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Plenary talk for Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education, March 2012
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“space makes you bitter”
the evolution of sandbox culturein second life and eve online
john carter mcknightvwbpe 2012
“two platforms, alike in dignity…”
second life• launched 2003• carefully managed real-money economy• about 50,000 concurrent users• community-driven “sandbox”• global user base• terrible UI and social tools
eve online• launched 2003• carefully managed real-money economy• about 30,000 concurrent users• community-driven “sandbox”• global user base• terrible UI and social tools
a roadmap1. programmer culture:
san francisco bay area and iceland
2. eve online’s emergent user culture3. second life’s emergent user culture4. y so difrunt?
1. programmer culture
iceland = san francisco?
• “the californian ideology”• “viking programmers”
“the californian ideology”
• (wikipedia)• Fred Turner, From Counterculture to Cyberculture
• Barbrook & Cameron essay
http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/17/the-californian-ideology-2/
recipe• “a mix of cybernetics, free market
economics, and counter-culture libertarianism”
- barbrook & cameronhttp://www.arpnet.it/chaos/
barbrook.htm
in california• Ayn Rand + hippie
culture + engineering culture + 1980s-1990s cyberpunk
• generally idealistic
in iceland
• the californian ideology + the sagas + globalization
• more nihilistic
david friedman – silicon valley scholar of icelandic law
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Iceland/Iceland.html
mid-2000’s – iceland’s 60’s and 90’s
linden lab and ccp• programmer’s culture (not
sales/marketing)• decline in platform use by employees• growing rift between designers and
users
ideology in platform design
• negligible corporate management / governance
• weak social tools• individualism in design and coding
2. eve online’s culture
what is eve online?
facebook – eve online (albums) (csm7 propaganda)
3. sl culture
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2003/07/war_of_the_jess.html
4. y so difrunt?
the easy answer
• sl: making stuff = women, teachers, older
• eve: blowing stuff up = guys, younger
but wait!
that’s too easy!
demographics• sl as the last expression of the
techno-hippie demographic (california 1998)
• eve as the first expression of young bitter anarcho-capitalists (iceland 2008)
• sl – how 50-somethings wish the world was
• eve – how 20-somethings believe the world is
• sl – “your world, your imagination”
• eve – “space makes you bitter” “yummy tears”
“A year in EVE will teach you more about human nature than a decade in any other MMO, but what you learn may scar you.”
http://tentonhammer.com/eve/spymaster/65
mirror/mirror?
contact me!
johncartermcknight.com
combatanthropologist. blogspot.com/
@john_carter