Power Games: Rules and Roles in Online Worlds ------ Maria Bäcke Blekinge Institute of Technology [email protected] May 27, 2011 Opponent: RobinTeigland Stockholm School of Economics [email protected]
Nov 22, 2014
Power Games:Rules and Roles in Online Worlds
------Maria Bäcke
Blekinge Institute of [email protected]
May 27, 2011
Opponent: RobinTeiglandStockholm School of [email protected]
Who is Maria?
Here comes the “Immersive Internet”
O’Driscoll 2009
4
VWs moving out of “Gartner hype cycle” trough
Virtual worlds today
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1447613
>1 bln usersMay 2006
July 2007
> 560 mln VW users under age 15
http://www.slideshare.net/nicmitham/kzero-radar-q1-2011?from=ss_embed
…..we’re all on Facebook 24/7. But if I ask my 10 year old cousin, who
is addicted to Stardoll, she does not see why I like Facebook so
much since I can only read what other people send me. For her it is just natural for all of her friends to
be moving around the Stardoll website.
- Masters Student at Stockholm School of
Economics
Drivers of changeIn
crease
dIn
tera
ctivity
DiGangi 2010
Research Purpose
“My aim is to understand role-play in a digital realm in a new way, in which two modes of performance, dramatic and social, take place in a digital context online.”
Research Purpose
“My aim is to understand role-play in a digital realm in a new way, in which two modes of performance, dramatic and social, take place in a digital context online.”
But how would you explain this
to your grandmother?
Make-believe
Make-belief
Vs.
Make-believ
e
Make-belief
My strategy course at SSE
Make-believe or make-belief?
Definitions
What is power?
What are trajectories of power?
Assumptions?
Role-players need to feel emotionally safe so need rules
Rules enable magic circle boundary of make-believe vs make-belief dichotomy
Role-playing communities need to be administered and maintained through rules and rule enforcement
Power is influential in this process
Assumptions?
Role-players need to feel emotionally safe so need rules
Rules enable magic circle boundary of make-believe vs make-belief dichotomy
Role-playing communities need to be administered and maintained through rules and rule enforcement
Power is influential in this processWhat do we already know?
- Offline settings- Online communities
- Identity
Why Second Life?
Why not other virtual worlds with
communities, e.g., EveOnline, World of Warcraft, Entropia
Universe?
Why/how did you choose these
four?
Nekos Caledon
Midian Gor
Data collection
Can you fill in the empty boxes?
How did being/performing a
Neko influence your data collection?
What are your research
questions?
Research questions
What is the level of analysis?−Individual?−Interplay between individuals?−Role-playing community?
What is the focus of analysis?−Make-belief vs make-believe within individual?−Online vs offline identity?−Interplay between individuals in community?−Interplay between leader and community?−Interplay between community and LL?
Discussions
Neko−What is a Neko? Japanese Neko vs. western Neko, Sexy Neko, Herding Nekos
Midian −What should role-play be like? Sim managers. Who
decides?Gor
−Is Gor Philosophy fantasy role-play or example to live by? What happens to those who get caught in mixing of fantasy and reality?
Caledon −What should Second Life be like? Are we going to stay on this platform? Situation for programmers/scriptors and content creators
Approaches to play - Schechner
Structure− Relationships among events within play act, each act consists of sub
acts, distinct behaviour units make up coherent whole, i.e. gameplay gestalt
Process− How play acts are generated and what are their phases of
development
Experience− What are the feelings and moods of the players and observers?
How do these affect playing? What are different experiences? How do they change over time? How is it “good” or not?
Function− What purpose do play acts serve? How do they affect learning,
growth, creativity, aggression, values, or other “uses” of play.
Adapted from [email protected]
CONCLUSION
Make-Believe and Make-Belief Performances
− Linden Lab decisions affect four role-play communities in various ways
− Performative utopias — the exit argument: ”if you don’t agree, please leave”
− Creating fiction — sustaining boundary between make-believe and make-belief, in character and out of character, dramatized and social
− Power and performance — constructions of gender and hierarchy, creating “reality” of your choice, virtual becoming actual
− Performative layers — social and dramatic role-play on different levels, online as well as offline, online make-belief social sphere where negotiations of power take place
CONCLUSION
Make-Believe and Make-Belief Performances
− Linden Lab decisions affect four role-play communities in various ways
− Performative utopias — the exit argument: ”if you don’t agree, please leave”
− Creating fiction — sustaining boundary between make-believe and make-belief, in character and out of character, dramatized and social
− Power and performance — constructions of gender and hierarchy, creating “reality” of your choice, virtual becoming actual
− Performative layers — social and dramatic role-play on different levels, online as well as offline, online make-belief social sphere where negotiations of power take placeGeneralizability?
