I decided to join the Waze traffic map game on my new iPhone last week, after reading far too many stories moaning about how Apple should never have dropped Google Maps from the new version of iOS.  The general tone of the Apple Map coverage has been along the lines of ZOMG!!! My iPhone is ruined 4evah! the Apple Maps are wrong in some places! How will life be worth living without Google?!?

This coverage overlooks certain troubling aspects of Google, the wardriving WIFI snooping Internet ad agency that keeps telling itself don't be evil - then quietly overrides web browser privacy protections. I've been limiting my contact with all things Google after that unfortunate Google+ suspension that locked up my e-mail and data until Google eventually decided I was real after all.

GPS-enabled roleplay leads to live traffic and police sighting reports

So I'm fine with leaving Google Maps behind - especially now that I'm experiencing a whole new form of role play. I have spent most of the week playing the part of an autonomous techno-communist node in a network of mobile GPS sensors roaming real life's highways.

It's great! Not only do I get to play an open ended augmented reality MMORPG and contribute to the improvement of the human condition, I'm being rewarded with points and a rising ranking among the other players. In return for being tracked by my phone as I drive, I can level up and marvel at how my commute has been gameified.

Best of all, I am almost past the Waze noobie avatar look - a baby with a pacifier.

a selection of waze avatars - after your drive 100 miles

I've got my eye on some much more fashionable outfits, and hope someday I will be able to earn even better virtual clothes as I drive to work and report accidents and traffic backups - the fundamental form of gameplay in Waze. Why grind in WoW when you have to drive work anyway? If you are daring, you can text chat with other players, although I'm not sure how that could work if you are also supposed to be driving your car.

While the realtime traffic condition reports are quite good, I do think Waze could use a few of Second Life's fashion designers to help with the avatars. Aren't all avatars supposed to wear impossible spike heels and skankolicious outfits?

noobies with pacifiers and fashionistas on the mean streets of Durham, NC

Setting aside the virtual fashion scene and game play, Waze has an interesting business model that is something like a traffic oriented version of Wikipedia -- crowd sourcing both map updates and traffic reports. In contrast, Google throws money at the mapping problem by running dedicated Google cars wherever it can, but there are practical limits to how many cars Google can put on the roads. Waze should be able to compete with Google for at least map and traffic information at lower cost by crowd sourcing reports from people who were driving anyway.

I expect to be joined by quite a few more players, after Apple's Tim Cook mentioned mentioned last Friday that Waze is an alternative to Apple's iOS Map while the Foxconn smartphone and tablet reseller redraws their maps.

Now if we just had a real money trade for Waze points, I might be able to get that crown the cool players have a little sooner.

There is no question Linden Lab CEO and Aston Villa fan Rod Humble knows his soccer. But Rod Humble seems to be taking a classic end-game page from the American football playbook - the Hail Mary pass - as he moves to market Second Life through a 3rd party -- Valve's Steam game portal/social network.

On the surface, this appears to be a clever move - in January Steam was reported to have 5 million concurrent players and 40 million accounts. The risk?

"Great marketing only makes a bad product fail faster.”
- David Ogilvy

Current Second Life players have greeted the Steam announcement with some skepticism, wondering  how SL's  wonky user interface, exorbitant land tier fees, dated graphics, questionable customer service, and lack of structure will win over Steam players accustomed to a more polished experience -- and gameplay similar to Valve's own HalfLife.

If the SL experience disappoints the Steam hordes, look for a wave of bad word-of-mouth reviews and an upsurge in "griefing" and meta-gaming as some Steam players are bored and give up - or try to impose a PvP narrative on Second Life. Could this be why Linden Lab is only now turning to Steam as a marketing tool?

But at this point Humble may have little choice other than to chuck the ball toward the endzone and hope for the best.

Second Life player concurrency has been in steady decline since February according to Tateru Nino's Second Life statistical charts (see charts below). Falling concurrency continues a trend the Herald pointed out in April 2011. With ongoing pricing pressure from other virtual worlds, and high profile group defections such as the SL Elf Clan who happily abandoned SL for Inworldz, the long term viability of Second Life is a very real question.

median player concurrency has been dropping since February

Can Steam turn up the daily sign ups - and will they stay?

In light of dropping interest in the game, a move to broaden the product line and presumably make use of the SL server farm for other products would be understandable. But the "shared creative spaces"/"shared creativity tool" products outside Second Life Humble promised over a year ago at the Second Life Community Conference 2011 are nowhere to be seen, so the Lab remains dependent on it's Second Life cash cow to fund new product development.

Could the new product delay have played a part in the departure of Bob Komin, Linden Lab's CFO and COO? The remainder of this year will be telling, as the Lab grapples with management changes in the wake of Komin's departure, un-met promises of new non-SL products, and a do-or-die encounter with Steam.

World of Warcraft is a subscription model, similar to SL’s premium membership.  People sign up for automatic billing and tend to forget its there.  Allods has an item shop but the game developers provided players with opportunities to avoid using it, which players tend to do, even when it makes no economic sense.

One of the items you can get is a bigger deposit box for banking the weapons, armor and other items you accumulate in the game.  This box costs approximately $10 US.  You can pay the $10 or you can perform a Wandering Alchemist quest.  The Wandering Alchemist quest is; a player must find the Wandering Alchemist, a non player character or NPC, in order to obtain a potion.  The potion has 14 constituent parts.  Each time the alchemist is found, one part, at random, will be given to the player.  The Alchemist can be found in ten different locations.  Each time the Alchemist is found, only one player may interact with the Alchemist.  After a player talks to the Alchemist, the Alchemist disappears for four minutes to reappear at one of the ten locations at random.  After receiving the 14 parts, the player must find the Alchemist again and give him the parts to make the potion.  Then you must take the potion to another NPC in order to get the deposit box.  Or you can pay $10 US. 

The interesting part is that based on the chat, and people looking to form parties to make the quest shorter, players choose the quest frequently, even though at a minimum, with no other players interfering, being able to travel to the correct location where he appears next, and the parts being given in the correct number and order, this quest will take at least an hour.  Which means players are willing to give up well over an hour of their time either running around or waiting in order to avoid paying $10.  In the meantime, the game is still running and the company needs to keep the servers going. 

