Terra Nova

The Virtual Data Collection Interface

In collaboration with the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) in the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), the SWI at Indiana University has developed a tool for collecting survey data within Second Life. The usual protocol with such surveys is to attract respondents in-world and then send them to a web page to complete the survey. This is a poor protocol because it causes attrition and breaks immersion. It is usually necessary, however, because objects in SL usually cannot serve questions quickly and clearly enough. The Virtual Data Collection Interface (VDCI) is an SL object that optimizes question delivery and data retention so that the respondent experience is very close to the typical experience with web surveys. It allows respondents to quickly complete surveys while remaining in-world. We think it is the only tool in SL with this feature, but maybe one is out there and we just haven't heard of it.

The VDCI draws on existing formal survey protocols developed by scholarly survey-creation experts. It extends  these protocols into the virtual realm, creating a new protocol that can be termed Virtual Assisted Self-Interviewing (VASI). VASI represents an early step into the future of rigorous in-world data collection from users of virtual worlds.

This working paper describes both the protocol and the tool. Questions or comments? The corresponding author on this project is Mark W. Bell (typewritermark 8t gmail d0t com).

Do Virtual Worlds Ever Fail?

Do virtual worlds ever fail?

This seems a simple question if you answer it in purely commercial terms. As products, some virtual worlds fail completely, never even making it to the marketplace. (I was astonished to see that the developers of Atriarch still claim that the game is forthcoming, but there are at least a few designs and products that have been announced by developers or publishers and then definitively cancelled.)

Arden: Final Results

The results of the Arden project are available in a working paper here.  The working paper has also been submitted to a journal for peer review.

Summary: In a fantasy game setting, we made two equivalent worlds and set the price of potions to be higher in one than in the other. We found that people bought fewer potions when they were more expensive.

Discussion: The result suggests that people in fantasy games act in an economically normal way. Perhaps these game worlds can be used to study real economic behavior.

The results are based on an environment that was significantly more fun to play than the first one we made and represents the completion of the Arden project. My thanks go to the MacArthur Foundation for their early trust, their support through hard times, and of course the funding that made the study possible. I'd also like to thank the Bioware corporation for allowing us free use of Neverwinter Nights.

You can download the game environments we used for the study here.

Rock on

Commuting today, I listened to "Once Naked For Nirvana, Now A Teen Spirit" on National Public Radio (NPR).  It is the account of Spencer Elden who - when a mere infant - was photographed on the cover of  Nirvana's 1991 album, Nevermind.  Now, age seventeen, he offered a few thoughts, including some about his generation.  As I have kids somewhere between his generation and this one - I am genuinely interested in his angst (from NPR): 

"Life in general isn't quite as "cool" as it was when he jumped naked in the pool in the early '90s, though, he says. These days, his peers are too stuck on the Internet and video games... These days, Elden says, his peers concentrate on "playing Rock Band on Xbox, like, that's not a real band! That's the difference between the '90s and kids nowadays; kids in the '90s would actually go out and make a [real] band!"

Every generation has their doubts, some individual, some more general.  I am too removed from his to have trustworthy insight, but that merely intrigues me.

Are video games really undermining (garage) rock band culture?

Making an Environment Conducive to Cybersex

Since it's release last week, Google Lively has been getting a decent amount of attention for being a bit "too lively." At any given time a handful of rooms on the constantly updating popular rooms list are sexual in nature. Some example: "Bears: Gay bears and cubs. Hairy men,” “Pussy room. Let’s talk about…sex,” “Europe Sex Friends: Have Fun and Meetings in Real Life.” At first glance it would appear that Lively--which is little more than a 3D chat program--has already become a cybersex haven.

Heading into Lively for cybersex reveals another story, however. I write a weekly cybersex advice column for The Village Voice, so I'm often exploring new locales for internet trysts. Having heard about Lively's liveliness, I was excited to settle in with the new world this past weekend. To my disappointment, despite trying a number of rooms and a number of chat partners, I could never get a proper session of cybersex going.

Blizzard Wins v. WoWGlider

A big ruling for Blizzard, as noticed over at Virtually Blind -- where the opinion can also be found.  We discussed this case here previously.  (NB: Ted is working as an expert for Blizzard.) 

