This document discusses user-generated content in virtual worlds. It explores what motivates users to create content, and how developers can support creativity. It analyzes different types of user contributions like commentary, creation, and public actions. It also examines lessons from early virtual worlds like Habitat and different approaches taken by later worlds like Ultima Online and Second Life. It concludes that current virtual worlds don't fully harness the potential for social and goal-oriented user-generated content, and that "non-social" game types have leveraged publicly beneficial content more effectively.

1. Constructive Communities: Understanding user-
generated content in virtual worlds
Jonas Heide Smith (jonasheidesmith@gmail.com)

2. Some big questions
What motivates the
production of user-
generated content in
virtual worlds?
How can developers/
designers support user
creativity?

3. A slightly smaller question
How can we think about
user-generated content
in the context of virtual
worlds?

4. User-generated content
Publicly available material
existing as a product of end-
user activity whether
intentionally produced or not

5. THE NEW YORK TIMES

6. COMMENT IS FREE

7. WIKIPEDIA

8. FLICKR

9. AMAZON.COM

10. User-generated content
THE USER...
Adds extras
COMMENTARY
Develops content from scratch
CREATION
Adds value by personal goal-
seeking
PUBLIC ACTION

11. LODE RUNNER (1983)

12. DOOM (1993)

13. SIMPSONS DOOM

14. HABITAT (1986)

15. Lessons from Habitat
quot;The first goal-directed event
planned for Habitat was a rather
involved treasure hunt... It took
us hours to design, weeks to
build (including a 100-region
island), and days to coordinate
the actors involved. ...
We thought it would occupy our
players for days. In fact, the
puzzle was solved in about 8
hours by a person who had
figured out the critical clue in the
first 15 minutes. ... a huge
investment in design and setup
time had been consumed in an
eyeblink.quot;
Morningstar & Farmer (1991). The Lessons of Habitat. Published
in Cyberspace: First Steps, Michael Benedikt (ed.), 1991, MIT
Press, Cambridge, Mass.

16. Approach #1
Make more generic
content

17. ULTIMA ONLINE (1997)

18. WORLD OF WARCRAFT (2004)

19. Approach #2
Allow users to co-create

20. LAMBDAMOO (1990)

21. SECOND LIFE (2003)

22. LITTLE BIG PLANET

23. SPORE

24. SPORE

25. MACHINIMA

26. User-generated content
THE USER...
Adds extras
COMMENTARY
Develops content from scratch
CREATION
Adds value by personal goal-
seeking
PUBLIC ACTION

27. quot;COMMENTARYquot; in
virtual worlds
Usually happens outside the
VW
Usually impossible in game
worlds

28. quot;CREATIONquot; in virtual
worlds
Often possible in social
worlds
Almost always impossible in
game worlds (who value
game balance over player
freedom)

29. quot;PUBLIC ACTIONquot; in
virtual worlds
Other users are typically the
very reason for logging on
In game worlds, action is
only public in a very abstract
market economic sense
Even in social worlds,
actions have to be highly
goal-directed to leave a
mark

30. Conclusions
Users must presently
choose between the non-
goal-oriented and the non-
involving
Virtual worlds (allegedly
highly social) have untapped
potential
Publicly beneficial UGC
seems to be harnessed
more powerfully in quot;non-
socialquot; game types