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Trust In Virtual Worlds
The Escapist's last issue for the year touches on the currency of Trust in Massively Multiplayer Games. With virtual-world currency gaining ever more value in the real world, in-game scams and lies can be deadly serious. When you give away that Trust, business can boom. From the article: "Their business plan is an ingenious one: Rather than engage in the wars that rage through alliance space, ISS has chosen to take a neutral stance, building a huge player-operated structure known as an 'outpost' that provides repair, refitting and marketing services to all comers. In a star system known simply as KDF-GY, ISS has established a little Switzerland in space, where pilots of rival corps and alliances can dock to do business, sell loot and kit out their battlecruisers for the next engagement. And according to Martin Wiinholt and Shayne Smart, the 30-something players behind Count TaSessine and Serenity Steele, respectively, business is good."
I recently got my newbie industrial ship blown out of the sky (empty, mind you) in .3 space. Kinda sucks.
Other things that suck - needing bookmarks. It's a nusance issue where it takes forever to get anywhere unless you go get bookmarks.
Finally, there is no difinitive 'how to play eve' book. There is info scattered across numerous websites, but the CCP new player guide is awful.
Finally, you have no control over the design/color of your ship. You can't give it a certain paintjob or put a logo on it.
"We want to ensure that new residents have easy access to additional L$ without having to take yet another leap of trust to sign up and give payment information to a third party," said Linden Lab economic czar Lawrence Linden. But residents had already taken that leap of trust with GOM, and been rewarded.
Indeed. I daresay one would have greater trust in the third party, whose business solely relied upon professional integrity and actual fiduciary trust. Linden as market maker for L$ is the fox guarding the henhouse. GOM had no fiduciary interest in the exchange ratio, merely the conduct of exchanges.
illegitimii non ingravare
This is the same game where one of the best examples of trust betrayed in an online world can be found. The below story is well worth the read and has been cited numerous times as an example of the risk inherent in an online world.
The Big Scam
I'm thinking, WTF? That doesn't make me happy.
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
Corporations are here to save us! How come I never noticed that before?
This stuff is cool, but I think that the reason it works is because the virtual corporations still require player support. In the real world, corporations have managed to turn the tables on citizens, so that now the corporations interests supercepe that of citizens.
No, I don't trust in god. He'll have to pay up front, like everybody else.
There were actually two scams of note: both the buy-in scam from some time ago, and the more recent uber-attack in which an entire corporation was taken over, its assets gutted, and it's leader killed in game -- all by a year-long setup from an assasins guild in the game. Absolutely incredible to see this kind of thing possible in a game.
So, the article is basically saying that it's a new thing for people in MMOGs to have the level of trust where they'd invest (collectively) thousands of dollars in a cooperative venture (EVE). Especially since that the same time, Linden Labs established a currency trading service, despite a private service being available, because people can't trust other people.
/. It's the same principle, just not as fiscally structured as the 'neutral outpost' in EVE.
The difference here is that the entire foundation of success in EVE is trust and cooperation. In order to have the kind of cash necessary to buy shares, you have to have trusted people previously.
I can't see this working in most other MMOGs, since 'griefing' and scamming are well established in the cultures of WoW and others. Though frowned upon, thiose are games where trust of others is not necessary (as TFA points out, but does not stress).
Trust is the reason that guilds are successful in MMOGs, as has been discussed many times on
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Just because corporations cannot vote does not mean they do not influence the political process. Political power is in the hands of elected representatives. When was the last time that a political representative asked all (or even a modest percentage) of his constituants on a particular issue? If you think the DMCA was proposed and pushed by the grassroots, you are sorely mistaken. How about the criminalization of copyright violations? Or the copyright extensions? I just chose this area because it is easiest to highlight the discrepency between citizen interests and corporate interests. There are many other areas of interest, such as taxation.
Just in case you are among those who don't know what a corporation is (shamelessly ripped from nasd.com)...
Corporation: A legal entity, allowed by legislation, which permits a group of people, as shareholders (for-profit companies) or members (non-profit companies), to create an organization, which can then focus on pursuing set objectives, and empowered with legal rights which are usually only reserved for individuals, such as to sue and be sued, own property, hire employees or loan and borrow money. Also known as a "company." The primary advantage of for-profit corporations is that it provides its shareholders with a right to participate in the profits (by dividends) without any personal liability because the company absorbs the entire liability of the organization.
No, I don't trust in god. He'll have to pay up front, like everybody else.