For all intents and purposes, a shared reality like The Sims Online is its own contained universe. It is a set of rules for how objects in the universe may interact with each other, be created and destroyed. Maxis created these rules, created the objects, with the intent of generating a self-sustaining community (that they, one way or another, intend to mine for "dollars", but that is mainly outside the Sims Online Universe in terms of community). The day it went live they might as well have said "Let there be light.".
The community itself is emmergent from the behaviours allowed by Maxis within the context of the "game". Therefore, Maxis did indeed create the community which has grown up around the game (without it, said community does not exist). The fact that players from the "real world" and they pay money to spend time and energy inhabiting and contributing to it is an emmergent behaviour of the system (or one that every MMORPG designer hopes to create).
Imho, on that other point...
Any action Maxis takes should be within the defined context of the universe they have created. Perhaps this Sims Shadow Government mentioned in the interview is an example of this?
As a last resort, existing rules of the game could be altered or new ones created to curb the "negative" player behaviours, but this technique usually leads to Everquest's "Nerf Bat" syndrome.
I suppose the real solution is just to make sure in testing you have some people dedicated to being bad eggs, so you can work on the laws of the universe to balance the equations out (ot discourage these behaviours)... just think, if the machines had done that in Matrix, how much trouble would have been avoided?
In Japan today, their comics (manga) are a multi-billion doallar industry. There are manga cookbooks, manga textbooks, all genres of entertainment and reference material; everything that in the US might be done as a movie or text (they have normal books etc. too).
In the US, comic books and graphic novels are marginalized in the mainstream. Many of the few profitable companies (those that make mainstream fare) left make all their money on merchandising, and have been run completely into the ground several times each. Why is this so?
In 1954, the Comics Code Authority was created as an "Industry Association" in response to congressional coercion. Check out their standards. This quashed much of the creativity present the in the mainstreaim industry, which was about 40 years old. Many of the true creative geniuses were forced underground for nearly a decade, and the mainstream companies that followed the code rotted from within.
In the mid-fifties, the manga industry essentially sprung from nowhere, blossoming into a huge industry over a decade. The average age for a consumer buying manga in Japan is just barely below the average age of the population there, whereas in the US the average age of the comic book consumer grows older by one year every year.
In Japan, their "industrial" complex for producing games is just as developed as that in the US. If creativity is stifled by lawmakers, it will cost the US Billions in lost revenue. If any country passes laws that restrict its entertainers or artists, it will cost that country a chance for the revenues or prestige generated by those creators.
I think the IGDA is more organized and is better capable (with benefit of hindsight) to combat these sons and daughters of those who created the Comic Code than the naive comic industry of the 1950s. I don't believe that there is any less general paranoia (Red Scare vs. Terrorist Scare, same thing) than then, and its got the populace running scared and not paying attention to their freedoms (why is it times like this that would-be censors always choose to strike?).
I encourage everyone to check out the link to the Comics Code. Its stipulations are eerily similar to many proposed restrictions on interactive software today, and as such its a very relevant piece of history.
...sell well in Japan because the music is oftentimes written by popular/famous musicians and performed specifically in relation to that game (much like move soundtracks in the US). When titles are localized to the US (I'm thinking specifically of the Gran Turismo series for Playstation 1&2), they have generic rock/rap/whatever pumped into them. Generally these are songs that have proven popular in the market segment they think they are selling to (i.e. the songs have already been overplayed for years on corporate radio).
The few breakout titles that ship a soundtrack CD with the collector's or "Gold" edition of a PC game title are the exception to the rule.
The only PC game I can think of at this time that has generated any "buzz" based on a song tied to it was the original Homeworld... the aging rockers Yes somehow heard of it whilst it was in development and wrote a killer tune based on the storyline of the game! The "Game of the Year" edition even came with a soundtrack CD! Did it have that track? Of course not! Just the in-game music that played during the missions (ambient classical that is incredible in its own right; the Yes song played during the credits to the game). Way to go, whatever label Yes sold their soul to...
And we wonder why there aren't many game soundtracks out there from US games...
Slashdot Mirror
For all intents and purposes, a shared reality like The Sims Online is its own contained universe. It is a set of rules for how objects in the universe may interact with each other, be created and destroyed. Maxis created these rules, created the objects, with the intent of generating a self-sustaining community (that they, one way or another, intend to mine for "dollars", but that is mainly outside the Sims Online Universe in terms of community). The day it went live they might as well have said "Let there be light.".
The community itself is emmergent from the behaviours allowed by Maxis within the context of the "game". Therefore, Maxis did indeed create the community which has grown up around the game (without it, said community does not exist). The fact that players from the "real world" and they pay money to spend time and energy inhabiting and contributing to it is an emmergent behaviour of the system (or one that every MMORPG designer hopes to create).
Imho, on that other point...
Any action Maxis takes should be within the defined context of the universe they have created. Perhaps this Sims Shadow Government mentioned in the interview is an example of this?
As a last resort, existing rules of the game could be altered or new ones created to curb the "negative" player behaviours, but this technique usually leads to Everquest's "Nerf Bat" syndrome.
I suppose the real solution is just to make sure in testing you have some people dedicated to being bad eggs, so you can work on the laws of the universe to balance the equations out (ot discourage these behaviours)... just think, if the machines had done that in Matrix, how much trouble would have been avoided?
Case and Point:
In Japan today, their comics (manga) are a multi-billion doallar industry. There are manga cookbooks, manga textbooks, all genres of entertainment and reference material; everything that in the US might be done as a movie or text (they have normal books etc. too).
In the US, comic books and graphic novels are marginalized in the mainstream. Many of the few profitable companies (those that make mainstream fare) left make all their money on merchandising, and have been run completely into the ground several times each. Why is this so?
In 1954, the Comics Code Authority was created as an "Industry Association" in response to congressional coercion. Check out their standards. This quashed much of the creativity present the in the mainstreaim industry, which was about 40 years old. Many of the true creative geniuses were forced underground for nearly a decade, and the mainstream companies that followed the code rotted from within.
In the mid-fifties, the manga industry essentially sprung from nowhere, blossoming into a huge industry over a decade. The average age for a consumer buying manga in Japan is just barely below the average age of the population there, whereas in the US the average age of the comic book consumer grows older by one year every year.
In Japan, their "industrial" complex for producing games is just as developed as that in the US. If creativity is stifled by lawmakers, it will cost the US Billions in lost revenue. If any country passes laws that restrict its entertainers or artists, it will cost that country a chance for the revenues or prestige generated by those creators.
I think the IGDA is more organized and is better capable (with benefit of hindsight) to combat these sons and daughters of those who created the Comic Code than the naive comic industry of the 1950s. I don't believe that there is any less general paranoia (Red Scare vs. Terrorist Scare, same thing) than then, and its got the populace running scared and not paying attention to their freedoms (why is it times like this that would-be censors always choose to strike?).
I encourage everyone to check out the link to the Comics Code. Its stipulations are eerily similar to many proposed restrictions on interactive software today, and as such its a very relevant piece of history.
The few breakout titles that ship a soundtrack CD with the collector's or "Gold" edition of a PC game title are the exception to the rule.
The only PC game I can think of at this time that has generated any "buzz" based on a song tied to it was the original Homeworld... the aging rockers Yes somehow heard of it whilst it was in development and wrote a killer tune based on the storyline of the game! The "Game of the Year" edition even came with a soundtrack CD! Did it have that track? Of course not! Just the in-game music that played during the missions (ambient classical that is incredible in its own right; the Yes song played during the credits to the game). Way to go, whatever label Yes sold their soul to...
And we wonder why there aren't many game soundtracks out there from US games...