Without money coming in somehow, servers do not run.  And if a player is willing to put up with the Wandering Alchemist, game developers need to come up with new ways for payment in order for games to run. 

Much has been written about whether SL is a game or something else. Most people I know in game call SL a “virtual world.” Most professors I know in real life call it a “serious game,” although I do not think the eggheads are deliberately implying that SL is serious as opposed to fun (it’s a shame they’re so out of touch like that).

It is time to re-examine SL’s status as a non-game, because the idea that SL is not a game is counter-productive and ignores the basic realities of the platform.

Tools of the Trade

In SL we create with scripts, prims, textures, animations and sound clips and that is great, but we are still building things with the tools that Linden Lab has given us. We aren’t really building anything from scratch. When we build we are engaging in the same activity as mainstream MMO players. When we look at why things are created we see that there really isn’t any important difference between mainstream MMO gamers and SL gamers.

When we build we are creating artifacts to go along with narratives, and the narrative is what is important in all MMOs, SL included. A narrative artifact is anything that goes along with your identity or your groups identity in SL, like a medieval roleplay avatar or a half-human, half-dolphin furry (dolphins are mammals too!). Narrative artifacts can be created to go along with a flame war, as we see with the protest signs when Linden Labs hikes sim prices or bans gambling.

In SL we can create these narrative artifacts fairly easily from a technical standpoint when compared to mainstream MMOs. That said, there is nothing stopping people in mainstream MMOs from doing the same thing with the tools that their chosen world has provided for them.

For example, in WoW you can change the appearance of your avatar and you can create your own guild insignia. You can program HUDs in WoW, in fact there is even an integrated development environment (IDE) designed specifically for creating WoW add-ons. This is not exactly the same as creating an SL avatar from the ground up, but as with any set of tools, there are limitations and there are benefits. Mainstream MMO players never have to worry about making a combat system, for example.

Second Life Narratives

In the good old days of SL we had a blank slate as far as narrative goes, or as close to a blank slate as one can get. SL is no longer like that.

When a noob enters SL they are presented with an orientation experience that assumes that there is no built in narrative going on in SL. If they get past orientation they soon find out that this is simply not true. After orientation, if the noob makes it this far, they become an explorer, and soon they will be presented with a series of narratives that they can choose to participate in.

A few examples of narratives the noob will be presented with: Linden Labs wants the noob to buy into the narrative that there is a gold rush happening in SL, so they need to jump in by buying and selling virtual goods. Sex sims want the noob to buy into the narrative that SL is a place to let their libido roam free. Roleplay sims want the noob to buy into the narrative that they should take on a role and perform it in the plot line happening in the roleplay sim. Goons want the noob to buy into the narrative that there are people who do it for the lulz and there are lulzcows who are there to be messed with. Shadow government types want the noob to buy into the narrative that greifers must be stopped and the world must be regulated by them.

Nothing is stopping the noob from creating their own narrative outside of established narrative frameworks like these. Most of the time, though, the noob will just buy into the first narrative they find that appeals to them. This is why most people in SL can’t even build. They purchase items from others who cater to these pre-defined narratives.

Mainstream MMO Narratives

In mainstream MMOs a noob logs in and their first task is to create a character. The first step in creating a character is usually to choose which faction they want to be in. In WoW you have horde vs alliance, in Star Trek Online you have Federation vs Klingon Alliance, in EverQuest your race determines if you are good or evil. Once that is done, you choose a class which gives you skills that will define what your character can do with the game mechanics in the virtual world you are about to enter.

Once you enter the world you can play along with the narrative of the character you just created, or you can create your own narrative. There is nothing in the rules that says you must kill ten rats every time some random peasant asks you to. The game mechanics of class, race, XP and loot can be viewed as a set of hard and fast rules for your character to operate within, or they can be viewed as a suggestion. There are roleplay servers and normal servers, but I have never heard of somebody getting banned for roleplaying on a non-roleplay server. Nobody is going to ban you if you choose to roleplay a narrative that does not exist in the MMO’s built in narrative, unless you have to break TOS to create said narrative. This is a restriction that exists in SL as much as it does in the mainstream.

Creating your own narrative is not as rare as many would have you believe. EVE Online ran a banner ad recently saying something along the lines of “We create the world, our players create the headlines.” Articles and blog posts about EVE are usually not about the machinations of CCP (the company who runs EVE). Articles about EVE are usually about players’ actions.

One could create their own narrative by playing Dr. Who in any MMO, for example. They might have problems getting their hands on a Tardis or a sonic screwdriver, but in the TV show the good doctor didn’t always have easy access to these things either. This kind of narrative is rare, though. Most people just accept the narrative they are given or they go with standard narratives of making money or getting laid.

The mainstream MMO corollary to the SL business owner is the gold farmer. Gold farmers can make as much if not more money than the average SL busines owner. There are usually risks involved, because gold farming conflicts with the published narrative and TOS in most MMOs, but it is done all the time. Gold farming is a 500 million dollar industry. By comparison, the gross resident earnings in SL were only 55 million dollars in 2009.

Another example of players working outside the narrative they are fed by the game publisher is the virtual brothel. Most MMOs have them, although they are rarely a part of the published narrative of the game (the exception being places like Red Light Center). Some of the Herald’s first big stories were about bordellos in The Sims Online. It’s common knowledge that WoW has brothels. It would not surprise me in the least if a story broke about a place in Star Trek Online where you can trade a warp coil for cyber sex with a Klingon (I’m invoking rule 34 here).

We could go on with examples of this kind of thing all day long, but the point is that SL is not as unique as you might think. The narratives we create in SL are no different than the narratives created in mainstream MMOs. The same archetypal stories are everywhere: love, money, avatar vs avatar in greifing wars or avatar vs environment in the case of gold farmers vs game publishers. One might even argue that mainstream MMO players who work outside the narrative they are given have to be more creative than we have to be in SL. The tools used in mainstream MMOs are different and harder to work with, but they get the job done.

Are You Original?

The next time you go to dismiss a mainstream MMO as being passive entertainment outlets for the banal, unwashed masses, take a minute to stop and think about what kind of narrative you are in when you log into SL. Are you really doing something original, or is it something you were given and you just accepted the narrative without questioning it?

