This is the latest goodie that hit my inbox from Weyland Industries: David 8… Beautiful, just beautiful:

Two more fantastic podcasts on tVPN: The second episode is Ren Reynolds talking to Bill May about using social media and Second Life in public diplomacy. Bill May has recently retired from the US Department of State where he was the Director of the Office of Innovative Engagement. May's role did not focus on regulation, but rather, how technology could be used for public diplomacy. In addition to some of his Second Life initiatives, May has been involved in other mixed media projects, one of which was when President Obama went to Africa several years ago. As Ghana had only 8% Internet penetration, May's team gathered questions from the people via text messages.

Virtually Policy #2: From Ghana to Second Life – public diplomacy in the digital age

The third episode of Virtually Policy is part one of a two-part interview with virtual currency expert Jon Matonis.  (The next part will be about Bitcoin.)

Virtually Policy #3: Virtual Currencies & Roach Motels (1/2)

Several weeks ago, the popular message board Reddit announced that it was making a policy change to ban all "suggestive or sexual content featuring minors.” Owned by Advanced Publications, Reddit has made a name for itself in part by its hands-off, pro-free-speech, let-the-users-decide, and self-police approach. In fact, before the policy change, the only rules of the site were no spamming, no cheating, no personal info, nothing illegal, and no interfering with the site's functionality . Small wonder, then, that this decision brought about a dramatic reaction from the Reddit community, although one could argue that child-porn is illegal, so technically there has been no rule change. Be that as it may, some saw that this decision went against the very nature of Reddit, while others were completely on board with it. One user claimed passionately:  "For better or for worse, Reddit has moved from a non-interventionist to a policing organization."

No doubt, Reddit’s hands-off policy towards the content posted on its site is markedly different than that of Facebook which is promoting a sanitized alternative to the darker corners of the Internet within its gated community. As exposed in ad nauseam in a recently leaked document called the Abuse Standard’s Violation, Facebook has banned a lot of content ranging from camel toes to women breastfeeding. Tarleton Gillespie rightfully contends that, through the arbitrary rules delineated in this document, Facebook is able to play the custodian and is ultimately the arbiter of public discourse. The fact that private corporations are able to assume the important role of determining, or helping to determine, what is acceptable as public speech is frightening, for sure. Mostly because, as Gillespie notes, sites like Facebook are relatively obscure about how they manage their custodial duties and they rather not draw attention to the presence of so much obscene content on their sites, so they regularly engage in censorship to expunge it.

This post, with the Reddit case, sets out to explore the other end of the spectrum.

To be sure, this difference lies in the fact that the two sites provide very different types of services and thus have very different user base, but what brings them together is our concern for freedom of speech on the Internet. This is a valid concern, but unfortunately, the concept itself has degenerated into a gimmick, a tagline of some sorts, used by the sincere and the criminal alike, used for different purposes, for sure, but used nonetheless.

In a manner of speaking, Reddit presents a test case for the possibilities of what freedom of speech could bring about. Users are able to open subreddits on the topics of their choice and they are able to vote a particular post up or down which, ultimately, earns the owner of a particular post “karma” points. It is an organized chaos, if you will, a veritable democracy, not unlike the boards of 4chan or Something Awful, and it turns out, it harbors a very dark side of the participatory web.

A cursory glance at the darker Reddits posted on the site, however, clarifies what appeared to be a dramatic change in policy that took effect several weeks ago. For the last couple of years, several scandals brought attention to some of the questionable content housed by the site. As diligently documented by various sites, in particular Gawker, Reddit users kept creating subsections that promote pedophilia and other content such as raping and battering of women, pictures of dead kids, killing black people (replace this euphemism with the "n" word) and/or women, “choking a bitch,” and other equally jaw dropping topics that make you feel like you are staring point blank at the heart of darkness as depicted by Joseph Conrad. The only thing that keeps the general public from accessing this juicy content is a cute little Reddit mascot that asks you if you are 18 and are willing to see adult content.

The pedophilia sections of Reddit were first brought to attention of the mainstream media back in October 2011 following Anderson Cooper’s detailed coverage of the darker side of these message boards. The Jailbait reddit was the home of more than 20,000 users who posted pictures of scantily-clad—but clothed nonetheless—teens—many of which were stolen from people's Facebook profiles.

In response to Cooper's prime time coverage, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian defended Reddit's content claiming that Reddit doesn't host the material, but rather, that the website is merely a repository of links that go to other sites on the Internet, and as such, it functions like Twitter which also has links to such contents. Ohanian argued that, instead of making allegations against the site accusing it of peddling pedophilia, Cooper could have served the public better if he had encouraged parents to explain to their kids that every time they post a picture somewhere, it is public by default and thus will run the risk of being misused by ill-intended folk out there. There is some validity in this argument. We must teach our kids the necessary media literacy required to navigate the cyberspace with all its glory and pitfalls.

