(10.21.02) Some thoughts on how to approach this project (we talked about this a little last night; here's my recollection of that conversation.)
Last night Lawrence Lessig asked us, how will companies police/control social behavior in online worlds? Will they do so through technology (code, architecture) or through encouraging/monitoring social behavioral norms? or through law? We will write a paper trying to answer the question. What will be some strategies for game designers? for community builders? For players-cum-citizens?
Also we will take up the question of how much policing can/should be done in online virtual gameworlds.
We may present some utopina/distopian scenarios for evolving social behavior in online games.
We should note the differences between persistent and non-persistent, goal-based and internal economy based games, gender, age groups, etc. We may also want to consider in a broader sense culture-making within games and who owns/controls that culture.
Time frame:
November 24: First rough draft/outline
January 5: Second draft?