Building the global metaverse

Whether they take the form of games, social spaces, or educational environments, virtual worlds are now truly global in scope. The popularity of virtual worlds in Asia is phenomenal. From Thailand and Malaysia to Indonesia and the Philippines, the Asia Pacific region's on-line gaming market generated approximately $1.4 billion in annual revenues last year – a figure that is expected to reach $3.6 billion by the end of the decade. Much of this growth will be propelled by 180 million Chinese Internet users, the majority of whom will play on-line games.

China is just part of the story. Korea is an epicenter of innovation. For example, Cyworld, a South Korean Web community site, boasts one-third of the country’s population as its residents. India is already the region's third largest market for online games and participation in virtual worlds is sure to follow there as in other developing economies. Yet the conversation about virtual worlds is dominated by Western voices. While there are tradeshows for the videogame industry in Asia, most discussions of virtual world research have been located exclusively in the West to the exclusion of meaningful international participation.

There are significant negative consequences to the lack of global dialogue about virtual worlds. The absence of cross-cultural dialogue means that virtual worlds are being set up and run without sensitivity to diverse cultural, legal and social norms.

This lack of cross-cultural understanding does not just harm the industry; it also manifests itself in the social tensions emerging online. Last June, close to 10,000 Chinese players rioted within The Fantasy of the Journey West to protest the presence of what they thought was Japan’s national flag. Two years ago, players of Lineage II teamed up to slaughter game characters perceived to be “Chinese gold farmers.” Meanwhile, thousands of Chinese players complain that Western gamers in World of Warcraft apply racial profiling, excluding Chinese players from social groups based on language skills and recognizably Chinese surnames.

In this era of global virtual worlds, differences in legal approaches to free speech, privacy and intellectual property across cultures also need to be navigated. Companies of one nationality operate virtual worlds with servers located in another country and subscribers resident in a third. These spaces do not respect national boundaries nor should they. We are excited by the possibilities of enhancing cross-cultural interaction and understanding, and this requires that we provide guidance to politicians, courts and legislatures about approaches to virtual worlds. With the trade of virtual assets and currencies across national borders, we need to develop regulatory approaches that understand global technology while respecting local values.

These virtual worlds are crucial building blocks of global civil society. As such, they harbor the promise for relationship-building and cooperation across national borders. Solutions to the cross-cultural growing pains of this new medium require a sincere commitment to transnational dialogue.

State of Play IV: Building the Global Metaverse, the fourth annual State of Play conference on the future of cyberspace, will be held in Singapore on January 7-9, 2007. Organized by Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, New York Law School, Trinity University, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, this pioneering global conference on virtual worlds invites experts across disciplines to discuss the future of cyberspace and the impact of these new immersive, social online environments on education, law, politics and society. The hallmark of the conference is its multi-disciplinary perspective.

Among the topics explored at this year's conference are:

.       Virtual worlds and cross-cultural cooperation
.       Virtual and digital property
.       Youth cultures in virtual worlds
.       Regulation of virtual worlds
.       Taxation and digital assets
.       Global virtual worlds journalism

This fourth annual event is sure to be our best yet. In addition to a remarkable slate of speakers (including writers Neal Stephenson, Cory Doctorow, and Julian Dibbell and legendary I Love Bees designer Jane McGonigal), we will also host the world premiere of two documentaries on virtual worlds (The Ideal World and Gold Farmers). Conference panels will be streamed live on the web, and the entire gathering will synchronized with mixed reality activities in Second Life, There, and World of Warcraft.

We hope you will join us for this important and vibrant conversation about the future of the global metaverse. For more information, see: http://www.nyls.edu/stateofplay/

Comments

[Florence Chee]

1.

Thanks Aaron. Can't wait!

[Luis Villa]

2.

Sigh. I move to NYC, and so of course State of Play immediately moves elsewhere. A pox on all your houses. :)

[Steven "PlayNoEvil" Davis]

3.

