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