What is striking about the Reddit case, however, is that it demonstrates that public discourse is rigorously negotiated both within the Reddit platform and beyond it. In this sense, treating these sites as isolated pockets of communities residing in different locations on the Internet would be taking a reductionist approach to the problem. Unlike Facebook’s invisible hand sanitizing its corporately owned public space, Reddit resembles an early Greek democracy where the Gods are mostly indifferent, or worse yet, abusive as it allegedly has been in the case of the r/lgbt reddit. Perhaps elaborating on the incidents that led to the policy change a bit further will clarify this point.

Cooper’s coverage of the Jailbait subreddit was undoubtedly shocking, but what led to the r/Jailbait’s closure was a different incident. A redditer, who went by the moniker TheContortionist, posted an image of his then underage ex-girlfriend technically in the nude. Unsurprisingly, the image was voted up with the clamors of "request-for-more" until the user gave in and posted another one in which the teen was clearly engaging in oral sex. Shocked Reddit users exposed TheContortionist's post by voting it up to the front page of the site until finally, after a good six hours, the admins were forced to take it down. These images weren't just posted on the forums, but were allegedly distributed through private messages. Faced with public outrage, Reddit reluctantly closed down the entire Jailbait section claiming that it was "threatening the structural integrity of the greater Reddit community."

Although Jailbait was banned, Jailbait alternatives quickly sprung up under various other names. It was only a matter of time that another incident, this time in the "preteen_girls" subreddit, were to cause yet another public outcry. r/preteen_girls mostly featured images of 11 year-old girls in bikinis with sexually explicit captions. It was here that one of the users posted a screenshot of a naked underage girl from a banned film which quickly evoked the outrage of yet another message board residents. That message board was Something Awful (SA). The SA Goons (members of the SA forum) launched a campaign to label Reddit as a vibrant pedophile scene, urging users to contact churches, schools, local news, and law enforcement to put an end to this. And they won the battle. Reddit responded with an explicit ban of "suggestive or sexual content featuring minors.”

Does this decision mean that Reddit has transformed from a non-interventionist organization into a policing one as claimed by one of the disappointed redditers? This is an important point to consider.

According to Reddit, the content it houses is self-policed, and as with similar sites, they really can’t regulate the quality of the content, nor should they need to under most circumstances. In essence, this is not very different than how Wikipedia and many other sites that rely on user-generated content operate. Except, the "self-police" part seems to be markedly dysfunctional in Reddit partially because users have little power over the content of the site except to notify a moderator and, predictably, moderators sometimes can be capricious, random, and inconsistent. Thus far, the site has been evaluating child porn content on a case-to-case basis, but the word on the street is that the admins don't take much action when its users report these images or perhaps they are not swift enough when taking action. The jury is still out on that…

Democratic, for sure… But a laissez-faire approach to public discourse could have frightening outcomes in terms of freedom of speech if the “self-police” part does not work efficiently or the policing faction is abusing its powers. Abuse report, after all, is a click away and most sites give the right of way to the person who is reporting the abuse rather than examining the content in question. To be clear, when I am referring to frightening outcomes, I am not referring to the tasteless, offensive content that is being generated by our fellow kindred all over the planet. I mean the possibility that allowing illegal content being posted, or at least not taking swift action against it, could lead to inviting more government intervention in a space that we, the Internet denizens, hold sacred. The Reddit case, in this respect, presents a case study through which we could examine some of these issues.

When making this statement, I have the following in mind.

A month has passed since the Internet won its battle against the highly controversial bills, SOPA and PIPA, which were supported primarily by the media industry in its pursuit to crush the illegal transmission of copyrighted content. Advocating an Internet Blacklist Legislation and eliminating the safe harbor clause of DMCA, these bills threatened the very integrity of the Internet. The protest day was glorious and made unlikely bedfellows of various groups on the Internet. Reddit was one of them, so was Facebook. The day after this momentous victory, FBI raided the offices of the cyberlocker Megaupload and incarcerated its founder Kim Dotcom on racketeering, copyright infringement and money laundering charges. Two weeks after, Reddit child porn scandal erupted. Unrelated? Perhaps superficially, but the outcomes of such cases may lead to the same door. They bear the potential to invite excessive government regulation into a space we netizens hold so dear.