Posting the piece while the Herald yacht put in to port to stock up on blood oranges and Cristal – none of that Moët crap here at the Herald – Urizenus chose to use his real life identity (Peter Ludlow of Northwestern University) to discuss similar patterns of emergent behavior across game worlds including The Sims Online, Habbo Hotel, and Second Life.

JLU vigilantes start seeing griefers everywhere

Particularly interesting are the parallels between the Sims Shadow Government paramilitary of TSO Second Life’s Justice League Unlimited. Both groups maintained close contacts with employees of the game company, and utilized those relationships in filing abuse reports against other players. But as Ludlow points out, the game soon turned ugly as the would-be cops go unchecked.

"What perhaps began as a fun exercise in roleplay soon began to go awry. Overzealous Justice League members began abuse reporting heavily, and also began picking fights with unlikely groups within Second Life. For example, the Justice League was banned from Furnation (an area inside Second Life dedicated to players that like to don anthropomorphized animal costumes), because of their excessive vigilantism".

In time, the vigilantes become paranoid and nearly everyone appears to be a griefer.

"It wasn’t just their competitors that were marked as griefers; the Alphaville Herald, which had been reporting on griefers in virtual worlds since 2003, was a griefer media organ in Kalels eyes. The Herald’s editor, an avatar Pixeleen Mistral was therefore also a griefer. Kalel came to falsely believe that Pixeleen was identical with me, and so I must be a griefer too. There were griefers everywhere, it seemed".

Look for this must-read series to continue soon – Cristal and blood oranges never last long on the Herald yacht and the catering staff is already preparing to replenish the galley while Uri uploads part 2 of the series.

According to CNN’s report, the mother told the court, "When she cried, I cuddled her, but I noticed she was getting thinner," and added that she had not learned about baby care at the hospital nor had she read any books on the subject. Clearly children should come with better documentation – but perhaps online gameplay could make learning more fun and help replace the missing childcare manuals. Might Facebook come to the rescue?

It was unclear if the grieving mother had played any of the Facebook childcare games which feature an endless supply of virtual babies that can tolerate intermittent care – but one might imagine how mandating an online diaper change every few days would to be good training for real life.

However, all is not lost – the couple is expecting another child, which could provide them with a second chance to level up – despite the prosecution’s request for 5 year jail terms. Asking for mercy, the couple’s attorney, Kim Dong-young of the Korean Legal Aid Corp. said "They regret it, but Ms. Kim is pregnant, please consider this." and added "They were addicted to Internet gaming; they put their baby to sleep and came home early in the morning". The father of the unborn child seems determined to do better and said, "There will be no second mistake."

The Netflix “Find Your Voice film competition” is a great new game where everyone can participate by forming gangs to vote for the independent film maker that best represents their community and interests. Consider this a more positive version of the gang abuse report used in Second Life to get the Linden Governance team to ban enemy players. However, instead of helping bring the ban hammer down, in the Netflix Find Your Voice game, you can help a few lucky filmmakers receive some financial and in-kind support for filmmaking.

To play the Netflix game, you’ll need a working e-mail address – but Google, Yahoo, and Hotmail and others are happy to hand out spare alt account e-mail addresses for a reason — so you can play games that want e-mail addresses! What are you waiting for? Vote early and vote often.

Here at the Herald we are partial to SARAHN_12 – an entry from Sasie Sealy with a plot that should strike a chord among the Second Life players. The director’s statement tells the tale:

They say he raped them thatnight. They say he did it with a cunning little doll, fashioned in theirimage and imbued with the power to make them do whatever he desired.They say that by manipulating the doll he forced them to have sex withhim, and with each other, and to do horrible, brutal things to theirown bodies. And though I wasn’t there that night, I think I can assureyou that what they say is true, because it all happened right in theliving room — right there amid the well-stocked bookcases and the sofasand the fireplace — of a house I came later to think of as my secondhome.

      -Julian Dibbell,“A Rape in Cyberspace” 

Julian Dibbell published hisarticle  “A Rape in Cyberspace” in 1993, just one year afterNeal Stephenson’s Snow Crash first described the idea of a“metaverse” and ten years before the founders of Linden Lab wouldbring that idea to life. It was a fascinating piece that described therepercussions of a “cyber rape” within the virtual community, astory that stayed in my head months after I read it.  And whatfascinated me most was the reaction of the players – the emotionaltrauma created by an “imaginary” crime and their pursuit of vengeancein the real world.   

Dibbell’s story was consideredgroundbreaking at the time, but it has also proven to be remarkablyprescient in the issues it raised, issues that are still populatingthe headlines: a MySpace suicide, divorces filed over Second Lifeaffairs, a woman in Korea jailed for virtual murder.  I am fascinatedby the growing extension of an alternate  “cyber world” –whether made up of merely a collection of web pages or more sophisticatedonline and gaming spaces like Second Life – and its effecton the “real” world.  Entire generations are growing up online,creating communities and identities in virtual space, while the rulesand morals of this brave new world remain unclear.  Issues of privacy,identity, and accountability are still being determined as we struggleto understand and establish rules in spaces like Second Life. When does what we say or do online cross legal boundaries?  Ormoral boundaries?  Do we have the right to stay anonymous in cyberspace? Are our fantasies and curiosities on the web able to condemn us? And if they are, will the establishment of rules and regulations, notto mention commercial interests, end the free expression and exchangethat was the ideal behind the birth of the Internet?  Driving allof these questions is the very human desire to create a place to liveout our fantasies. 

SarahN_12 is my attempt toaddress some of these questions in a human story.  Sarah is a womanwho is trying to find answers after her boyfriend is brutally murderedin their apartment.  And so her search for answers into his unsolveddeath only leads to more questions, as she discovers that the man she thought she knew led an entirely separate existence online, – asecret life that may hold the key to his murder.   For Sarah,someone who has always had answers, this brush with unruly, messy realityleaves her reeling, and her journey towards acceptance that there maybe no easy answers provides the heart and spine of the story.  

