This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're looking at a major business pitfall, and one which afflicts many virtual environment and MMOG developers/operators at one time or another.

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: Cornered!

The Virtual Whirl: Cornered! originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 27 Mar 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

During 2005, sociocultural anthropologist Thomas Malaby performed an ethnographic study at Linden Lab. Not of Second Life and its users, per se, but of Linden Lab itself, as a key component in the collective structure in and around Second Life.

Malaby found an organization whose actions, functions, and effects were frequently at odds with those which its employees and managers believed it to have. In the years since his research, now documented in his book, Making Virtual Worlds: Linden Lab and Second Life, the Lab has performed a 180 in some areas, but have their perceptions of themselves as an organization, and as an agency actually changed?

Continue reading Linden Lab, then and now: Tools, policy, self-perception and anthropology

Linden Lab, then and now: Tools, policy, self-perception and anthropology originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Escapist is carrying a deliciously cogent piece from multimedia writer Wendy Despain, tantalizingly entitled Legislating the Virtual World. In it, she introduces The Virtual Policy Network, founded by Ren Reynolds to help governments, universities and businesses mediate their interests in online worlds. The Virtual Policy Network includes such names as Richard Bartle, Mia Consalvo, Randy Farmer, Thomas Malaby, Jessica Mulligan, and David Pullinger. The issues in virtual environments, however, may be at once simpler and more complex than they appear on the surface.

'As an example, consider how landlord laws might apply to virtual worlds. If it's assumed the "residents" are renting their virtual space from the people who make and maintain the game, does banning a player equate to evicting them from an apartment?,' writes Despain, 'Now consider the fact that landlord laws vary from city to city, not just internationally, and you have an idea of how complex a simple account ban can become with a little creative litigation.'

However, we'll defer to the combined wisdom of Belgian surrealist painter Réné Magritte and philosopher, historian, intellectual and sociologist Michel Foucault, who more accurately stated, Ceçi n'est pas une pipe.

Continue reading The Escapist introduces The Virtual Policy Network

The Escapist introduces The Virtual Policy Network originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.