Similar discussions have taken place on virtual worlds whose destiny is closely tied to that of the Internet at large. The well-known law scholar Jack Balkin, for example, argues that design and play in virtual worlds should themselves be considered exercises of the right to speak and, thus, have constitutional significance.  Accordingly, he posits that much of what goes on in virtual worlds should be protected against state regulation by the First Amendment rights of freedom of expression and association. But the increasing amount of criminal activities and various communication torts that take place in these spaces, specifically copyright infringements, theft, and fraud, make the First Amendment doctrine less likely to be sufficient in fully protecting freedom in virtual worlds. Injured parties end up resorting to real-world courts to resolve their differences which ultimately ends up inviting government regulation into these spaces. In a similar fashion, Greg Lastowka and Dan Hunter state that virtual crimes will be of increasing concern for the communities engaging in the design and experience of virtual worlds as they resist external attempts at legal regulation (pg. 124).

Clearly, my goal is not to equate camel toes, breastfeeding, nudity, or offensive content with virtual crime because while the former is a valuable part of public discourse and, therefore, should be considered as protected speech either on Facebook or elsewhere, the latter, which in the aforementioned cases amount to copyright infringement, child pornography, money laundering, are indeed crimes. Make no mistake, governments would be swift to take action against them and the lobbyists would be there to coax them in the right direction. In fact, these considerations were (and still are) the driving forces behind SOPA, PIPA or ACTA. On the outset, these bills aim to quash copyright infringement but are threatening our freedom of speech in the process.

It is concerns such as these that dictate some of the hard lines that social media sites draw when regulating users' freedom of speech. That hard line is being negotiated among the netizens, activist groups, scholars, companies, lobbyists, politicians, and what have you. It is also being negotiated on a national and international scale. Reddit’s approach could be just as detrimental for the future of freedom of speech as Facebook’s. After all, how many times can you push against a door until it finally busts open and leads you to a path from which there is no return?

Using this example as a jumping board, Castonova continues to explain that early virtual world scholars argued that MMORPGs (MMOs for short) seemed to provide a communal experience for people isolated by contemporary society. Now, he notes, that the MMO experience has become very suburban in many ways. In the suburbs, he explains, communities live in places that resemble villages, but these places are in fact designed to provide each person with solitude. In other words, suburbanites are alone together. According to him, this has increasingly come to define the current MMO experience.

I believe there are two separate issues that are being raised here, one I agree with, the other I don't, and they are not directly related to one another although the post seems to suggest so. It is true that the early idealistic discourse about MMOs being social environments that foster communities has not really come to pass. In the virtual worlds class that I am teaching this semester, I assigned TL Taylor's chapter "Gaming Lifeworlds: Social Play in Persistent Environments" partly to demonstrate that these spaces are indeed social and that gamers aren't the basement dwellers who have no social life. One of the worlds I assigned for the class is LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online). This was a strategic decision because the game is available to play for free and isn't taxing in terms of hardware. At the time, it seemed like a good idea, now, not so much.

Their assignment for that week was to level their characters and get a sense of the game play and write a blog post about their experiences using Taylor's chapter on social play. Incidentally, when I was leveling up my toon in LOTRO a week prior to this, I had a high-level player help me with some of my quests and even give my some currency so that I can buy the things that I needed. This was a textbook case of social play that Taylor was discussing in her chapter.

None of this negates Castronova's notion of suburban gameplay, of course. One of my student's experience, however, was radically different than mine and was expressed quite passionately in his blog. Here's a quote from his blog post: "T.L. Taylor says that video games promote social activity and teamwork but I have yet to see this in LOTRO. I have helped a few random gamers finish difficult quests, and then they run off as if I held my dagger to their jugular. Those gamers are now on my hit list."

While I was surprised by the intensity of this statement, and perhaps a bit disappointed, I understood where the student was coming from. I recalled a month prior to this when a few guildies and I were griefed half an hour in a dungeon which we had found through the Dungeon Finder, another tool that promotes pick-up groups (known as PUGs). The tank was upset about my low DPS and refused to tank, and instead, started aggrooing the mob and getting all of us killed until finally I kicked him out of the group for being a punk. Incidentally, that's why I was there for, to get better gear to improve my DPS. I had just hit level 85. Since the previous tank in that very same dungeon technically ninja looted the gear that should have been mine (and got kicked out of our group by others because of it), I was yet again left with no gear and low DPS.  So yeah, I understood my student's sentiment completely. We have grown to expect things like that to happen in pick-me-up groups where there is no social bond what-so-ever. On the other hand, I would expect the same jerks to have existed in the olden days of the MMOs even though the preferred style of raiding would have been with one's own guild.