As a director, I am excitedby the aesthetic possibilities of the story and the chance to portraya virtual world in unexpected ways.  Too often, virtual realitieshave been depicted as highly stylized cartoon versions of what audiencesexpect “computer games” to look like – some neo-futurist slickvision that can actually separate the viewer from what is happeningemotionally in the story.   What I am interested in doingis creating a vision of Alt Life that is visceral and immediate,more real that the real world.  Gamers can have an intense,emotional connection to their lives online, and this is what I wantto convey.  Alt Life scenes will be stylized live action,paying homage to the camera work of the Dardenne brothers, while realworld scenes will be much more formal and distant.  I have outlinedsome of my visual ideas in the pages that follow, but primarily I aminteresting in creating something in the footsteps of Pi or Primer,a film that melds form and function to create something that peoplehave never seen. 

Like both Pi and Primer, myconcept of Sarah_N12 falls into the space between science and sciencefiction, which is fitting considering the origins of virtual worlds. The founders of Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life, haveexpressly stated that they were inspired by Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash and other cyberpunk works, and leaders of the emergingtechnology like Ian Hughes of IBM refer to themselves as “metaverseevangelists,” borrowing Stephenson’s term.   Yet whilescience and technology have long chased the dreams of science fiction,the reality of our evolving “cyber worlds” has led us to questionsyet to be tackled by the likes of William Gibson.  Whether we aretalking about MySpace or Facebook, Second Lifeor Maple Story, we are merely dealing with the first iterationof our science fiction fantasies.  The rules are still being written. And the human implications of our imagination have yet to be determined.

by Idoru Wellman, staff writer

[Richard Bartle recently visited Metaplace, and although the most of the Herald staff were unable to attend, one of Urizenus Sklar's contacts provided this transcript.  Cuppycake (Metaplace community manager and part time DJ) attempted to keep order as Sunchaser (formerly Robin Linden of Second Life) acted as MC for the event.]

Cuppycake: Okay I'm going to repeat the rules once again
Sunchaser: hehe nice crowd huh!
asarazan: I'm hungry and just wanted a meal
Obo: I better get my XP!

Cuppycake: Everyone please be quiet
JasonGee zips lip
Cuppycake: There is no moderation system here, so we will be doing it manually.
Cuppycake: The center aisle is where you go if you have a question. Please form a neat line.
Cuppycake: No one should be talking except for Richard, and the person who is asking the question (after waiting in line)
Cuppycake: You don't get a warning, so don't test it.

Sunchaser: OK – I'm going to introduce Richard, not that he needs an extensive intro
Sunchaser: I'm really excited and pleased to welcome Richard Bartle to Metaplace today.
Sunchaser: Richard is a professor and teaching fellow at the university of Essex in the Dept of Computing and Electronic Systems, specializing in game design.
Sunchaser: Richard is best known as the co-author of MUD, the first multi-user dungeon, and for his research into player personality types. Want to know what type you are? Take the Bartle Test! http://www.gamerdna.com/quizzes/bartle-test-of-gamer-psychology
Sunchaser: You can also find Richard blogging on Terra Nova about virtual worlds.
Sunchaser: We're planning a Q&A session for the next hour. So let's start with the first question!

Sunchaser: I think Nils is up first?
nils: Heh I got no questions.
Richard: that's OK, I got no answers

Cuppycake: Move out of the center aisle please
Cuppycake: Center aisle is for questions only.
Sunchaser: Hmmmm – who's first in line?
Cuppycake: Looks like no one is brave yet
Cuppycake: I have one
Richard: it could be that no-one actually wants to ask anything

Sunchaser: Well maybe we can kick things off with Richard telling us a little about what he's currently working on
Richard: currently … hmm, well I'm working on a new book
Richard: my previous one about virtual worlds having got a little out of date

Cuppycake: Can you tell us a bit about it?
Richard: sure … it comes in two halves, it's like a flip book
Richard: one half is for people who play MMOs, and is intended to excite them about the subject
Richard: the other is for the same people, but talks about the relationship between MMOs and the real world
Richard: the first half is called MMOs FTW

Cuppycake: Kind of like your blog?
Richard: e second is MMOs WTF

Cuppycake: Sounds great.
Cuppycake: I think we have some questions lined up for you now
Richard: yes, I'm taking lots of things I've written and putting them together, some are from actual blog postings, some from talks, from lectures, from presentations

Kavon: beautiful use of acronyms
Richard: yes, if only it didn't take so long …I'm trying to get an MMO version of Computer Lib/Dream Machines, for those of you old enough to rmember that
Richard: [stony silence]

Cuppycake admits she doesn't remember that.
Abacus:
Richard: ok, let's take a question from whoever that is whose name is covered up by everyone else's

Cuppycake: Josholalia – can you jump in with your question?
josholalia: My question is this. You once mentioned that the first time one enters a virtual world is kind of like being reborn. You can never quite recapture that feeling again. With the increased ubiquity of virtual worlds, what is your current feeling when you enter a new virtual world. Especially, how do yo
JasonGee snickers
josholalia: Especially, how do you feel about Metaplace and its potential?
josholalia: (exceed the character maximum. oops.)
Richard: ok, well that line applies to people who play them as players … I'm in an odd position, as I co-wrote the first one so
Richard: had insider knowledge and never was a "player"
Richard: it does worry me that many people will miss out on MMOs' awesomeness because they started as children
Richard: and therefore will not find them as special as people who first came to them as adults
Richard: as for Metaplace, well one of the things I always hoped would happen is that people would be able to create their own virtual worlds
Zapatero: sorry, excuse me, need to pee.
Richard: and now they can. I'm very pleased by it

Sunchaser: although maybe that opens up a level of credibility that VWs are fighting to get these days
Richard: not as pleased as if it had more documentation, obviusly…
Raph laughs
Cuppycake: We're working on that
MonkeyKungFu shrugs.

Richard: you need more chimps … throw away those editions of shakespeare they're making for you
triptych: yeah documentation + simple examples
Richard: I really like what Metaplace is doing, anyway
Sunchaser: Next question?
Richard: so next question?

