A hybrid MMORPG-virtual world called Eikonico would allow players to explore concepts like transhumanism, resource-based economics, and singularitarianism through gameplay, while building a sense of community. The game incorporates unique features like self-governance models, an avatar ePortfolio to transfer social capital between virtual worlds, and a system of "euergetism" where players gain reputation and influence by contributing funds, services, or products to the community. These innovations aim to address issues like lack of social responsibility in virtual markets, inability to transfer social capital, governance problems like anarchy, and privacy/data concerns by inverting standard models to prioritize player interests over corporate data collection.

1. A hybrid MMORPG-Virtual World:
based upon a broad spectrum of emergent Information Age
social and technological concepts. These will likely include, but
not be limited to transhumanism, resource based economics,
techno-libertarians, singularitarianism, etc. while highly
entertaining, Eikonico will allow the players, both individually
and collectively, to explore the many implications of the various
concepts, ideologies, social and technological mechanisms.

2. The Market
Virtual worlds will generate $6 billion by the end of 2012,
driven by increases in conversion rates and ARPPU (average
revenue per paying user) as well as total growth of the
market.Virtual Worlds: 2011 and beyond. Key industry trends and market developments
Growth Drivers
• Perceived Value: Parents allowing children to spend more time in VWs
• Greater Funding: Uplift in VC activity moving into 2011
• Brand Awareness: More VW having real-world presence
• Payment Mechanics: Easierways to purchase virtual
services/currencies/goods Virtual Worlds: Industry and user data

3. Revenue Model
• The revenue model for MMORPGs is far superior to other online games.
• Non-MMOs using 25 developers over 2 years require sales of about 500k units to
barely break even, and are in debt $3m on sale of only 250k units. However, an
MMO with 50 developers (allowing for $50m on server costs and player churn)
over a 2-year period will show a bank balance of $9m on 250k unit sales, with
continuing sales for many more years to come. If 1m units are sold, then the
balance shoots up to over $100m. An MMO does not need to be wildly successful
to show decent returns.
• To make these figures viable (and even to greatly exceed them) for Eikonico, the
KEY issue is retention of players. I believe we can realistically achieve this with a
good MMORPG. But so long as we use the innovations we have in mind to anchor
retention more so than MMORPGs have thus far attained, we can far exceed the
above expectations.
• As these innovations (ie, self-governance, e-portfolio, euergetism) are at the core
of community-building and the consequent pull on player retention, we need to
work diligently on execution of these ideas. There is much to look forward to.
• from "Game Development Essentials: Online Game Development" (2008)

4. The Opportunity
A technologically enhanced space for the free reign of the
imagination using gameplay to enhance a sense of community
Features
• A unique system of commercial leverage based in munificence
• Self-governance
• Scale of Repute
• Avatar ePortfolio
The present paradigm forVWs aims to create an immersive experience for
its users as the feature that keeps the model economically viable (as well
as fun). However, all worlds with significant market penetration are run by
private companies that do not allow deeper controls to be passed onto
users. This limits the immersion experience and the potential profits that
may come from allowing deeper user control.

5. Problem 1: Social Responsibility
Lack of social responsibility and empathy
in the marketplace.

6. Being open, vulnerable and sensitive to the plight of others is
considered detrimental to commercial relations and a
prescription for failure in the marketplace. Yet the market
requires a continuous infusion of social trust to function.
Indeed, the market feeds off social trust and weakens or
collapses if it is withdrawn.Jeremy Rifkin, Economic Recovery Will Fail Without Our Trust, Huffington Post 2010
This attitude is endemic to long term social cohesion, and
ultimately does not serve optimal financial return.
Rifkin is describing the requirement for empathy as a means
to both economic and societal advancement. The challenge
faced by present and emerging virtual networks is to structure
the virtual environment so that the invisible hand of empathic
sensibility thrives.

7. Problem 1 recommendation:
EUERGETISM
Giving to the community
Members who wish to develop standing in the community will
fund the VW. The recognition of such giving will serve to gain
credibility and trust within the VW that will in future reap the
benefits of a loyal market and commercial benefit.
Repute is gained by providing Eikoicowith:
– Funds
– Service
– Product
– A Klout-like score
(a measure of influence based on one’s ability to drive action.)

8. Problem 2: Social Capital
Social capital is not transferrable between virtual
worlds, or social sites generally.

9. This creates a barrier to world jumping, so even if a
world is not providing an optimal experience, the
social capital built there is difficult to abandon.
When to comes to allowing for the social capital
built through regular social sites, there is ZERO
provision to transfer that into a virtual world.

10. Problem 2 recommendation:
ePortfolioassociated with one’s Avatar
An ePortfolio is a digitized collection of artifacts used to
document accomplishments of an individual or
institution, allowing a transfer of social capital
between virtual communities.

11. Problem 3: Governance
Governance is lacking, leaving anarchy as the
default mode.
… anarchy seems to be the de facto form of government in
synthetic worlds. No one is in charge. Edward Castronova, Synthetic worlds: the
business and culture of online games (2005) p.222
Depriving player experiences of a variety of governance
models limits the ability to optimally immerse into the
virtual world.

12. Problem 3 recommendation:
3 Pillars of Self-Governance
• Promote benevolent, intelligent, scientific, open-minded leadership on all levels
• Promote diversity among the various power structures on each level
• Separate, as much as possible, power from meta-power
The separation of power from meta-power, diversity of expression and open-
minded leadership establishes the grounding for creative growth and expression of
being, enhancing the ability to innovate and enable a quality of life customized to
one’s personal nature. These customizations will bring together groups of like-
minded individuals. The creation of a platform in cyberspace where these
individuals can create a constitution based around their interests will inevitably
lead to a Community of Focus from which a further evolution of expression may
occur.
A major advantage of this governance model is that it sets a precedent for citizen-
sovereign values, thereby distinguishing this synthetic world from the rest as they
are exclusively based in merchant-sovereign values. Not only does this create a
major point of difference to other synthetic worlds, but also spearheads a
profound political layer (and therefore deeper immersive experience) to the world
and how it is perceived by real-world governments, and the rights and privileges
that may come from that relationship.

13. Problem 4: Privacy
Anonymity (privacy) is traded off for commercial
interests.
Privacy control is coded to favour corporate interests. Full use
of a site is often predicated on allowing personal data to be
mined and shared with third parties.
Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
… anonymity is needed to allow freedom of expression and
has been vital for pro-democracy movements such as last
year's revolutions that became known as the Arab Spring.”
This country was founded on unpopular ideas by unpopular
speakers and they used anonymity. It's part of why we have
protection of freedom of speech, to protect unpopular
ideas.... Elinor Mills

14. Problem 4 recommendation:
Inverson of data requirement model
Euergetism inverts the data requirement of members to the data
requirement of businesses, thereby allowing personal data to
remain private. Businesses prove themselves worthy (as
addressed by the proposed Scale of Repute) of the interest of
Eikonico’scitizens without having to reveal their demographic.
The more businesses reveal their intentions through Eikonico-
funding, the more likely they will benefit through commercial
reciprocation from Eikonicocitizens.

15. Ending Thoughts
With few exceptions, worlds do not close once they are
opened. This is absolutely astonishing in the context of games,
where an industry rule of thumb holds that approximately 95
percent of titles will fail and disappear from the shelves after
six weeks. By contrast, the seven-year-old world of Ultima
Online still has more than 150,000 actively paying subscribers,
at more than $10 a head. Indeed, all of the oldest games have
amazingly robust population counts. Synthetic worlds, it
seems, almost never die.
Edward Castronova,Synthetic worlds: the business and culture of online games (2005) p.56