Be that as it may, I am not fully convinced that features like the LFR are directly indicative of or could be linked to a suburban experience of a game play. In fact, the reminiscence about the "good old days" somehow suggests to me not pining for a more social environment or a multi-player experience, but rather, a disappointment in the fact that the game is not as hard, therefore, not as exclusive anymore. The attitude is more like "anyone with an axe in hand can play now." Meaning: "Back in the day, we raided a lot to get gear.” Other variations that I heard thus far would be: “Back in the day, we only had bags with fewer slots. Back in the day, we didn't get mounts till we were level 40," etc… Unfortunately, this rhetoric seems to me that it is coming from someone who clearly possesses a huge amount of gaming capital and feels the right to impose (and defend) a purist approach to MMO play style. 

By now, you may have guessed that I am that "anyone with an axe in hand." I am the casual MMO player who doesn’t have the time to raid every night or compare specs till the cows go moo (Admittedly, these days I am playing every night possibly because the game got social for me only recently). But I would argue that features like Dungeon Finder or LFR, both of which encourage pick-me-up groups, do not replace the social experience of guilds, but rather, complement it in their own weird way. In fact, I would argue that it probably allows players, who would have otherwise quit out of frustration, to get involved in the game because these players feel that they can play even if that means playing the game casually.

Yes, it is true. As a result of these features, the guild system may have receded to the background a bit. But is that so bad? Guilds can have their own dynamic, internal conflicts, drama, if you will. In this case, these pick-up groups could be providing a social relief from the claustrophobia of having to be together all the time.

As a result of these features, players have options to get gear other than running in a guild raid. But in my experience players use these features in addition to their guild raids. In fact, guilds use LFRs together so they can share and exchange loot and have each other's back during raids. So the social gaming experience is still there on some level.

True: these raids are often easier versions of the real deal. So clearly, it is targeted for the casual gamer as well as the hardcore gamer. This means that the people you end up with are not always up to snuff, in fact, about half of them suck. One of my friends affectionately baptized this feature as “Looking for Retards.” It is an organized chaos if you will. Yet players learn through these experiences and get better, and if you suck really bad, well, you get kicked out of the group. I would imagine that none of these things would be tolerable by a hardcore gamer who is grown accustomed to a very defined play style.

Suburban, yes, in some ways… But the question remains: did the gameplay become more suburban as a result of features like these or has it always been that way, and that we, the idealist scholars, wanted so badly for our online life to provide a genuine alternative to our alienated existence in modern day society? Castronova's post ends up questioning these issues. But let's not condemn the game mechanics and the casual gamer to the gallows because of this.

I am delighted to announce that Ren Reynolds, from The Virtual Policy Network is launching a new podcast series, Virtually Policy. With his first guest, Arno Luddor, he discusses the Dutch Runescape Case, a case discussed by Greg Lastowka in Terra Nova.

The podcast can be found here as well as on iTunes.

We all knew that it wasn’t going to end there and it didn’t. This time, the entertainment industry lobbied to pass the aforementioned outrageous bills that bore the potential to cripple the true essence of the Internet. After a full day blackout, most members of the congress wouldn’t even touch the bills with a ten-foot pole. The victory of the Internet was glorious, it was beautiful, it was magical, and alas, it was too short. We all knew that there was going to be a comeback of some sort, we just didn’t think it would be the next day.

On Jan 19 2011, MegaUpload, one of the largest file-sharing sites on the Internet, was shut down by federal prosecutors in Virginia after an abrupt raid conducted by the FBI. The site’s founder Kim Dotcom and three others were arrested by the police in New Zealand and all his assets including his luxury cars were seized and the site was taken offline. The charges are racketeering, money laundering and copyright infringement. The summary of the indictment can be found here.

While the users who were storing their personal and business files onto the server got infinitely irate (though one wonders why you would store such data there to begin with), others were wondering if the Feds can bust sites like MegaUpload like this, why bother having bills like SOPA and PIPA. The very next day, Anonymous dutifully took to the task and launched a cyber attack against the usual suspects using not so kosher strategies.

Looking at Dotcom’s assets, I cannot whole-heartedly bring myself to sympathize with the guy one iota although I know, fully well, that the outcome of this case will be used against the Internet in general and the freedom we enjoy here.

The issue here, as noted in this post, is that there are two types of piracies, one that really should be the concern of the entertainment industry and the other that the source of creativity. The first one includes underground sites and networks dedicated to trading copyrighted music, software, games, and movies and are determined to elude regulations and have the technology to do so. The second kind type is when some fan remixes preexisting content and uploads it to YouTube.

