Hanging out is
hard to do
Methodology in Non-Avatar Environments

The Context
Introduction
Literature
Methodology
Are Virtual Worlds Gambling
Issues in Contemporary Online Environments
The Gambling Industry
Eve Online, Governance & Norms
Recommendations for Online Environments
Conclusion

The Context
Introduction
Literature
Methodology
Are Virtual Worlds Gambling
Issues in Contemporary Online Environments
The Gambling Industry
Eve Online, Governance & Norms
Recommendations for Online Environments
Conclusion

The Context
Second half of the methodology - but an
interesting half!
Also happy to discuss the wider project
for those interested
Explores how we can learn from the
offshore gambling industry as we seek
to regulate other online environments.

A brief aside

Eve 101
Paranoid community. Fraud/scams
actively encouraged.
Community split. Newbies/established.
High-security / Low-Security. Public
space / wormholes.
As you may have guessed, no Avatar
(until recently). Instead, ‘pod goo’.

Why Virtual Worlds
Ren Reynolds says “we study VW's
because the legal norms being
established there will come to dominate
our lives”
But what are Virtual Worlds?

Greg Lastowka
I chopped this video a little to fit time
constraints. Full version at http://
www.ustream.tv/recorded/18456637
(hour-plus panel)
Greg’s book is “Virtual Justice”, available
in free PDF from his website.

Greg Lastowka

Greg Lastowka
How many times did he just say
‘Avatar’?
Virtual Worlds go beyond the
classically studied environments.
Eve is setting many precedents for
player politics, hybrid economies, and
‘legal’ purchasing of in-game currency.

Eve Marketplace

From here

WOW Auction House

Or maybe:
It feels different...

So what methodology?
Much Virtual World research (Taylor,
Dibbell, Humphreys, Banks etc) is
‘Participant Observation’ Ethnography.
Can we apply that methodology to non-
avatar environments?
Kind of..

Space
Some games are designed for chat. Star
Wars Galaxies Cantinas are social
spaces, Trade hubs and the routes up to
them (in most MMO’s) encourage
bottlenecks/crowding & chat. Auction
houses encourage chat.
Eve is often a vast nothing...

Grouping
Bartle, discussing the design of MUD’s,
notes that group missions (as in WOW)
force players to communicate. Eve
follows a far more ‘solo’ path.
Essentially Eve follows a different
model than traditional MUD-origin
games. Less in-game communication,
thus more use of external channels.

Implications
Almost impossible to get a clear picture
of the Eve community from the
environment itself:
Limited in access to end-game spaces
(by virtue of skills / time).
Limited in access to sub-cultures (by
practicalities / Ethics disclosures).

Implications
Those access mechanisms there are,
would likely fall foul of IRB/Ethics
Pay to access (cheating?)
Non-disclosure of role and/or use of
pre-existing character.

Options
Ignore end-game spaces. I liken this to
claiming to do a comprehensive
ethnography of New York, without
leaving Manhattan.
Combine results of multiple
ethnographers. Elements of other studies
may apply to Eve.

Options
Use meta-game: blogs, IRC, forums
(leaked and public) to complete
narrative.
Ultimately, I am arguing for a
combination of (2) and (3). And, I
contend, these approaches have
implications for social networks &
avatar-based environments too...

Meta-game
Meta-game analysis is largely textual
analysis.
BUT the participant observation is still
necessary.
Without that, there’s no way to interpret
the textual analysis. You need to
understand the environment.

Reviewers say:
The paper argues that "the prominence of these meta-
game considerations should shift, from being a
supplement to an ethnographic lived experience to a core
part of the study. " but it mostly makes the case through
the example of Eve Online. It would help if the author
articulated the theoretical basis for the shift earlier on.
A large part of the discussion seems to be about the role of
space in the game, and the author is using the meta-
game ethnography to explore it. This needs to be explained
earlier on.

Reviewers say:
•
The biggest problem is that the conclusion is a rather obvious observation. By far most other researchers (see Taylor, for
example) have looked beyond pure in-game research when it comes to the analysis of the social components of these
communities.
It then argues that the lack of an avatar and embodiment puts Eve Online into a particular position for any ethnographic
research. This point is made through the absence of the avatar body (up to latest addition to the game). The importance of
such a body for any ethnographic study might be extremely relevant but would need more argumentation. For example, other
online communities like MUDs lived always without visible body representations and still managed to foster strong social
ties and interaction design. (NB/DW: But they still had avatars – emphasise this – Bartle Quote?)
•
How players use the aforementioned forums and extra channels shines through occasionally (e.g. in the quote by Mittani "I
almost never log on to Eve Online itself because I run a spy network. For me, Eve Online is talking to people in a Jabber
client.") but is not discussed in the paper. What role does the author assign to these sources? Is there anything
particular about the use of these technologies (e.g. no Teamspeak) in Eve? To lay out an ethnographic methodology to
investigate Eve Online questions like these would be important. They are pointed at but no answers are provided.
•
Again, where the text works is in the description of the particular game design decisions at work in Eve and how they
affect social interaction - but the arguments here are based on the design observations of the author. For example, even in
Eve Online we find online protests in the form of WoW or SL when masses of players overload servers - as seen in the Jita
4-4 attacks against the memorial. These were demonstrations against the new microtransaction system in the summer of 2011
and one could argue they instantiated this area as a kind of "social hub". The author does not discuss play events like
these, which seem to be good moments for an ethnographic approach (how did players organize the protest? why? what were the
consequences? how did players re-enter gameplay after the event and how did the talk about it?)
•
It might be useful to concentrate on the design issues identified in the Eve game design and try to solidify the points
made about them through analysis of the forums/ personal narratives/ video documentations/ online chat and VoIP clients. In
short, it would be interesting to step beyond a critique of Eve online's design and toward a more developed methodology to
still allow for research in this particular environment.