Trust is an important element in the strength of the social fabric – it defines and is defined by how individuals choose to interact with each other and the quality of the relationships that form. One could imagine manipulating trust in a world by manipulating the mechanics of the world. For example, the cost of death is probably correlated to the level of trust in a world. This is because the more expensive dying is (in terms of gold or xp), the more you need to place your trust in other players, and the stronger are the bonds that form.
But what about manipulating trust on the interaction level instead of the mechanics level? “Transformed Social Interaction” is an emerging concept in VR research that recognizes that we do not have to be constrained by the physical constraints of interaction in a virtual reality precisely because everyone sees their own version of reality. So we could implement non-zero-sum gaze very easily (where avatar A maintains eye contact with avatars B, C and D all at the same time). And we know from the psych literature that eye contact enhances learning, persuasion and attraction. So what if we tweaked eye contact in groups to be non-zero sum for 50% of the times when someone speaks? Could we enhance the overall trust in a world?
We could even do some pretty simple textual implementations. Imagine a simple algorithm that looks for the words “thank you” or “thanks” in a message and just tags on phrases like “I really appreciate it”, or “This means a lot to me.” Trust in physical societies or companies are bound by the local culture and tradition, but in virtual worlds we can manipulate not only the mechanics of the world but also the rules of the interactions themselves. In an MMORPG where you care about the quality of the relationships that form (since a lot of people are playing for the interaction and not the content), maybe what’s important is understanding and manipulating how trust forms.
I would be interested to hear other people’s ideas on how one could manipulate the formation of trust in a virtual world.
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