The truth of the matter here is that the Internet really didn’t protest to protect the likes of Megaupload, which fall under the first category, but rather, its goal was to protect the latter which is the source of cultural creativity, as noted by Lawrence Lessig, Siva Vaidhyanathan, and others. The problem with the actions of the entertainment industry is that it fails to make the distinction between these two categories. More to the point, as long as they try to strengthen copyright laws like this, there will always be a market for underground sites that promote copyright infringement and illegal uploading. It is a losing battle, really.

Pwnd!!!
Order, Conflict, & Unrest in Virtual Worlds
Winter 2012

Instructor: Dr. Burcu S. Bakioglu
Meeting: TR 2:30PM-4:20PM
Office Hours: TR 12:00PM- 1:30PM and by appointment @Mursell House

Why study virtual worlds? While some view virtual worlds as a niche phenomenon enjoyed by a group of geeks, others perceive it as a growing reality. Those who are in the latter camp note an exodus into these worlds as a growing number of people lead alternative existence in these synthetic environments. Thousands of people are spending time in World of Warcraft, Second Life, Eve Online, and various other worlds. Players trade and sell virtual loot for hundreds and even thousands of dollars. Users open virtual businesses, get married, and hold funerals in these spaces. Regardless of the platform, these worlds have successfully built their own economies, transactions, interactions, social norms, and cultures.

This course investigates various virtual worlds including gaming worlds, social worlds, and kid/teen worlds in order to gain an in-depth understanding of how their designs elicit specific governance models. Throughout the course, students will develop the necessary skills for engaging in various virtual worlds in order to understand the significance of the contractual agreements that take place between users and virtual world developers. In doing so, the course will introduce and discuss the key players who take part in the governance of these worlds and interrogate the limits of legal jurisdiction over them. Examining the economic dimensions of these worlds will also extend the conversation onto the nature of online intellectual property and copyright debates and allow us to explore other issues that arise specifically in these worlds, in particular griefing and goldfarming.

In addition to a take-home midterm, final paper, and an accumulative final exam, students are
expected blog weekly. Gaming and engaging in virtual worlds several hours a week both in and outside of class will be mandatory.

Goals for Student Learning
• Develop the necessary skills for engaging in various virtual worlds including game worlds, social worlds, and teen/kid social worlds.
• Examine the different governance styles and the legal jurisdiction of virtual worlds.
• Gain an in-depth understanding of the different actors that take part in the governance of virtual worlds.
• Understand the significance of the contractual agreements that take place between users and virtual world developers.
• Examine the economic dimensions of virtual worlds and the significance of property and copyright in these realms.
• Explore other issues that arise in virtual worlds.

*Ability and willingness to use technology and the Internet is a prerequisite for this course as students will be expected to blog, twitter, use various technologies required for class participation. Be advised that students may encounter offensive language and sexually explicit content in this course. You may wish to choose another course if this presents a problem.
*Gaming and engaging in virtual worlds several hours a week both in and outside of class will be mandatory.
*Special thanks to The Virtual Policy Network

COURSE WORK

Because the subject-matter of this class is virtual worlds, students will be required to spend around three hours a week (if not more) in various worlds, gaming, exploring its structures, and interacting with others in these worlds. You will also be required to read/browse sites, blogs, and wikis that relate to virtual worlds and attend a film screening on raiding. One of our primary game worlds will the World of Warcraft. Although it also has a free play version, you may need to purchase a 60 day game card so we can enjoy the world in its full capacity.

TECHNOLOGY

Our class has a Moodle page.  In this page, you can find our syllabus, class requirements, additional background information that will help you understand your readings, useful URLs to online articles, websites, and links to web videos. Students are expected to visit our Moodle site regularly and use it to get updates on the course. I also strongly urge you to add any links you find useful on our class wiki. Please come to class having read the readings and bring a printed copy of the reading assigned for that day.

You will need to open accounts on the following sites during the first week of class and add the URL of your site onto our class wiki:
• Blogger (You will be following the students who are in your blog group and comment on their posts)
• You will also be expected to open accounts in various virtual worlds.

