MMO Fans Rejoice - The Arden Institute Formed

[fitbabits]

Pop on over to Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com) for the details (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=7480).

Edward Castronova, Associate Professor of Telecommunications at Indiana University and noted for his research into the economies of MMO titles, has announced the formation of The Arden Institute."The research opportunity derives from the fact that synthetic worlds are genuine human societies operating under circumstances that researchers can tightly control. Humanity has never before had the opportunity to conduct macro-level social science experiments; numerous grand-theoretic disasters (communism, for example) might readily have been avoided if their precepts had been subjected to experimental test."
Good? Bad? Indifferent?

[Varsity]

I don't think we are ready for that quite yet, which is probably one of the things they hope to change with this move.

[Eric_T_Cheng]

Do they take into account of Chinese gold farmers?

[OUX]

I can only see bad things coming from this. Who are they trying to research? The general public doesn't play MMOs so basically to me they are saying they are studying gamers. Not only that they are studying gamers that are attracted to a certain type of MMO in whatever genre they come up with. I can only see them making far reaching generalizations about people from a very small sample.

[JediSanf]

According to the website, the long-run ambition of the Institute is to develop a massively-multi-user game world at a university, and deploy it for basic social science research.

I would create a character on this if they gave the players significant control over the outcome (e.g. EVE Online). They could test some very interesting senarios if done even half right.

[dolbex]

Do they take into account of Chinese gold farmers?

Hehe, probably not.

While the idea is pretty cool, the whole concept of testing under strict conditions is false.... While you were making a joke, these are the things that are going to have to be measured and adjusted for when making claims based on MMO economys. Gamers find the rules of the manufactured world and strive to find a way to bend them.. and are usually successful...

[Varsity]

Gamers find the rules of the manufactured world and strive to find a way to bend them.. and are usually successful...
Doesn't sound too unlike the real world to me.

[Librum]

I think they're as much a worthwhile study subject as any other passtime, and the economic interplay between the virtual world and the real world (such as gold farming) is, I'm sure, the very sort of thing they're interested in looking into. Of course people find ways around rules set by those in control of such environments, but how and why could be instructive especially when it relates back to their impact on the economic systems involved.

I think trying to create their own game for study, however, may not be the best idea, since part of the advantage of studying the larger games is just that, the size of the sample available (most studies of any kind would love to have hundreds of thousands of samples, to say nothing of millions). While I doubt they'd be given inside access to any current title by the companies themselves, they could learn a lot by indirect observation and also direct participation by the researchers. That would be more instructive than trying to reinvent the wheel.

[Citizen Philip]

What are the reputation rewards for gaining faction with the Arden Institute?

[OUX]

What are the reputation rewards for gaining faction with the Arden Institute?

You get a t-shirt for a gold

[Conner Dain]

I'm sure this would sound like a good idea to someone who has NEVER played online or had to deal with the retarded trolls that frequent MMOG's and every other internet game.

[TheLengua]

I think it's foolhardy to assume that this reserach will only apply to games and gamers. I see this as a tool to bring us one step closer to real virtual reality. Synthetic worlds have the potential to become a huge boon to society. I can see MMOs being used effectively as an educational tool to teach children social skills for exanmple.

[OUX]

I think it's foolhardy to assume that this reserach will only apply to games and gamers. I see this as a tool to bring us one step closer to real virtual reality. Synthetic worlds have the potential to become a huge boon to society. I can see MMOs being used effectively as an educational tool to teach children social skills for exanmple.

Are you kidding me? The majority of people have trouble handling just one world let alone multiple synthetic ones.

[Klade]

I think this is a great idea. Studies have been done already on social interactions in MMOs and many of the results have been very interesting. If you guys think this is silly you should see what researchers are trying to do now to come up with their theories. They take 20 college kids, stick them in a series of small rooms and see how they interact to certain events etc. Here they have the opportunity to look at thousands even millions of people.

Anyone who doesn't think MMOs can be an accurate reflection of real life has never paid close attention to a games economy with supply and demand.

As for trolls, immature people, gold farmers etc.. Well I mean have you been out in the real world? Have you ever worked in a large office? They exist there as well. They just have different names.

[Roc Ingersol]

Do they take into account of Chinese gold farmers?
Taking them into account is what put Castranova in this position in the first place.

/grats Ted

[HarverdGrad]

Not sure if you all saw this (probably have).. dunno- but I read this article yesterday (from a thread in the EQ forum).. relevent to this I think..

Social Dynamics in EQ... I hope the Student got an "A"..was well written.

http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/papers/Jakobsson.pdf

[jeffool]

I'm sure this would sound like a good idea to someone who has NEVER played online or had to deal with the retarded trolls that frequent MMOG's and every other internet game.Are you kidding me? Have you been outside of your home recently? Dude, I had to go to the Post Office today. I'd rather fight off an Alliance raid group coming for Thrall made up entirely of people who a)thought they were Leeroy Jenkins, and b)thought they could do this with no clothes/armor. People are assholes out there.

That said, Klade is right. This is a great idea. And gold farmers are no worse than any other true resource-slaughtering entity. Only, in virtual worlds, you can guarantee that the resources will respawn.

[ruprect]

If only we had MMO's back in Karl Marx's time we would never have had to put up with those darn Bolsheviks, and that pesky cold war.

Wearing their turtle-neck sweaters and all. . .

Instead, the Russian monarchy would have been overthrown to cries of "Nerf Shamans!", and Moscow would have an auction house.

[Sloth]

i think it is a flawed premise because what you would do in an online world is not necessarily how you would behave in the real world. I might tell you to fuck off in an online world, but I wouldn't likely say that to your face. Or I might send a tell to some chick that I want to feel her boobies, but i wouldn't do that to her face.

So under the principle garbage in garbage out, i'm not sure how useful the data is going to be.

[Eric_T_Cheng]

You get a t-shirt for a gold

/2 WTS [T-Shirt] 10g!

[Mephistopheles]

This sounds pretty cool. If I can set up my own nation in this study and call it a democracy, then have a campaigning process that requires lots and lots of money to participate in, then have the voting period be one that is very inconvenient for the majority of voters to attend, and then maybe fudge some of the votes by various methods, then have the elected leaders not deliver on any of their campaign promises and do a whole bunch of other stuff instead a lot of which involves improving the status of their bank accounts, I will be able to prove that democracy is a grand-theoretic disaster. You know, like that thing that happened in Russia in the early 20th Century that they called communism.

Right.

[Mrbunchypants]

Cool idea. don't think it will ever get past that point.

Reason being that there will be no real world repercussions. If I wanted to play 24/7/365 I could and you can bet that I would have more then some weekend warrior. so right from the start I have an advantage.

oh well. still a cool idea.

[Captain Awesome]

hahahaha thia is just sad.

[Jukey]

Yeah, sweet job for Castronova.

[Eon]

I don't see the problem. Why not examine this sort of thing at a theoretical level? It's at least as valid as other behavioral psychology - and much less likely to result in a law suit. Go for it, say I!