The balance is different in each and every virtual world, but we can draw broad categoriesThese, I propose are as follows: It also raises some interesting non-design problemsIt looks to me as if it would discourage RMT, for example, because investments won't necessarily be seen as sufficiently long-termThe truth is World of Warcraft Gold doesn't HAVE to take a long time to get, especially in the higher levelsBuy WOW Gold here, and then enjoy your excited WoW life! Warhammer Online Goldwill keep your high powerOn the other hand, if RMTers persuade the courts that people own what their characters own, the whole concept of a purge might be threatened
Other kinds of (creative) human activity vanish from its radar screen
This is an argument that forms part of a chapter I've written for a volume I'm co-editing with Sandra Braman (Command Lines) that is currently under review, and there the specific example is Second Life and the challenges that the varieties of user content therein make to the multiple ideas about content held by the different teams within Linden LabBut GDC led me to see this claim as more applicable here as wellThey looked friendly enough--at least, no one had fruit ready to throw at usIt was simply kind of surreal, after reading the comments on TN this past week and hearing other things at the conference about the problems with game studies and developer/academic relations
After our "high energy" presentation, the questions were even strangerSomeone asked why humanities research got left out, and we had to say that we couldn't find it to be directly relevant on our top 10 list of bulleted pointsIan made the point, and I agreed, that doing the research for this panel made us think differently about academic researchWhile I'm not going to say that what we've done personally has no value, it was a definite challenge to try and make it *directly relevant* in a BULLETED POINT for developersAnd there are huge gaps in what we don't knowWhere is the research about sports games, to take just one example? Anyway, the point is, I enjoyed the exercise, and learned a lot from itI hope the audience did as well
But overall, I like to think that the attendance demonstrates that developers are interested in what academics might be able to tell them (again I will point out: no fruit was thrown)And all week, I talked with developers who were interested in what was going on with research, from the smallest to the largest companiesMaybe the issue is the "larger" communityIt's always easy to abstract and oversimplify at that levelBut I know that on an individual level, there are real conversations and collaborations going onI don't want this to turn into some rosy "it's better than we think" or "can't we all just get along" thing, but I do think that perhaps the situation is not as dire as it's hyped to beBut then again, I haven't gotte my evals back yet
The best way to put the assertion (and this is all it is at this point; and again, please keep in mind that there are a number of familiar exceptions) is that the practice of game software development generates a way of seeing and defining problems (as essentially precise, logical, and algorithmic), and creating solutions (through linear, text-defined code) that makes other ways of accounting for what happens in VWs seem at worst nonsensical and at best irrelevant or quixotic.
The mechanism by which this occurs is the EULA and it tends to be cast in terms of propertyI'm not suggesting that this is perfect ro even the best way to do itIndeed there may well be regimes that give wider freedom to play and recognise players as co-creators, but the asymmetry of power that it reflects between the individual player and the game does, in general terms, seem to be necessary to sustain the goods that are product by ones participation in the game
One particular point is that of identityIdentity play seems a valid form of play within these spaces as a general typeAnonymity, pseudonymity, shifting identity are all games that people should be allowed to pay in some form or otherThough this does not say that RMT trade in accounts is valid as that may serve to undercut the value structure of the game, this depends on the given game