Following is an incomplete list of virtual worlds some of which you will be expected to open accounts in:
•    Kids Social / Game Worlds
Habbo Hotel: http://www.habbo.com/
Club Penguin: http://www.clubpenguin.com/
ToonTown: http://toontown.go.com/
Mosh Monsters: http://www.moshimonsters.com/
Whyville: http://www.whyville.net/smmk/nice
Dofus: http://www.dofus.com

•    Game worlds
World of Warcraft:
    PC: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/
    MAC: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/18982/world-of-warcraft
RuneScape: http://www.runescape.com/
Lord of the Rings Online (12Gb):
PC: https://trial.turbine.com/lotro.php
MAC: http://www.fileplanet.com/218758/210000/fileinfo/The-Lord-of-the-Rings-Online-Client-%28Mac—Unofficial%29
DC Universe (30Gb): http://www.dcuniverseonline.com/
Football Superstars (5Gb): http://footballsuperstars.com
EvE Online (20Gb): http://www.eveonline.com/

•    Other
Second Life: http://secondlife.com
MineCraft: http://www.minecraft.net

WIKI FORUMS: I will use our class Wiki to post announcements, important URLs and some class notes, and study questions. What do you do in the forums?

•    I will post study questions about our weekly readings in advance. These questions will likely be used in your weekly quizzes. Do not wait on the questions to be posted to start your readings as they will be posted the night before class. Please remember that this is merely a courtesy on my part. It is up to you to do your readings for each class.
•    Post any questions, troublesome areas about the daily readings. I expect everyone to read these questions and help your fellow classmates out. Sometimes you will get my response, but mostly others respond before I do.
•    If you see anything interesting (relevant or not relevant to our readings) and you want to share them with others you may post them here as well.
•    Class announcements will be posted in the forums too.

Don’t be embarrassed to come to class with any questions you may have. Chances are, someone else has the same questions.

READINGS: For each class you will have approximately 50-60 pages of reading, some days even less. Your readings will mostly be on the e-reserve or Moodle, however, some may be found online. I have also noted secondary materials. These are fun easy things to read, watch, or browse. While your quizzes will not be from these materials, they may be useful for your blog assignment and will allow you to understand our readings better. Please come to class with a printed copy of your reading for the day. While reading the assignments, you may want to consider the following questions as guidelines when doing your readings and watching the videos assigned for the week:

•    What is the author’s main idea?
•    What ideas in the article intrigue you most and why? Explain.
•    Can you find any examples from your own daily experience in reading books, surfing the Internet, and playing videogames that relate to some of the ideas in the article? Explain.

Midterm Paper 20%: There will be one take-home essay with two questions from your readings.

Final Paper 20%: Students will have to write an 8-10 page paper demonstrating their understanding of the readings covered after the midterm. This will be formal essay that includes a thesis statement and supporting ideas and will have to be free of any spelling and grammar errors. You will be expected to cite from class readings. The topic and guidelines will be provided later.

Final Exam 20%: This will be an accumulative exam comprising short-answer, multiple choice, and short-essay questions.

Blogging 15%: You are expected to open a free blogging account at http://www.blogger.com/ and add the URL of your blogs to the class Wiki.
So what’s the assignment here?
Virtual Worlds Journal: These posts will be recounting your personal experience in virtual worlds using the topics that we discuss in class each week. These posts will be due on Sundays by 5:00PM. Late posts will result in point deduction. Steps:
•    On most weeks I will give you a topic to write about but the format will mostly be the following.
•    Read the assigned article and find one of the primary arguments of the reading assigned for each reading that you find intriguing or find problematic. Explain this argument.
•    Summarize your experience as it relates to the argument.
•    Analyze in your blog post how this experience relates to the idea that you read in the article. It may reinforce the idea expressed by the author, expand on it, or downright refute it.
•    Read and edit what you have written.
•    Post.
•    The entry needs to be at least three paragraphs in length.

Towards the end of the semester, I will let you re-write two of your lowest blog posts for a higher grade, but these rewrites will be graded out of a 9, meaning rewrites will cost you a point.

Note: It is always easier to write your post on a Word document, edit for spelling and grammar errors, and then post it on your blog. Remember, writing online does not justify poor writing and everyone can read it, so save yourself the embarrassment by editing your posts prior to publishing them online. Suggested length for each blog post is half a page to page and a half, double-spaced, and be sure to break the text into paragraphs (remember the rule: a new idea, a new paragraph). These posts must be well-thought and should provide some insight into current events or online content.

Quizzes 5%: You will have weekly quizzes in this course. The study questions will be posted on the forums.

Participation/Attendance 5%: ATTENDANCE AND CLASS PARTICIPATION DOES COUNT, so make sure you do not miss more than two classes (excused or unexcused). Any absences after that will result in 1/3rd of a letter reduction in your final grade. You will automatically fail the course if you miss 1/3rd of the class sessions in the course. I expect you to arrive to class on time and leave only when it concludes. Please let me know ahead of time if you need to miss a class, but be aware that notifying me does not excuse your absence. Any documentation regarding a serious illness or a family urgency will have to be required within a week of the absence. But, again, you will use your two absences for those days. I won’t be granting you extra absence. I will not retroactively excuse absences at the end of the term.

