I rediscovered Luis von Ahn's Google Tech presentation from this summer. Tim O'Reilly has a good synopsis with excellent comment. If you haven't seen the video it is worth the look - fun styled, choc-o-block with captchas, online game play, cheating, and yes, human computation...
Earlier this year I mused with some controversy, "social algorithms" (see The "Amazing Mechanical Turk"). I didn't account for the ability to evaluate correctness of the output (even if statistically). A crowd producing an output may or may not be useful, its just that you have no idea when you judge their process in isolation.
I'd like to build on "Where's the catch". As David Edery suggested for a game collective ("Members start to alter their opinions based on the opinions of others"), there may be reason to be suspicious of their output if that is all you had. One needs to be able to measure the output of the crowd for confidence.
Luis suggested that games like The ESP Game are algorithms based on a symbiotic human-machine relationship. The class of games he describes he calls "games with a purpose" (see also [1.]). A critical element in the design of these games is to require that the output of an individual be vetted against the output of their partner and the larger history of all participants to judge their efficacy.
It is this sense of "correctness" that seems essential. Luis illustrates how its enabling mechanic can be exploited for simulated online play by a single player (off-line using recorded inputs from other games).
No, the players in an MMORPG may not be behaving algorithmically in general (Fn1). However this is not to say that they may not participate in (or devise for themselves) "algorithmic" processes, or subgames. As one simple example, Jeff Yan discussed using captchas in MMORPG settings to nab bots [2.].
One might also begin to imagine larger units of "generate valued knowledge production" (see here) conceptualized algorithmically. These could exist within the larger social setting of an MMORPG, say.
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[1.] Luis von Ahn. June 2006, IEEE Computer. "Games with a Purpose."
[2.] Jeff Yan. "Bot, Cyborg and Automated Turing Test." University of NewCastle Upon Tyne, Computing Science. Technical Report Series. CS-TR-970. June 2006.
Fn1. Although the tongue-in-cheek "Automated Online Role Player" (It's indistinguishable from live human beings!, David Kosak) might have one believe otherwise, on occasions.
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