Echelon: Given the rise of virtual currencies and the seeming success of integrated virtual economies such as Second Life, what do you see as the future of the relationship between real world economies and virtual ones?
Richard: messy
Sunchaser:
Echelon: hehe
nils: Hear hear.
malburns: lol

3DSquared: technologically? or the regulatory environment?
Richard: there are two distinct cases: one where money is part of the virtual world and one where it isn't

Amethyst: Remember – chat should only be coming from the person asking the question, and the folks on stage, since there's so many of us. Thanks!
Echelon: I'm not sure I had a specific aspect in mind
Richard: I'm personally worried most about the effect on gameoplay in game worlds
Medal Master: We have a new leader! Polkadot has broken the old high score of 0 with a score of 16!

Richard: if a virtual world doesn't want commodification, it shouldn't have to have it
Richard: however, legislators may lump the game worlds with ones that do want commodification
Richard: and then we'll see bad results for one side or the other
Echelon: ok thank you!

Richard: it's not even as simple as that … I could see someone create a game world within another world created within Metaplace
Richard: and if all three have different ideas regarding money and what it will buy … bleah
Sunchaser: no kidding
Richard: this is A Good Time For Lawyers
Sunchaser: hahah that's what I was just thinking

Cuppycake: (Change of plan, we'll let you chime in with related thoughts and questions for a *little* discussion, as long as it doesn't get out of hand)
Richard: ok, hopefully I waffled through that …next question?

Cuppycake: 3Dsquared, question?
3DSquared: uh oh .. performance anxiety
3DSquared: on that same topic
marcmcg: Hi guys
3DSquared: do you see a time when virtual economies have an economic impact on the 'real world'?
3DSquared: given the weakness in the old industrial economy?
Richard: we're already seeing that, although not with virtual world economies
Sumoslap: Haven't some microlending projects begun to use Linden Dollars? Thought I heard that.

Richard: China had some big issues with online currencies
3DSquared: like the QQ?
Richard: Korea too … yes, QQ tokens
Richard: with virtual worlds we're not seeing that kind of alarm yet, but it could happen
Richard: Project Entropia has already converted itself into a bank
kaiyla: Sorry, what is a QQ token?
Richard: it's a virtual currency that people started using as a real one
Richard: it's a virtual currency that people started using as a real one
Richard: it's a virtual currency that people started using as a real one
Richard: sorry, my return key is stuck
kaiyla: Ah, thank you. Sorry for the interuption

Cuppycake: **Remember, the center aisle is for people with questions only**
joecastille: oh sorry
Richard: if people start using Linden Dollars as a real currency, ie. buying reall goods and services using it in amounts that are noticeable
Celldweller: sorry i couldnt move
Richard: then there could be issues … governments don't like it when people create their own money
Richard: there are a bunch of tax-related problems too

Abacus: Speaking of Governments, do you see more prevalance of VAT taxes?
gracemcdunnough: I wonder how VW currencies and the barter practice would align – you paint my house, I pay you in Lindens
Richard: doesn't work, those are taxable events
Richard: there are 4 situations:
Richard: 1) I buy real goods with real money – a taxable event
Richard: 2) I buy virtual goods with real money – also a taxable event
Richard: 3) I buy real goods with virtual money … well someone is going to get taxed there too
Richard: 4) I buy virtual goods with virtual money. someone in a government will look at that and say "why no tax?"
Richard: and yet if it is taxed, then bye bye World of Warcraft

Cuppycake: ** Please clear the center aisle if you don't have a question **
Cuppycake: We ready for the next question?
Richard: this is why Ted Castranova suggested virtualworlds that are games should be able to opt out via "interration"

Abacus: Isn't WoW an exemption since it is closed?
Richard: yes OK next qiuestion before I get even more boring
Kavon: or maybe VW goods get classified as their closest real world facisimile.
Sunchaser: or the VW maker takes a cut and acts like a tax taker
Richard: WoW isn't closed – just because they don't want you to buy gold, doesn;t mean you can't
kaiyla: You do get banned if caught though. It attempts to be as closed as it can be?

joecastille: what's the most important quality of young people who want to work in the game industry, in your opinion?
Richard: luck
gracemcdunnough: lol
Sunchaser:
Echelon: lol
Schuyler laughs
nils: Win.
Abacus: lol
Celldweller: why not skills
crimson_noel: >.<;; that is so incouraging lol

Richard: there are many more people want to work in the game industry than the game industry wants to work in it
Richard: you can have the skills, the imagination, the passion, the ideas – yes, all of that
Richard: that's taken for granted. however, if you want to get a job then you have to be in the right place at the right time
Richard: some of this you can do – go to conventions and speak to developers – but it's still just luck whether they have an opening at that moment
Kavon: or it becomes your avocation if you are not lucky?
Richard: I would say that it's easier to get in if you try the production side rather than the dvelopment side
Celldweller: well then everything is luck
gryphoness: Who needs to get in when you can make worlds in metaplace?

Sunchaser: is there still a path through Testing and QA?
Richard: everything is luck … just some odds are better than others
Richard: there is, but too many people know about it. besides, testers are driven insane, and who wants insane developers?
Celldweller: so what are the odds in the gaming industry for young people?
Celldweller: so what are the odds in the gaming industry for young people?
Celldweller: so what are the odds in the gaming industry for young people?
Celldweller: so what are the odds in the gaming industry for young people
Richard: young people with the drive will create their own games anyway, irrespective of the industry
Celldweller: (sorry my button was stuck)
Richard: the best way to get into it is to go where it isn't and wait for it to come

Echelon: continuing on with the earlier answer about luck and the saturaion in the Industry, couldn't the same thing have been said about the software industry prior to the advent of open source or tv prior to YouTube?
Medal Master: We have a new leader! LichKing has broken the old high score of 0 with a score of 16!
Richard: develop games for the web, for facebook, for the iphone, for twitter – for whatever
Abacus: I smell probability modeling.
Richard: Echelon – yes, it could have been said. it was said, too
Celldweller: well then how would one get into audio in the gaming industry
Richard: I don't know about audio so much. bigger studios will have a very small audio team