Useful Links:
Terra Nova: http://terranova.blogs.com/
Essential MMO terms: http://www.lotro.com/news/952-eight-essential-mmo-terms
Full MMORPG Terms Glossary: http://mmoterms.com/full-mmorpg-terms-glossary

CODE OF CONDUCT IN VIRTUAL WORLDS:

As this course progresses, you will find out that your experience in virtual worlds is similar to your experience in real life: you'll find nice people as well as jerks in these spaces. You'll experience things that are divine and you'll witness some questionable things. Here are some guidelines to help you keep your sanity and prepare you for the brave new world that you will be introduced throughout the semester:
•    There will be jerks that will bully you, call you called nasty names, and push you around. Word of the wise: log off.
•    There will be offensive content that you may see. If you are one to get easily offended, log off or go to a different region.
•    Be a chief, don't grief. Remember, you are representing Lawrence University and you should always keep that in mind. Lame and inappropriate behavior has no place in a collegiate setting.
•    If you plan on griefing, however, create a throwaway account that has no attachment to your real life identity (no credit cards) and use your personal computer and NOT Lawrence University computers. When accounts get banned, Game Gods ban the IP address of the offending computer. This means the university computer would be out of commission and no one else can use that computer to log on to the virtual world in which the offense was committed. If you use the wireless on campus, chances are, you'll be found out regardless. Use the wireless at an Internet Café instead.
•    Do not reveal any information that pertains to your real life under any circumstances. This includes name, address, social security number, phone number, or any personal information unless you are certain that you know the person in real life.
•    This is a silly warning to note here, but you'd be surprised at how many offers you will get: Do not accept to video cam with ANYONE unless you are willing to star in the next porn video and risk your chances of becoming the future president of the United States of America.
 

GRADE OVERVIEW:

Blogging Assignment: Blog, you will get a chance to re-write two of your lowest blogs at the end of the semester.  20%
Midterm Paper: Take home essay    20%
Final Paper: Take home essay    20%
Final Exam: Accumulative exam    20%
Quizzes: Pop quizzes    5%
Technical Benchmarks: Meeting all technical benchmarks in a timely fashion.    10%
Participation & Attendance: You have two excused (with sick note) or unexcused absences. More than 2 absences will result in 1/3 letter grade deduction.
•    Attendance does not mean participation. So be active in class and online in some way.    5%

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

Week 1

Introduction: What Are Virtual Worlds?

January 3
The Virtual Policy Network."The Virtual World Primer," http://www.virtualpolicy.net/_Downloads/Documents/tVPN-VW_Primer-V1Q308.pdf
Kzer Universe, “Virtual Worlds: Industry and User Data,” http://www.slideshare.net/nicmitham/kzero-universe-q4-2011
Bartle, R. "Introduction to Virtual Worlds: Some Definitions," Designing Virtual Worlds.
Bartle, R. "Introduction to Virtual Worlds: What They Are and Whence They Came," Designing Virtual Worlds.

January 5
Lastowka, G. "History," Virtual Justice.

Screening: The Raid, http://jointheraid.com/site/the-raid-replay-on-gbtv
Other movies: Second Skin, http://www.secondskinfilm.com/
Race to World First, www.racetoworldfirst.com/

Technical benchmark:
•    Review the WoW guide and select a race/class for your first toon.
•    Review your toon's characteristics.
•    Open a blogger account.

Week 2

Exploring Virtual Worlds

January 10
Taylor, T.L. "Gaming Lifeworlds: Social Play in Persistent Environments," Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture.
Bartle, R. " HEARTS, CLUBS, DIAMONDS, SPADES: PLAYERS WHO SUIT MUDS," http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm

Governance: Beginnings

January 12
Bartle, R. "Why Governments Aren't Gods and Gods aren't Governments"
Lab day

Technical benchmark:
•    Open an account in WoW and Second Life.
•    Review your toon's characteristics and begin questing.
•    Level up your Wow toon to level 10.
•    Purchase two-month gaming card

Week 3

January 17
Grimmelmann, J. "Virtual Power Politics," The State of Play: Law, Games, & Virtual Worlds.
Castronova, E. "Governance." Synthetic Worlds.

Jurisdiction, Stakeholders, & EULA

January 19
Johnson, D.R. & Post, D. "Law and Borders–The Rise of Law in Cyberspace," Stan. L. Rev., http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/is02/readings/johnson-post.html
Lastowka, G. "Jurisdiction," Virtual Justice.

