http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2008/05/arden-experimen.html#more
Kind of an interesting post on the results of Arden, an academic MMO. “At stake here is the entire idea of using virtual worlds as a Petri dish. If fantasy gamers behave in ways that violate our most basic assumptions of economic normalcy, then it makes no sense to use virtual worlds to study large-scale economic behavior. If, conversely, fantasy gamers seem to be normal economic agents, then perhaps some of the behavior in virtual worlds does indeed generalize to the real world. If so, then we can consider using virtual worlds to conduct controlled experiments at the macro scale of society, where our most pressing problems seem to live (natural resource management, intercultural mistrust, information security, disease).”
That’s why the study of virtual worlds is so interesting! It allows us to poke and prod at a society of people without causing them any harm. They take the world seriously and thus make normal economic, social, and political decisions.
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