Sumoslap: What have cuurent MMOs lost that MUDs had? What should current MMOs seek to reclaim?
Richard: It used to be that a lot of audio people were freelancers, I don't know if that's the case now
Richard: what current mmos have lost is detail
Richard: they arenowhere near as sophisticated as MUDs were
BainTech agrees
sciu: And story
Zimzam: Dumbed down for the masses, of course

mobab: What had contributed to thsi lost?
mobab: ok
Richard: I can barely believe how people don't care about the way that the physics of the worlds are so sucky
Richard: the main issue I would say is the cost of implementation
Richard: in a text MUD, if I swam across a river I got wet …. all my stuff got wet … some of it would be destroyed from being wet
Cuppycake, private:  Center aisle is for questions only, if you don't have a question please move out of the center aisle. If you do, back of the line please

Cuppycake: Next question?
mobab: a little bit of immersion and realism there
Kavon: when you are in the magic circle or immersed maybe authenticity doesn't matter as much.
kaiyla: Woulnd't that be seen as a trade off in terms of larger audiences and expectations though?
Richard: yet in WoW I can swim across a river and come out looking just like I did when I got in, even if I'm swimming in PLATE MAIL and am crrying biscuits
Sent to cuppycake:  sorry, thought i was in line where i was, and was waiting for my turn
Cuppycake, private:  you're fine then

Richard: authenticity helps with immersion
Richard: it also helps with the richness of a world
Kavon: so there's tradeoff 4 players somewhere
Slasrath: It's Magic! hehe *shuts up*
sciu: Hell.. swim in plate armor, and you sink like a rock
Richard: there's so much more you can do if the world has a deeper physics

Myrix: Do we really need that level of immersion to have fun though?
Richard: if you're an explorer, yes
Myrix: I'd be annoyed if half of the stuff in my pack was lost just because I decided to swim.
Sumoslap: But all artistic productions simplify reality. You rarely see people in novels going to the bathroom — unless it's relevant to the plot.
Kavon: alot of players test out the physics first – how far can I fall, what will me 2 die, etc.
Richard: yes, Myrix, and 10 years from now your successors will be complaining abouthaving to swim in the first place
Richard: there's simplification and over-simplification
kaiyla: AKA: Dumbing down for the masses?

Sunchaser: Where does imagination come in?
Richard: players will test out the physics and discover how shallow they are
gguillotte: or dumbing down to the market
Richard: it's not dumbing down so much as setting expectations
Abacus: Doesn't simplification depend on audience? Older audience more reality? Younger audience more simplification?
LichKing: Abacus has a point there
Richard: I think a richer MMO could do very well, because players who haven't seen that level of detail would find it new and exciting

kaiyla: Sometimes I do wonder if it's going for the lowest common denominator in order to attract the "masses"
Kavon: a log time go when I played D&D everything was possible – because there was no games physics 2 check us.
ixalon: I guess MUDs vs MMOs is a lot like books vs movies? Text-based MUDs leave a lot more to your imagination.
Medal Master: We have a new leader! Raelmiu has broken the old high score of 16 with a score of 65!
mobab: Going back to novels and restrooms. If you're deep down in a dungeon, would have to find a spot to use the the restroom. Furthermore, could a person be attacked by a froglok
Goofz: I like that comparison, ixalon.
Spinks: What do you think MMOs do better than MUDs? (apart from graphics)
Richard: I think it's to do with experience of playing more than age of individual … newbies v oldbies, not young v old

marcmcg: speaking of story, mmos and immersion there's quite some overlap between mmos and ARGs, expecially with the recent Playstation Home ARG (Xi). Where do you thing the two genres will head in the future? More crossover?
Kavon: does graphic immersion allow us 2 bring in the masses?
Goofz thinks, "ARGs?"
m3mnoch: also, wouldn't "dumbing down" depend on what you are looking for? dumbing down physics is great for achievers. but, can you imagine if you dumbed down gear for them?
Richard: I'm not a fan of ARGs – I don't want to play something when I'm not playing it
gguillotte thinks, ""Alternative Reality Games""KStarfire: you mean like UO swords of one type?
Richard: however, lots of people seem to like them, so good luck to them

Cuppycake: Shall we move along?
Cuppycake: Interficus has a question
Sunchaser: tell cuppycake perhaps a reminder to give him a chance to answer
Interficius: do you think that we'll see more of a return to text-based MUDs in the future?
Zimzam: We are obviously referring to WoW in this case, as it has claimed to have a playerbase of 10,000,000. Surely it could not acquire and maintain that playerbase if it were even moderately complex or difficult to understand/navigate/complete.
Kavon: emergent reality games just shoed up on Boing Boing too.
Richard: I don't think they're easy to scale, although I ghave seen some excellent designs for them …
Kavon: *showed
Sent to cuppycake:  thanks

Cuppycake: **Please allow Richard enough time to answer, thank you**
shiva: wats going on here
Richard: In answer to Interficius: no, I don't. they're a niche market now … time has moved on
Richard: I personally love them and think they're better than graphics, but I grew up in an era when computer graphics were unknown
Raelmiu: Crap, whats happening here?
Abacus: Imagination is always better than rendering.
LichKing: lecture shh

Richard: people just expect graphics now … Raph could have saved a lot of money by making Metaplace text-only, but none of you wouldbe playing if he had done
gguillotte thinks about all the text-based, youth-drive RP on Facebook, LJ, etc…
ixalon: it's a shame MUDs and MUSHs had a lot of what's only becoming really popular today with social networks and user generated content in games – what did happen to all the MUD developers, did they transfer their skills to the web/video games?
Richard: textual worlds are more like silent movies compared to talkies than they are radio to TV
crimson_noel: (u guys please don't be rude.. if u don't know what is going on please refer back to the metaplace page and Raphs post… thanks)

Sunchaser: Next question?
Richard: it is a shame, yes. some ex-MUD people went into development, others went back to their day jobs. some still do MUDs – there is actually money to be made that way
Richard: ok next question
Cuppycake: Goofs – go ahead.
Cuppycake: Goofz*
Goofz: Someone mentioned "Story" earlier on. I'm very interested in the possible strategies of having "narrative" in MMOs – what's your take on developer-driven stories in games? Can that go together with persistent world games?
Richard: I don't like developer stories a great deal
Richard: in part, this is becase they take away from players the ability to create their own stories