Lab day

Technical benchmark: Level up your WoW toon to level 15.

Week 4

January 24
Mnookin, J., 2001. "Virtual(ly) Law: The Emergence of Law in LambdaMOO," Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates and Pirate Utopias.

January 26
Balkin, J.M., 2004. Virtual liberty: freedom to design and freedom to play in virtual worlds. Va. L. Rev. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=555683
Discussion on EULA: TBA
Lab day

Technical benchmark: Presentation on various EULAs

Virtual Economy & Property

Week 5

January 31
Castronova, E. "The Economics of Fun: Behavior & Design," Synthetic Worlds (selections).
Lastowka, G. "Property." Virtual Justice.

February 2
Ondrejka, C. "Escaping the Gilded Cage: User-Created Content and Building the Metaverse," The State of Play: Law, Games, & Virtual Worlds.
Lab day

Technical benchmark: Create a virtual object in Second Life using the building tool. You might want to browse the catalogs of online stores for ideas.

Week 6:

Kids Online

February 7
Meyers, E.M., Nathan, L.P., Unsworth, K. "Whose Watching Your Kids? Safety and Surveillance in Virtual Worlds for Children." The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, https://journals.tdl.org/jvwr/article/view/1890

February 9
Federal Trade Commision. "Virtual World & Kids: Mapping the Risks," http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/12/oecd-vwrpt.pdf
Lab day: Class presentations on kid/teen worlds.
Midterm papers, due.

Technical benchmark: Open accounts in various kid/teen worlds such as Habbo Hotel, Penguin Club, Whyville, and Toontown. Spend at least an hour in the worlds that you have been assigned to for the week exploring what you can and cannot do in these worlds. Go over the EULA and the websites. You will be expected to do a class presentation on these worlds.

Week 7

Issues in Online Worlds: Protest

February 14
Au, W.J. "Burning the House Down." The Making of Second Life.

February 16
Blogdett, B.M. "And the Ringleaders Were Banned: An Examination of Protest in Virtual Worlds."
Lab day

Technical benchmark: Get a story lead from the Alphaville Herald Editrix Pixeleen Mistral and began investigating the story.

Week 8

Issues in Online Worlds: Goldfarming

February 21
Heeks, R. "Current Analysis and Future Research Agenda on 'Gold Farming': Real-World Production in Developing Countries for the Virtual Economies of Online Games," Development Informatics Working Paper Series. (selections) Available from http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/research/publications/wp/di/documents/di_wp32.pdf

February 23
Dibbell, J. "Gold Farmers," Play Money: Or How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot.
Dibbell, J. "Life of a Chinese Goldfarmer," The New York Times, http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/goldfarmers.html
Lab day

Technical benchmark: Find an auction house and place two items on sale to be auctioned off and buy two items.

Week 9

Issues in Online Worlds: Griefing and Unrest

February 28
Foo, C.Y. & Koivisto, E.M. (2004). "Defining grief play in MMORPGs: player and developer perceptions," Proceedings of the 2004 ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in computer entertainment technology.
Dibbell, J. “A Rape in Cyberspace,” http://www.juliandibbell.com/articles/a-rape-in-cyberspace/
Dibbell, J. "Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World," Wired, http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/16-02/mf_goons

March 1
Ludlow, P. & Mark Wallace."The Death of Urizenus," The Second Life Herald: The Virtual Tabloid That Witnessed to Dawn of the Metaverse.
Harmon, A. "A Real-Life Debate on Free Expression in a Cybercity," The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/15/business/technology-a-real-life-debate-on-free-expression-in-a-cyberspace-city.html
Manjoo, F. "Racking Muck in Sims Online," Salon, http://www.salon.com/2003/12/12/sims_online_newspaper/singleton/
Au, W.J. "Building Walls, Defending Territory: Border disputes and Culture Clashing in War's Shadow." The Making of Second Life.
Lab day

Technical benchmark: Write a blog post reporting on an in-world story that you received from Pixeleen Mistral.

Week 10

Participatory Governance/Future

March 6
Zwart, M. "Piracy vs. Control: Models of Virtual World Governance and Their Impact on Player and User Experience," Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, http://journals.tdl.org/jvwr/article/view/663/511

March 8
Taylor, T.L. "Beyond Management: Considering Participatory Design & Governance in Player Culture," http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1611/1526

Final papers , due
Farewell

Final exam: TBA

This is a re-framing of my MIT7 presentation. Here, I discuss hacktivism within the context of tactical media and consider Operation Payback as a significant initiative that led the Anons to start actively embracing hacktivism as a part of their identity.