Before some comments on the ruling, I should say that I really enjoy reading these early opinions on virtual worlds and law just to see how courts summarize basic facts.  For instance, check out how the court summarizes arguments by Blizzard and MDY about the nature of suit--as far as I know, this is the first time a federal court has described gold farming in a judicial opinion:

Practicing trust

I know this is blindingly obvious, but it’s only really just struck me that one of the things that virtual worlds and game worlds / MMOs do is provide a forum for us to externalize and rehearse largely positive trust relations. Which I think is one plank in an argument that MMOs can be a positive force.

SL Bar Association meeting

The Second Life Bar Association wanted me to let TN readers know that they have a meeting on Virtual Worlds Legal Issues given by David Naylor aka Solomon Cortes from Field Fisher Waterhouse (yes and actual UK lawyer talking about Second Life).

As this is law about SL, by lawyers that know about SL, actually in SL, it seemed well worth a post. This is part of a series by the Second Life Bar Association and can be booked here, more details:

When: 15 July 2008, 12 noon (Pacific Daylight Time)
Where: slurl.com/secondlife/Malfelonius/209/69/61
Who to contact for more info: Cat Galileo, Geri Kuhn

Google Lively

(thx, Lum) 
News coverage here (via Google). My comments below.

If you try it out, feel free to rearrange the furniture in our coffee shop, embedded below...

In search of Afunakwa

Last year on Terra Nova, I posted on EVE Online that gave mention of Battlezone, the classic 1980 video game.  Battlezone 1980, however, was a waystation, that led to a more robust connection from a more recent past, Battlezone II (1999, Pandemic Studios).  The connection to now is Matt Harding, who by his account was:

"a 30-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut who used to think that all he ever wanted to do in life was make and play videogames. He achieved this goal pretty early and enjoyed it for a while, but eventually realized there might be other stuff he was missing out on. In February of 2003, he quit his job in Brisbane, Australia and used the money he'd saved to wander around the planet until it ran out..."

He did, and the rest is prolog.

Welcome to Bruce Damer

We're very pleased to announce that Bruce Damer, a well-known virtual world pioneer who has been a guest author here (twice) has accepted our invitation to join us as a regular author. Below is a short bio about Bruce's past work in virtual worlds, but there's much more to be found on his website.

Pssst...Hey, Mac!

So Age of Conan seems to have opened strong, and I'm eager to play it, I guess. I'm not a big fan of the Conan series, but I really miss gritty realism after so long in cartoony WoW, and everything I've heard about the class design has piqued my interest. I even got it for Father's Day. But that was, what, three weeks ago? Why haven't I gotten in touch with my inner barbarian? In short, it's because there's no Mac client, and that leads me to ask a question of the wiser industry-savvy types around here. In the current moment, is not designing your big budget MMO for easy Mac use a Grade A blunder?

Virtually Eternal: A Positive Pathway to a Healthy and Sustainable Virtual Worlds Industry?

With grateful thanks to John Hengeveld of Intel and others for many concepts and wording

Heady Times for Early Adopters

The early years of a technology is frequently characterized by a boisterous cacophony of players. Each player has a dream, but to realize that dream, they have to build everything from the ground up and develop their own platforms. Early consumers of technologies are limited to a small group blessed with the patience, wealth or time (or all of the above) to deal with the gaps in these home grown gadgets to get something to work. Automobiles went through this phase as did personal computers. The medium of Virtual Worlds finds itself there now.

Slowly, through gradual or mass extinction, industry players disappear or merge together and one or more monopoly powers emerge. Concentration of resources and marketing prowess then creates the basis for mass adoption. This happened in the 1930s with the telephone company once affectionately known in the USA as Ma Bell.

The close cousin of virtual worlds, online game worlds, finds itself further down the road to maturity with several big commercial successes under its belt. Game play worlds have settled into a model not unlike the film studio system of the 1920s, with aggregation of talent around big projects producing a few “hits” generating large returns. The game world studios must always be working on the next potential hit as current box office returns fade to black.

Stuck on Max Headroom Island