Officer Wolfram Hayek
Fantasy Westward Journey
High level alleged ringleader locked up in a permanent prison, guild disbanded
Playing for 2 years, leader of a top-five guild, spent AUD$6500+ on points and equipment
Avatar name translates to “Kill the little Japs”
Guild name to “The Alliance to Resist Japan”
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20060710_1.htm
Examples demonstrate the power of protest in virtual environments
If it weren't for issues with server load, do we have an obligation to
allow non-violent in-world protests?
Question
Virtual liberties – discrimination
Tired of intolerance, Sara Andrews wanted to start an in-game guild which was friendly to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered players:
“OZ is recruiting all levels, but especially 50-60s! [...] We are not "glbt only", but we are "glbt friendly"!”
Response from Blizzard:
Please remember that it is up to our sole and absolute discretion whether or not to allow certain types of language in the game. While some language in and of itself may not be offensive, it may incite certain responses in other players that will allow for discussion that we feel has no place in our game. As such, I am afraid that I am unable to reduce, reverse or otherwise amend our previous decision.
Blizzard changed their mind and apologised.
Is this a situation where we would have expected the law to intervene
to prevent private censorship?
Question
Virtual crimes
Extortion? Griefing?
http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2005/01/extortion_anshe.html
Who decides when an action in a virtual environment is a 'crime'?
Should criminal law ever regulate purely internal actions, or should these be within the control of the
platform owner?
Question
Evaluating potential approaches
Essential tension:
allowing virtual environments to develop
vs
regulating to protect legitimate interests
Limits to a contractual solution
EULAs and ToSs are one-sided
Virtual worlds are designed to encourage high switching costs
Play is constructed in a way that benefits the subscription model
“if you don't like it, leave”?
right of exit dependent on low switching costs high switching costs important for continued
subscriptions Very difficult to leave an environment which
is designed to attach you property, status, social relationships
Evaluating potential approaches
In the next few years, courts and legislatures will be asked to make decisions in these matters
The decisions that will be made will shape the development of future virtual environments