Changing Realities

User Creation, Communication, and Innovation in Digital Worlds

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Cory Ondrejka

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Abstract

By building upon advances in disparate technologies, digital worlds

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enable easier andmore powerful forms of creation and communication, allowing digital worlds to be moreinnovative places than the real world. The power to be more innovative makes itinevitable that digital worlds grow beyond their social and game roots. Furthermore,market and economic forces seen as detrimental by conventional massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) accelerate this transition. Ultimately,entertainment and economic incentives will integrate digital worlds into everyday life.

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This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialLicense. To view a copy of this license, visithttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford,California 94305, USA

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Cory Ondrejka, VP of Product Development, Linden Lab,cory@secondlife.com.

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Digital worlds have also been referred to as online games, virtual worlds, TheMetaverse, Cyberspace, Other Plane, and others. Specifically, digital worlds are placesthat use the real world as a metaphor; are created, evolved and owned by their residents;and, are for a mainstream audience rather than a techno-mage clubhouse.

Changing RealitiesIntroduction.................................................................................................................3Four Technologies.......................................................................................................3Technology Number One: Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming...........................4Technology Number Two: The Web........................................................................6Technology Number Three: Virtual Reality.............................................................7Technology Number Four: Decentralized Avatar Worlds.........................................8Building on the Four Technologies..........................................................................9Moving Beyond Atoms...............................................................................................9Atomistic Construction............................................................................................9True Creation........................................................................................................10Environment Matters.............................................................................................10Creativity, Economics and Innovation.......................................................................11The Exploration of Value......................................................................................11Property and Learning...........................................................................................12Decentralization....................................................................................................12Education and Expression.........................................................................................13Communicating Beyond Chat................................................................................14Worlds the Way They Want Them........................................................................14The Siren’s Song of Magic Circles............................................................................15Property in Digital Worlds.....................................................................................16Commoditization: Good or Evil?...........................................................................17“There is no spoon”...............................................................................................19Play in Commoditized Worlds...............................................................................20Better than Reality.....................................................................................................20 Next Steps.................................................................................................................21Further Reading.........................................................................................................23

Changing Realities

Introduction

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The best way to predict the future is to invent it. – Alan KayDigital worlds offer their residents the unique and powerful opportunity to create places.Whether the developers and publishers

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wish this or not, it is the residents who truly moldthe spaces in which they live. While it is true that digital worlds optimized for customization are able to more closely approach the ideal their residents are striving for,the design of even the most closed and themed worlds rarely survives first contact withtheir customers.

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It is inevitable. Fortunately, this aspect can also be a great strength, solong as developers harness it rather than engaging in a long and ultimately futile battleagainst it. Residents will always take their worlds in unanticipated directions.

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This iswhat places have always done throughout history. Just as real-world urban planners mustaccept change, digital world developers must as well.Digital worlds will never again be simply games. Though many will desire a return tothe age of innocence, digital worlds are engines of creation. Forms of communicationand collaboration never before possible provide the freedom to experiment and lead tounprecedented rates of innovation. Digital worlds will move far beyond their role- playing game origins, expanding possibilities for both games and other uses, just asinformation technology has evolved from a tool applied to specific tasks to a ubiquitous part of business, communication, and play.

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Four Technologies

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The themes for this article were first developed as a keynote address for theAccelerating Change 2004 conference.

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For the rest of this article, “developer” will be used as short hand to include worlddevelopers, publishers, and operators. To be technically correct, “developers” generallyrefers to those who designed and coded the original product, “publishers” market and sellit, and “operators” provide ongoing support and fixes to it once the world is launched.Corporations often fulfill more than one of these roles.

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Designs suffer from technical, gameplay, and economic flaws that often aren’tdiscovered until the world goes live and that are compounded by out-of-bandcommunication between players. See details of Star Wars: Galaxies launch problemshttp://www.pcgameworld.com/article.php/id/120/, City of Heroes nerfing discussionshttp://cohvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Editorials.Detail&id=9, and online guideshttp://www.gameguidesonline.com/guides/lineage2/lineage_2_adena_exploit_guide.asp

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Grimmelmann, James, “On the Second Life Tax Revolt,” available onlinehttp://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1222,December 21, 2003.

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Carr, Nicholas G., “Why IT Doesn’t Matter Anymore,” available onlinehttp://hbswk.hbs.edu/pubitem.jhtml?id=3520&t=technology, June 9, 2003.