Goofz: I personally find it really interesting when there's a back-story to fill.
LichKing: i agree
Goofz: As a "canvas" so to speak.
Richard: small pieces of story, such as quests, are ok
Zimzam: Look at Ultima, it had very little 'back-story' but I can tell you, I have more stories from that game than any other.
Richard: it's those great arching narratives that the players have to live but can;t affect where I tune out
Zimzam: UO rather

Sunchaser: Do you think that building your own world here has the potential to be analogous?
Goofz: Thanks, Richard!
Richard: backstory can add richness to a world, but if "people don't need physics to have fun" then "people don't need backstory to have fun"
Goofz grins at Richard

marcmcg: but isn't story a good way to build immersion within a virtual world, for the majority of people who aren't creators?
Richard: it depends on who the player is … backstory is a good use of story in my opinion
Richard: building yuour own world here: at the moment, it's not analogous to building your own story, but yes, it has that p[otential
Richard: this is one of the exciting thibngs about metaplace: people can create virtual worlds for reasons other than having fun playing them
Richard: they can have fun designing them, and that's enough
Richard: they can speak through them, too, if they have the words

marcmcg: but most people are consumers of content, right?
marcmcg: but most people are consumers of content, right?
marcmcg: sorry :S
Richard: most people are consumers, but if "make it yourself" is the content they are consuming..?
Richard: there's no reason you can't consume meta-content to create content
Cuppycake: Kaiyla is ready to ask the next question, if you are
Richard: if I lay out a backstory for a game where you need to create worlds to trap the ghosts of the past, it's a game but you';re also building
Richard: ok next question

kaiyla: Sorry it's slightly more my research based! May not be as interesting as the rest
kaiyla: How do you see virtual worlds working for work or research based ideas? An example from my own interests are CSCW visualisation tools. Do you have any thoughts or experiance about using games or other things for that?
Richard: hmm, now shall I pretend I know what CSCW stands for and try to bluff it?
Cuppycake: lol
Richard: lemme just open a google window here…

kaiyla: Hehe, collaborative working online… I forgot what it stands for myself *feels embarrased*
crimson_noel: lol poor Richard
(GOSEE) Goofz wants you to go see the URL http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSCW — If you wish to visit, type /agree to go check it out!
gguillotte thinks, "Computer supported cooperative work"
pam: computer supported cooperative work
kaiyla: Thats the one!
Richard: ok, yes, virtualworlds have been used for many non-game purposes
Kavon: excellent need 2 work on my German

Richard: even in the text days we had people use them for collaborative work … Pavel Curtis wrote a paper on the subject
Richard: now we're getting more powerful systems, although virtual worlds are not the end of it
kaiyla: Ooh that sounds like something to go read
Goofz is stupid for linking the German page…
gryphoness: Check out Project Darkstar too for online collab in particular.
Richard: virtual worlds are good for general purpose stuff, but if you and I both want to work on a movie script, say, then we'd be better off using a special tool rather than a virtual world
Kavon: @ goofz – keine probleme
gguillotte thinks about a virtual world tailored for storyboarding
kaiyla: Domain limitations type of thing

Richard: the thing is, virtual worlds are places. you can do in them what you can do in a place
m3mnoch: … or a metaplace specifically for collaborative script writing!
Kavon: applause
Richard: if it makes sense to use a place to co-operate, then a virtual world could do it

Cuppycake: We have time for one more question
Richard: if you want to abstract the sense of place out of "place" then, er, OK … int hat case you could call the whole web a virtual world
Cuppycake: And because the center aisle is packed, I don't know who is next.
Cuppycake:
kaiyla: Thank you You've given me something to think about
Richard: I can stay a while longer
Cuppycake: Oh great
Richard: no lunch for you cuppycake!
gguillotte: lol
Cuppycake: lol no worries

Abacus: Given the collaborative work environment, where do you see IP going?
Abacus: IP = Intellectual Property
Kavon: excellent discussion Q.
Richard: IP is broken
Abacus: lol
Kavon: quote of the session
Richard: there are some very powerful forces grinding against each other and the rest of us just have to watch and see which ine's gears fall off first
Kavon: hate being a peon
Richard: I think there are sane solutions to it, it's just that I'm not in a position to make laws

Abacus: EULA and TOS have become very interesting reading.
Richard: they have … basically, however, although the players think that developers are trying to steal their ideas
Richard: they actually just don't want to be sued for showing their players' IP via their clients
Abacus: Or being sued when data is lost.

Richard: most of that EULA stuff is to protect them from being sued, not to kick players because they can do it
Richard: losing data, well, everyone loses data … I've lost more data trying to back it up than I have any other way
Richard: data loss is a problem if you can't copy the data yourself
Richard: and if you can't upload it if it's lost

gguillotte cheers for data portability!
Abacus: Data is an issue especially given the prevalence of Cloud computing.
Richard: which is a problem for game worlds such as WoW, but not for Metaplace … well, until the hackers get involved
moeshere: and what are doing to safe guard against that
Richard: as Abacus says, data portability would be nice

Cuppycake: Logikal do you have a question?
Richard: "the good news! I found a program to convert between 28 different graphics files formats! the bad news: I need it!"
Richard: "the good news! I found a program to convert between 28 different graphics files formats! the bad news: I need it!"
Abacus: Converting legacy systems is a huge cost. Just think about how many MS word versions are no longer supported. Ugh!!!
NeilsWonkers: Sure
Richard: yes … as for games, I'm still trying to run Darkfall on my XP

Cuppycake: Okay NeilsWonkers is next
NeilsWonkers: Haven't mastered the private mesages yet =P
NeilsWonkers: Where are you at with MMO WTF? What are your major conclusions on the line between reality and irreality
NeilsWonkers: And when do you give it to your publisher?
Richard: I'm about half way through MMOs FTW/WTF, and it's taken me 2 years to get this far
Richard: and I don't have a publisher for it as yet
Medal Master: We have a new leader! Nikion has broken the old high score of 0 with a score of 7!
Richard: I keep having spurts working on it when I'm not being a lecturer
kaiyla: Horray for the summe rholidays
Richard: aka the conference season…
crimson_noel: >.<;;
Schuyler laughs