The Korea Game conference is holding a keynote panel with Jessica Mulligan, Ung-gi Yoon, Erik Bethke, and myself on similar issues:

"When Real Worlds and Virtual Worlds Collide".

See the top-level session description at: http://www.kgconf.com/eng06/. Additional topics that the group will hopefully address include Game Addiction and Identity, Anonymity, and Identity Theft.

[Endie]

4.

"Much of this growth will be propelled by 180 million Chinese Internet users, the majority of whom will play on-line games."

Really, the majority? I'm guessing you're confident about that because of some study or another: any chance of a reference? That's quite a figure!

Endie

[Aaron Delwiche]

5.

Hi Endie,

Thanks for asking me to cite my sources. :)

The 180 million figure comes from:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10203

The estimate that the majority of these users will play on-line games is based on a recent report by Pacific Epoch, the excellent series of articles in Gama Sutra, and this recent batch of articles reprinted in China IT News:

Keep in mind that this includes the free-to-play games, casual games, and online gambling.

[Endie]

6.

Well, I did try and make it as little as possible like a demand for citations as possible: I didn't doubt you were basing your remark on something, I was just intrigued as to what!

Those numbers certainly amount to life-changing money. No wonder companies like CCP are focusing on getting a foothold when the potential market is 500 times their subs base...

Thanks for the article refs,

Endie

[Peter]

7.

Aside from such conferences, what else do you see that can be done to help bridge this gap?

[Kent's Imperative]

8.

I suppose Reuters will be the news bureau of choice and "special access" to both sides of the event proceedings, given developments in Second Life.

http://kentsimperative.blogspot.com/2006/10/evolving-structures-of-parallel-world.html

[hikaru]

9.

Sounds fun -- shame I can't get expense these more "academic" conferences.

"India is already the region's third largest market for online games and participation in virtual worlds is sure to follow there as in other developing economies."

Now that's a line I don't buy one bit -- unless by "largest," you mean geographically. Not 3rd largest in number of players, developers, or revenue. And I don't know how India could possibly be lumped in together with East Asia regionally...

[Wolfshead]

10.

"Meanwhile, thousands of Chinese players complain that Western gamers in World of Warcraft apply racial profiling, excluding Chinese players from social groups based on language skills and recognizably Chinese surnames."

I have a hard time believing this and would like to know where you are getting this data that would back this assertion up.

Chinese players who play on western servers are violating the Terms of Service if they are logging into USA/Oceanic or Europe WoW servers and do not reside in those countries. WoW on those servers is a game that is conducted in the English language. Naturally everyone who is playing WoW on those servers would be expected to speak English and choose characters names that make sense in the context of WoW. When in Rome...

The problem of gold farmers and in particular "Chinese gold farmers" has been plauging virtual worlds for years now. Their actions have destroyed virtual economies and degraded the play experience of people who play the games for entertainment rather then playing the games for financial rewards. It's only natural that there is a great deal of anomosity toward this group of people. They should not expect any kind of respect or tolerance from the player community if they are playing illegally and engaging in rapacious gold farming which hurts the normal cadence of the virtual world economy. The important thing to remember is that it is their behavior, not their ethnicity that is what upsets players regarding the the negative impact of gold farmers.

I was the GM of a large guild in WoW. Frequently we would get applicants that were obviously Chinese but they could not communicate well enough to be able to function as bona fide productive members of a large team which is precisely what a guild is. Every order in a raid setting is crucial and must be understood with no impediments. As GM's and guildmembers we do not have the time to babysit players that can barely speak our language.

As far as racial profiling, that's a very strong and reckless charge. Virtual worlds are all about anonymity. Nobody (at least in WoW or EverQuest) asks your real life race before they decide to group with you or buy/sell with you. Nobody cares where you are from or what your background is as long as you can play the game with skill, be a productive guildmember and communicate effectively with your fellow virutal world citizens. We have a few guildmembers of Chinese extraction that can speak English well enough to play; they are excellent and valued guildmembers. Their racial background and ethnicity has no bearing on how we view them.