Readers of my previous post will have noticed that I don’t know much about MMPORPGs In fact, I don’t do much gaming these days, though I chewed up untold amounts of then-scarce mainframe computer time playing Adventure in the 1970s. Still my foray into the field has left me the kind of excitement you get the first time you wander into one of these domains and find precious jewels lying about everywhere.
I’m very interested in the implications of online communities of all kinds, and the motive that lead people to contribute to such communities. My idea du jour, playing off some thoughts of Yochai Benkler is as follows.
There are all sorts of motives which might lead people to contribute to networked social capital, for example by participating in various aspects of blogging (make posts and comments, linking and blogrolling, improving software, various kinds of metablogging). Possible motives include altruism, self-expression, advocacy of particular political or social views, display of technical expertise, social interaction and so on. In general, these motives are complementary or at least mutually consistent. However, motives like these do not co-exist well with a profit motive.
Why is this? At a superficial level, it’s obvious that people act differently, and are expected to act differently, in the context of relationships mediated by money than in other contexts. Behavior that would be regarded favorably in a non-monetary context is regarded as foolish or even reprehensible in a monetary context.
One of the most important general differences relates to rationality and reciprocity. In a non-market context, careful calculation of costs and benefits and an insistence on exact reciprocity is generally deprecated. By contrast, in market contexts, the first rule is never to give more than you get1.
Why is it more important to observe this rule in market contexts? One reason is that markets create opportunities for systematic arbitrage that don’t apply in other contexts. In an environment where trust is taken for granted, a trader who consistently gives slightly short weight can amass substantial profits. This is much more difficult to do in ordinary social contexts. Hence, much closer monitoring is required.
Similar points can be made about other motives. There are a whole range of sales tricks designed to exploit altruism, friendship, desire for self-expression and so on. Hence, to prosper in a market context, it is necessary to adopt a view that âbusiness is business’, and to (consciously or otherwise) adopt a role as a participant in the market economy that is quite distinct from what might be conceived as one’s âreal self’.
When I started thinking about MMPORPGs, I was worried that they would be a counterexample for my general argument. After all, this is a field where commercial gaming companies have mostly displaced spontaneous communities, and I was aware of the fact that items were traded on eBay and elsewhere, something which I supposed, on a priori grounds to be destructive. I knew there had been attempts to suppress such trade, but was under the mistaken impression that extra-game trading was generally accepted as a legitimate part of such games.
I posted my argument anyway, and was led to a treasure trove of discussion of these topics at Terra Nova. Most of it is broadly consistent with my starting hypothesis but there are lots of nuances I hadn’t thought of, and twisty little passages to follow up further. It’s hard to pick and choose among such glittering prizes, but for me the plover’s egg-sized emerald is KidTrade: A Design for an eBay-resistant Virtual Economy, linked here.
Going even more meta, it’s obvious to me that exploring the issues raised by online collaborative innovation from separate disciplinary perspectives, such as those of economics, sociology2 or law, then trying to put the bits together, is not the way to go. The way to make progress I think is through a collaboration that combines a range of academic perspectives with actual lived experience of the collaborative process. For me, at least, blogs in general and Crooked Timber in particular are the closest thing I’ve found to what I’m looking for in this respect.
1 The existence of gains from trade means that both parties to a market transaction can gain more than they give. But this doesn’t mean there isn’t conflict: both could do better at the expense of the other.
2 It’s obvious, for example, sociology has a lot to contribute to discussions of role-playing and rationality, instances including Weber, Goffman and Hirschman. Most importantly, there seems to be some potential for insight into the question of the circumstances in which personality is role-specific in some fundamental sense, rather than in the trivial sense in which a role is defined by the performance of specific functions.
I thought your post on MMPORPGs was great.
A lot of interesting ideas. I had some lame comments but alas this site is having problems.
I am really interested in why Game Owner’s are not capturing those rents. Maybe the market is booming(new) and opportunity cost is lower for capturing those rents instead of improving other areas.
But I had some ideas why that might not be so.
Game’s expect impartial referees in the status struggle and selling status violates that expectation.
A large portion of gamers think that buying status is wrong and thus a black market is born. (But why do they think buying status is wrong?)
I really think that these markets might lead to interesting insights.
My experience is that companies prefer to create social interaction than creating an interesting game. I asked the developer of Ultima Online and Star Wars galaxies about this and his answer was the game was secondary to the social experience and that the game is an excuse for people to gather and interact.
I’m a member of a fairly well established gift culture: science fiction fandom. For the most part none of us are in it for the money but spend countless hours putting on conventions (to which we sell memberships which wouldn’t cover costs if people doing the work were paid, writing fanzines, both on- and offline (which are distributed free of charge or at cost) and assorted and sundry other stuff. Do you know anything about it? My husband and I spend a lot of money every year traveling to conventions to work our tails off. Because, um, well. It’s fun. We also accrue status and what our community calls egoboo — people know who you are and talk about you and recognize you and appreciate your efforts. Sometimes I think we’re all nuts.
