DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds Week 11 Technical, Social and Design Issues in Virtual Worlds 6pm – 9pm Tuesday, October 9 th, 2007 Kathryn Merrick and Owen Macindoe DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Lecture Overview  Issues associated with virtual worlds:  Technical limitations  Design constraints  Social issues DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Technical Issues  Infrastructure issues:  Related to hardware and software  Usage issues:  Related to functionality DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

System Requirements – Client Side  Virtual worlds generally have high end system requirements:  Bandwidth, graphics cards, sound cards, head sets, RAM, OS…  System requirements change as content is added DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

System Requirements – Server Side  Virtual worlds also have high end system requirements on the server side:  Server farms  Sophisticated load balancing  Databases to track large numbers of objects  Redundancy measures DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Availability  Geographic location affects availability  Barriers to global release:  Language  Software, support, moderation  Economic differences  Cultural differences DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Reliability  Related to availability – how reliably is the virtual world available?  Affected by:  Scheduled downtimes  Unforseen technical issues  Malicious activities DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Scalability  Issues that arise when there are LOTS of users:  Loss of synchronisation between client and server – ‘The Lag Monster’  Slow down  Failure of some services  Catastrophic world failure DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Security  Subscriber details need to be secured  Personal details  Credit card details  Anonymity needs to be maintained BUT users must still be accountable for their actions DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Emergent Game Play  Complex physics and flexible object interaction in virtual worlds may make it possible for players to solve in-game problems in unforseen ways:  Creative solutions  Sequence breaking  More recent virtual worlds encourage emergent game play:  Machinima  Real economy interaction DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Bugs  ‘Open-endedness’ of virtual worlds makes them hard to test:  Difficult to predict every way in which a user might interact with the world  Load testing difficult:  Beta servers generally not that popular DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Functionality Limitations  Restrictions on what players can do  Reasons:  Technical difficulty of implementation  Block security holes  Future work DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Design Issues  In-world dynamics:  What aspects of the physical world are reflected in the virtual?  Governance:  Rule creation and enforcement  Checks and balances:  How to ensure that life goes on… DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Virtual Government  Local government:  Individuals govern small areas by creating local laws  Eg: Estates in Second Life  Building height, appearance, function  Global government:  World designers impose global laws  Terms of Use agreements DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Virtual Law Enforcement  Local enforcement:  Individuals monitor small areas according to local (or global) rules  Global enforcement:  In game administrators moderate content according to Terms of Use agreements DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Real World Law Enforcement  Global enforcement is required to prevent virtual worlds being used for:  Money laundering  Gambling (US)  Terrorist activities DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Law Enforcement – The Grey Area  When does an action in the virtual world constitute a crime in the real world?  This question came to notice following a virtual rape in LambdaMOO  But the line is still blurry… DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007 Reading: “A Rape in Cyberspace, or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society“ Julian Dibbell, 1993

Intellectual Property Rights  Who owns what?  Blizzard retains the IP right to all game content  Linden grants residents the IP rights for digital content they create  Avatar, clothing, scripts, textures, objects  This right is enforceable in the real world  BUT: Linden is not liable if your IP is destroyed or lost DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Virtual Economy  Economy must be balanced to avoid inflation (“Mudflation”)  Fund sources and sinks must be carefully considered  One approach is to ban transactions between real and virtual currencies (‘RMTs’) DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007 Change in exchange rate over time between $L and $US

Races and Balances  Some virtual worlds allow avatars of different ‘races’ with different strengths and weaknesses  Race statistics must be balanced  Small changes (nerfs) can upset the balance, having drastic effects DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007 World of Warcraft races include gnomes, dwarves, humans and night elves

Social Issues  Interaction with others while using virtual worlds  Impact of virtual worlds on real world social interactions DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Bots  A bot is a player character that is controlled by a machine  Generally not allowed in virtual game worlds:  Players get annoyed when others level faster without doing all the hard work  Bots encourage an external market for power-levelling, gold, items, etc.  Bots can cause server load issues DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Bots vs Agents  Some virtual worlds encourage scripted autonomous agents:  These are generally independent of the designated human controlled character  Advantages:  Dynamic behaviour makes the world more interesting – eg: if not enough human characters online  Perform tasks on behalf of their owners  Eg: vendors to sell goods while player is offline DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Griefers  Players in virtual worlds whose aim is to cause grief to other players:  Verbal harassment  Virtual assault or murder (!?)  Property damage  Theft  Denial of service attacks DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Video Game Addiction  Compulsive use of computer and video games to the detriment of real world achievement  Most commonly attributed to MMORPGs  American Psychiatric Association has debated official recognition of this disorder  It has not been accepted yet… DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Summary  There are many issues to consider when designing virtual worlds:  Technical, design, social  As usage increases, more issues are emerging DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Reading  Nick Yee has some great papers on the social aspects of virtual worlds:  Eg: Yee, N (2006) The demographics, motivations and derived experiencs of users of massively-multiuser online graphical environments. PRESENCE: Teleoperators and virtual environments 15,  %20MMORPG%20Demographics% pdf %20MMORPG%20Demographics% pdf DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Feedback on Paper Reviews  Marks given under four headings:  Presentation style  Structure  Content  Understanding of material DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Presentation Style  Be familiar with your material  Practice in advance!  Avoid reading the presentation  Be excited about your topic  It is inappropriate to swear during a formal presentation:  A successful critique identifies strengths and weaknesses and makes suggestions for improving on weaknesses DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Structure  Start with an overview slide:  So audience knows where you are going  End with evaluation and conclusion slides:  So audience knows what they should be taking away  Work hard on slide layout  Exciting slides make the presentation memorable DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Content  Content generally very good  Nice mix of text, charts other media  Technical content was good  Speak for the specified length of time but no longer  Practice! DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Understanding  Understanding was also very good  Evidenced by  High quality slide content  Responses to questions  Make sure both speakers play a role in answering questions DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Today’s Tutorial  Work on Task 2 DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007

Next Week  Lecture:  Will begin with a 15 minute demo in the Sentient  Tutorial:  Preliminary project critiques  Your implementation should be 80-90% complete DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, October 2007