Perils and Solutions in
Virtual Worlds
Eric Eisenberg
Importance
• Massive Market
- Over 600,000 WOW units by early
January to U.S., Australia, New Zealand
- 180,000 concurrent European Users
alone
Massive revenue: $50 per unit plus up to
$15 per month
Addictiveness
• CBC News: “A study done in the U.S. found that 45 per cent of
EverQuest players believe they are addicted. Sony Online uses the word
‘addictive’ in several pieces of its marketing material for the game… [Dr.
Alain Dagher] found that a chemical called dopamine is released in the
brain when video game players perform goal-oriented tasks. He suspects,
that in a game like EverQuest – a burst of dopamine may be released every
time a quest is fulfilled.”
• Time Spent
• Loss of Productivity
Addictiveness solutions
• parental monitoring or software solutions
discussed Tuesday
• self-limiting options offered by game proprietor
• offering of hourly payment options
• in-game rewards for restraint
• legislation
• allow secondary markets, as in Eric Robinson’s
presentation, so the addiction can pay
Bots
• Artificially intelligent agents emulating
human players
• Take away value people ascribe to own
accomplishments
• Consume unreasonable amount of
resources
-bandwidth
-in-game commodities
Bot Solutions
• Make the game less repetitive
• Random Turing Tests
• Detection of other routines running on
computer
• Player reporting
• Draconian punishment
• Instancing
Fraud
• Ease of creating new identities
• Possibly false notion that in-game actions
are not morally relevant
• Lack of real consequences
Fraud Solutions
•
•
•
•
Caveat Emptor
Secure trade window
Inter-character ratings system
Inter-game ratings system