Causality?
?A B
Tension?
?A B
Comparing communities
Is there a pattern?
Comparing goals for actors/role-playing
Individualism
Collectivism
Hobby:
“Live to
play”
Serious:
“Play to live”
Leaders
Challengers/learners
Socializers
Explorers
Dynamics of role-playing communities
the performance
the “game”
the actor & audience
Exploring the tensions
the performance
the “game”
the actor & audience
When does the “game” start/stop?
Goal conflict
Value conflict
Rule conflict
What do your findings mean…..
Methodologically−For cyber-ethnographers?
Theoretically−For performance studies?−For game studies−For community studies?−For other studies?
Practically−For role-playing community leaders?−For platform providers, eg Linden Lab?
What do we know now that we did not know
before?
My CV• Leading a virtual team of 30
individuals from across the globe
• Creating and successfully executing strategies under
pressure• Managing cross-cultural conflict
without face-to-face communication
Building skills in virtual environments
Practicing international entrepreneurship
http://www.industrialgaming.no/Program-EpisodeIV.html
Welch et al 2010
Merck’s Global R&D
NVWN Monthly Project Meeting
http://freshtakes.typepad.com/sl_communicators/2006/09/
ibms_second_lif.html
Virtual collaboration
ProViWo: Professional Collaboration and Productivity in Virtual Worlds,
http://vmwork.net/proviwo/
HP rolls out virtual banking with Avaya’s Web.alive
http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2011/04/hp-rolls-out-virtual-banking-with-avayas-web-alive/
“Clearly, if social activity migrates to synthetic worlds, economic activity will go
there as well.” Castranova, 2006
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rodenberger/5085364909/in/pool-popartlab/#/photos/rodenberger/5085364909/in/pool-1240578@N23/
US $3 bln in virtual good sales in 2009 to grow to US $12 bln in
2012
US$ 635,000 for an asteroid!
http://blogs.forbes.com/oliverchiang/2010/11/13/meet-the-man-who-just-made-a-cool-half-million-from-the-sale-of-virtual-property/
• US$ 500,000 profit in 5 years by Jon “Neverdie”
Jacobs• Entropia Universe with GDP
>US$ 440 mln
From the mobility of goods to the mobility of financial capital to …
Teigland, JVWR, 2010
...the “mobility” of labor?
Summary
Research area and questions−Very timely and relevant research area!−Interesting research question
Literature−Performance studies as insightful lens
Method−Daring to explore cyber-ethnography
Findings−Fascinating insights!!−Implications for many areas
Summary
Research area and questions−Very timely and relevant research area!−Interesting research purpose
Literature−Performance studies as insightful lens
Method−Daring to explore cyber-ethnography
Findings−Fascinating insights!!−Implications for many areas
Thank you!!
I enjoyed this!!
Karinda Rhode
aka Robin [email protected]
www.knowledgenetworking.org
www.slideshare.net/eteigland
www.nordicworlds.net RobinTeigland
Photo: Lindholm, Metro
Photo: Nordenskiöld
Photo: Lindqvist
“We ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
Lessig on regulating behavior
Laws – dictated by external regulatorsNorms – accepted behaviors - internal
regulatorsMarket – business model Architecture/code - protocols
Future implications
What will happen as VWs become more and more realistic?
Neko
Within individual−Enables more aspects of personality to emerge IC−OCC learnings impact IC behavior (Villota)
Between individuals −Power is distributed
Midian City – Interplay between rules and role-play
Within individual−IC skills enable OCC development, eg Steele’s
management training
Between individuals −Power is centralized. How was new leadership
structure developed?−Similar to growth of a firm – more routines,
procedures
Gor
Interplay between sl and outside of sl
Open source VW platforms
Virtual Worlds on Demand
www.kitely.com
Increasing pace of VW/3Di development!
VWs on stick
Browser-based VWs/hyperlinked
3D
Seamlessness between VWs
http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2009/05/hypergrid-101-why-its-good-for-business/http://mediagrid.org/groups/technology/OFF.TWG/
"Create Once, Experience
Everywhere” Expanding uses
For smart phones and tablet PCs