Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online GamesUniversity of Chicago Press, 15 sept. 2008 - 344 pages From EverQuest to World of Warcraft, online games have evolved from the exclusive domain of computer geeks into an extraordinarily lucrative staple of the entertainment industry. People of all ages and from all walks of life now spend thousands of hours—and dollars—partaking in this popular new brand of escapism. But the line between fantasy and reality is starting to blur. Players have created virtual societies with governments and economies of their own whose currencies now trade against the dollar on eBay at rates higher than the yen. And the players who inhabit these synthetic worlds are starting to spend more time online than at their day jobs. In Synthetic Worlds, Edward Castronova offers the first comprehensive look at the online game industry, exploring its implications for business and culture alike. He starts with the players, giving us a revealing look into the everyday lives of the gamers—outlining what they do in their synthetic worlds and why. He then describes the economies inside these worlds to show how they might dramatically affect real world financial systems, from potential disruptions of markets to new business horizons. Ultimately, he explores the long-term social consequences of online games: If players can inhabit worlds that are more alluring and gratifying than reality, then how can the real world ever compete? Will a day ever come when we spend more time in these synthetic worlds than in our own? Or even more startling, will a day ever come when such questions no longer sound alarmist but instead seem obsolete? With more than ten million active players worldwide—and with Microsoft and Sony pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into video game development—online games have become too big to ignore. Synthetic Worlds spearheads our efforts to come to terms with this virtual reality and its concrete effects. “Illuminating. . . . Castronova’s analysis of the economics of fun is intriguing. Virtual-world economies are designed to make the resulting game interesting and enjoyable for their inhabitants. Many games follow a rags-to-riches storyline, for example. But how can all the players end up in the top 10%? Simple: the upwardly mobile human players need only be a subset of the world's population. An underclass of computer-controlled 'bot' citizens, meanwhile, stays poor forever. Mr. Castronova explains all this with clarity, wit, and a merciful lack of academic jargon.”—The Economist “Synthetic Worlds is a surprisingly profound book about the social, political, and economic issues arising from the emergence of vast multiplayer games on the Internet. What Castronova has realized is that these games, where players contribute considerable labor in exchange for things they value, are not merely like real economies, they are real economies, displaying inflation, fraud, Chinese sweatshops, and some surprising in-game innovations.”—Tim Harford, Chronicle of Higher Education |
Table des matières
1 | |
A Tour | 27 |
1 Daily Life on a Synthetic Earth | 29 |
2 The User | 51 |
3 The Mechanics of WorldMaking | 79 |
Institutions within Synthetic | 100 |
5 The Business of WorldMaking | 126 |
Part II When Boundaries Fade | 145 |
9 Governance | 205 |
10 Topographies of Terror | 227 |
11 Toxic Immersion and Internal Security | 236 |
Part III Threats and Opportunities | 247 |
12 Implications and Policies | 249 |
13 Into the Age of Wonder | 267 |
A Digression on Virtual Reality | 285 |
Notes | 295 |
6 The AlmostMagic Circle | 147 |
7 Free Commerce | 161 |
Behavior and Design | 170 |
311 | |
319 | |
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Expressions et termes fréquents
activity actually allow avatar become bots build chapter chat client club coding authority conflict Counter-Strike cyberspace defined developers difficult earnings Earth eBay economic effects emerged emotional environment Ethelbert EverQuest experience fact fantasy world feel figure find firms first flow fly game AI game world global gold pieces guild happens human immersion important in-world inside interaction interesting Internet involved kind large number look membrane merchant million MMORPGs multiplayer Norrath online gaming perhaps person play players political profit role role-playing rules Sabert seems sell sense server significant social space specific spend Star Wars Galaxies synthetic economies synthetic worlds there’s thetic world things trade Ultima Online users video games virtual reality virtual worlds wizards World of Warcraft world-builders