Amethyst: Alright – who is next in line? I can't tell.
NeilsWonkers: At this juncture, do you think that you know what you're going to say about the texture of these places?
Amethyst: Ah, nevermind.
NeilsWonkers: Sorry =P
Amethyst: No problem.
Richard: It's more to do with MMOs than virtual world creation systems at the moment, I'll see how it goes though
Richard: the whole thing is like a vast semantic web, it's not exzctly "planned"…
NeilsWonkers: hehe

Sunchaser: gguillotte do you have a question?
gguillotte: Yes
Cuppycake: Go head
gguillotte: I've been watching procedurally generated content for a while. Love comes to mind, a PG MMO. What sort of impact is this going to have, where content generation is automated?
Richard: it depends if the generation of the content is the game or is filler
Richard: procedural content can work – I've spent many, many hours playing Rogue for example
Richard: using procedural content to create a canvas for virtual worlds seems a perfectly rational thing to do
Richard: however, the designer has to put their soul in it somewhere: either this is by modifying the procedural content or by creating the framework that creates it
Richard: now the former is the traditional way for designers to speak to players; if a designer wants to speak through the content-generation rules, well
Richard: that would be possible but we don't have the vocabulary for it yet
gguillotte: Thanks.
Richard: that makes it an interesting time for us
gguillotte: Indeed

Richard: Metaplace is a similar thing, btw – we'll see things here that we haven't seen the like of before
Cuppycake: (We already have!)
Richard: which is why I'm so enthusiastic for it
Richard: I don't mean new worlds, I mean new ways of communicating through world creation

Cuppycake: Next question – Myrix?
Raph: Worlds as art objects… something we have seen a lot of
Sunchaser: can you say more about that?
Myrix: Going forward, I feel that integration with social networks, web applications, and mobile devices will be very important. Do you agree? If so, how will it shape future MMOs?
Richard: it will be important, yes. however, the more they intrude into the game worlds, the less unreal they will seem to be
Richard: I'm actually quite downbeat about it … I can see, 20 years from now, people looking at virtual worlds and wondering why anyone ever thought they were exhillerating experiences
moeshere: lol

Richard: the more that they lose their mystique, the less "other world" they become, the harder the player has to will away the imnterrupts, the more mundane they become
mobab: anonymity is awesome
Medal Master: We have a new leader! BluDog has broken the old high score of 0 with a score of 70!
Richard: pseudonymity is awesome … disappears the moment you have voice chat though
BainTech agrees
mobab: hehe
kaiyla: Another WoW example for you… suddenly finding out the tank is a girl and the rest of the guild going all gaga over it… bah

Bigrebo: Do you think voiced and non-voiced worlds will diverge?
Richard: my hope is that eventually we'll have voice fonts so you can speak, it will be transcribed into an intermediate phoneme/tone record, then reproduced in real time using a different voice
Richard: OK so you could still tell a lot of things about me, but not whether I was in real life actually an orc
Cuppycake: lol
Schuyler laughs
moeshere: lol

mobab: Would that be hard to identify the person talking if everyone had a small set of voices to choose from?
Badben: lolz
Richard: is it hard to tell from this text when we all have the same voice?
Cuppycake: (kinda)
Richard: bah! you';re supposed to be on my side!
Cuppycake: lol
mobab: lol
moeshere: lol
nils: Would be without name prefixes.
Sunchaser: hah
Abacus:
Badben: lol
mobab: I meant the reproduction of voices

Richard: From what I know about the subject (which isn't a lot), if it did happen then you could take into account the real-world stresses and so on
Dblade: this somewhat exists with vocaloid
Richard: so you might be able to tell some differences: my Scottish dwarf wouldn't sound the same as a Scottish Scottish dwarf
ShadowJr: hi friends…
Richard: there are apparently differences of opinion between people who convert speech to text and people who convert text to speech, thoughrom this text when we all have the same voice?

Cuppycake: (kinda)
Richard: bah! you';re supposed to be on my side!
Cuppycake: lol
Smobab: lol
moeshere: lol
nils: Would be without name prefixes.
Sunchaser: hah
Abacus:
Badben: lol
mobab: I meant the reproduction of voices
Richard: From what I know about the subject (which isn't a lot), if itdid happen then you could take into account the real-world stresses andso on
Dblade: this somewhat exists with vocaloid
Richard: so you might be able to tell some differences: my Scottish dwarf wouldn't sound the same as a Scottish Scottish dwarf
ShadowJr: hi friends…
Richard: there are apparently differences of opinion between people whoconvert speech to text and people who convert text to speech, though

by Pixeleen Mistral, News Idoru

A sadness tinged with arousal – Facebook is already an MMORPG

The grand tradition of self-referential emergent behavior in social software continues as Facebook users have formed a group to petition the Facebook gods to allow avatar and pseudonym personalities to live free from fear in Facebook.

The social networking site has a no-avatar policy which appears to be unevenly enforced — in some cases media celebrities are allowed to use their pseudonyms or stage names for their Facebook pages, but other have suffered deletion of their Facebook accounts. The Avatars and Humans United group's charter says:

We are legion, the avatars who live and work as our digital selves. We may have other names and lives beyond our avatar forms but we live and work as identities that capture hearts and bond with millions. Avatars and Humans alike ask that Facebook continue allowing avatars to serve as primary profile pageholders so that we do not unnecessarily delete many hundreds of thousands of productive Facebook connectors. Do we ask all film stars to use their real names on Facebook, or any other media celebrity? What are positive network solutions that can come from the deletion and displacement of our friends the Avatars?

To join the avatar rights group click here.

In this very interesting interviewon MMORPG, Petur Oskarrson talks about the EVE Online Council on Stellar Management (CSM) — a group of players elected to represent the players interests with the game company at face to face meetings in Iceland. Petur describes some of the changes that were implemented and some of the changes that could not be implemented (he says for technological reasons). Of special interest is his discussion halfway through the interview of the advantages of this method of getting user feedback over the usual way — which is selectively reading user forums. Obviously users that camp out on forums are not necessarily the people you want directing your operations, but also Petur points out that reading forums is selective and incomplete so that the picture you get is biased.  Shock!