MKK
MKK, I’m very interested in SF fandom, particularly because of the interaction between copyright and fan fiction, including slash fiction. Again, it’s not a scene I know much about.
Don’t forget the motive of compulsion. Gaming can seem like video poker at times.
I asked the developer of Ultima Online and Star Wars galaxies…
Raph has written some very interesting and thoughtful things that may be of some interest. Particularly in regard to how gamers play these sorts of games. Knowing the gamers motivations is important in this discussion, no?
I’m familiar with him because I followed the development and launch of UO with great interest. These MMOGs are fascinating laboratories for all sorts of things.
Jonn: I’m happy to talk to you in email or however you prefer about sf fandom. It’s a wild and wonderful place and we love it a lot. There have been a couple of academic studies and I can run down the citations for those if you’re interested.
MKK
John, if you do not read Many to Many (http://www.corante.com/many/), I strongly recommend it. This is a group blog by the elite of the ‘social software’ writers (including Clay Shirky). What they are about, as I understand it, is “networked social capital” (what a great phrase).
By the way, my son wants me to participate in WoW… so if my blogging should happen to die, you ‘ll know where to look for me…
Thanks for this excellent suggestion, Bill.
As I mentioned on my blog, I thought that it would be a good idea to investigate Everquest directly, but then decided that, if I needed a second addiction after blogging, crack cocaine would probably be a safer and more sensible choice.
Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden (in the CT blogroll as Electrolite and Making Light, respectively) are near-definitive sources on SF fandom.
I tell myself I play WOW for professional reasons (I’m a game designer). However, my wife is totally hooked, and she is generally not a big gamer-type; she enjoyed The Sims, but didn’t play it as obsessively as many others have. Same with Zoo Tycoon 2 and Sid Meier’s Pirates!, both of which are superbly designed games. (None of those three are MMORPGs*, of course, although The Sims has a separate version that is; curiously, despite the fact that the solo version is the best-selling PC game of all time, the massively multiplayer version is doing average at best.)
Anyway, I asked my wife why she plays, and she said it was like golf. But, dear, you hate watching golf, to say nothing of playing it, I said. That wasn’t the point, she rejoined; playing WOW made her understand why people like golf. The answer is that, for intelligent people with complicated, amorphous day jobs (such as academics, policy folks, etc.), the appeal of golf is that it’s a bunch of little, easily described, clearly achievable tasks. Compared to the sorts of projects many knowledge workers spend their careers doing, the little frissons of accomplishment that accompany the satisfaction of a par on hole 12, or the cashing of a quest in WOW or Everquest, are very relaxing and satisfying.
So that’s why she plays. Myself, I sometimes find it a little scary, since WOW is so well-designed, with a single artistic and design vision pervading it, that it makes me wonder how anyone could manage such a creation. When looking at the design of cities like Ironforge, or the sheer volume of the content available for players to experience, I feel rather like a beginning architect looking at the Empire State Building, or a novice director watching the LOTR movies. Maybe I could manage a project like that someday, but I haven’t the foggiest idea how.
*: In the industry press the acronym is MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game); “multiplayer” just gets an M and not an MP. But if you’ve been reading sites devoted to them, your usage may be equally accepted; it just leapt out at me, as someone who follows the industry very closely.
I tell myself I play WOW for professional reasons (I’m a game designer). However, my wife is totally hooked, and she is generally not a big gamer-type; she enjoyed The Sims, but didn’t play it as obsessively as many others have. Same with Zoo Tycoon 2 and Sid Meier’s Pirates!, both of which are superbly designed games. (None of those three are MMORPGs*, of course, although The Sims has a separate version that is; curiously, despite the fact that the solo version is the best-selling PC game of all time, the massively multiplayer version is doing average at best.)
Anyway, I asked my wife why she plays, and she said it was like golf. But, dear, you hate watching golf, to say nothing of playing it, I said. That wasn’t the point, she rejoined; playing WOW made her understand why people like golf. The answer is that, for intelligent people with complicated, amorphous day jobs (such as academics, policy folks, etc.), the appeal of golf is that it’s a bunch of little, easily described, clearly achievable tasks. Compared to the sorts of projects many knowledge workers spend their careers doing, the little frissons of accomplishment that accompany the satisfaction of a par on hole 12, or the cashing of a quest in WOW or Everquest, are very relaxing and satisfying.
So that’s why she plays. Myself, I sometimes find it a little scary, since WOW is so well-designed, with a single artistic and design vision pervading it, that it makes me wonder how anyone could manage such a creation. When looking at the design of cities like Ironforge, or the sheer volume of the content available for players to experience, I feel rather like a beginning architect looking at the Empire State Building, or a novice director watching the LOTR movies. Maybe I could manage a project like that someday, but I haven’t the foggiest idea how.
My very first double post! Grrr.
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