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Role Playing (Games)

Trust In Virtual Worlds 55

Posted by Zonk from the not-an-easy-thing-to-buy dept.
The Escapist's last issue for the year touches on the currency of Trust in Massively Multiplayer Games. With virtual-world currency gaining ever more value in the real world, in-game scams and lies can be deadly serious. When you give away that Trust, business can boom. From the article: "Their business plan is an ingenious one: Rather than engage in the wars that rage through alliance space, ISS has chosen to take a neutral stance, building a huge player-operated structure known as an 'outpost' that provides repair, refitting and marketing services to all comers. In a star system known simply as KDF-GY, ISS has established a little Switzerland in space, where pilots of rival corps and alliances can dock to do business, sell loot and kit out their battlecruisers for the next engagement. And according to Martin Wiinholt and Shayne Smart, the 30-something players behind Count TaSessine and Serenity Steele, respectively, business is good."
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Trust In Virtual Worlds More

Trust In Virtual Worlds

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  • Eve..... (Score:2, Offtopic)

    by MBraynard ( 653724 )
    So promising, but so complicated.

    I recently got my newbie industrial ship blown out of the sky (empty, mind you) in .3 space. Kinda sucks.

    Other things that suck - needing bookmarks. It's a nusance issue where it takes forever to get anywhere unless you go get bookmarks.

    Finally, there is no difinitive 'how to play eve' book. There is info scattered across numerous websites, but the CCP new player guide is awful.

    Finally, you have no control over the design/color of your ship. You can't give it a certain p

  • Linden's mistake (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rodentia ( 102779 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2005 @05:29PM (#14347731)

    "We want to ensure that new residents have easy access to additional L$ without having to take yet another leap of trust to sign up and give payment information to a third party," said Linden Lab economic czar Lawrence Linden. But residents had already taken that leap of trust with GOM, and been rewarded.

    Indeed. I daresay one would have greater trust in the third party, whose business solely relied upon professional integrity and actual fiduciary trust. Linden as market maker for L$ is the fox guarding the henhouse. GOM had no fiduciary interest in the exchange ratio, merely the conduct of exchanges.

  • On the subject of trust... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by 1WingedAngel ( 575467 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2005 @05:40PM (#14347814) Homepage
    This is the same game where one of the best examples of trust betrayed in an online world can be found. The below story is well worth the read and has been cited numerous times as an example of the risk inherent in an online world.
    The Big Scam [circa1984.com]
    • Yes, they mentioned this scam via a link to the same website that you have listed.
      • Yes, they mentioned this scam via a link to the same website that you have listed.

        I missed that the first time. Mayhaps their web designer can lay off on some of the aesthetics for a little more ease of use. The partially underlined links don't stand out all that well.

    • Scam (Score:1)

      by 6350' ( 936630 )
      There were actually two scams of note: both the buy-in scam from some time ago, and the more recent uber-attack in which an entire corporation was taken over, its assets gutted, and it's leader killed in game -- all by a year-long setup from an assasins guild in the game. Absolutely incredible to see this kind of thing possible in a game.
      • There were actually two scams of note: both the buy-in scam from some time ago, and the more recent uber-attack in which an entire corporation was taken over, its assets gutted, and it's leader killed in game -- all by a year-long setup from an assasins guild in the game. Absolutely incredible to see this kind of thing possible in a game.

        I'm sort of familiar with the buy in scam (read about it a while ago). I haven't found info on that corporate takeover thing you mention. Can you provide links? Eve is o
    • Thanks for sharing - I just finished reading The Big Scam and it's very entertaining!
  • Yeah, some gnome mage told me that that if me and my who guild gave him a gold piece each, we would get eternal happiness. Some joke that was. One second we're sitting around the gnome handing out buckets of cash in the middle of Mulgore, the next second hundreds of 50+ lvl Taurens overan us and camped our bodies for the next six hours.

    I'm thinking, WTF? That doesn't make me happy.

  • Yeah! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by chriso11 ( 254041 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2005 @06:11PM (#14348081) Journal
    Corporations are here to save us! How come I never noticed that before?

    This stuff is cool, but I think that the reason it works is because the virtual corporations still require player support. In the real world, corporations have managed to turn the tables on citizens, so that now the corporations interests supercepe that of citizens.
    • This stuff is cool, but I think that the reason it works is because the virtual corporations still require player support. In the real world, corporations have managed to turn the tables on citizens, so that now the corporations interests supercepe that of citizens.

      Sounds like you don't exactly exist in the real world either - maybe Michael Moore's fantasy world.

      All public corporations in the US are owned by citizens. Everything from Wal-Mart to Haliburton (in which Moore owns stock) to MS to whatever boo

      • All public corporations in the US are owned by citizens.
        You're an idiot. That isn't true. Even if it was true, the owners of public corporations cannot be held responsible for the actions of those corporations. Any ordinary, practical definition of ownership doesn't apply.
      • Well, then explain how Enron adheres to that view. Or Worldcom. Or Tyco, Aedelphi, and Global Crossing. But it's not just the scandals. Look into ADM (Archer Daniels Midland Corp) sometime. Halliburton and the no-bid contracts are another example. Hey, even Love Canal.

        Next, take a look where all of the corporations are based - try Bermuda, which provides wonderful tax advantages. Look at how many companies are opening up facilities in Ireland, also for tax advantages.

        And no, I don't feel 'alianated' (or eve

      • Re:Yeah! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by eyepeepackets ( 33477 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2005 @09:56PM (#14349429)
        "All public corporations in the US are owned by citizens. Everything from
        Wal-Mart to Haliburton (in which Moore owns stock) to MS to whatever boogie man
        you fantasize about."

        Any person on the planet can own stock in publicly traded corporations as I
        understand it, so saying corporations are "owned by citizens" is not technically
        correct.

        What the original poster suggested and the others following refer to is the apparent
        ability of corporations, particularly multi-national corporations, to avoid the
        repercussions of responsibility for their behavior. Such responsibility
        avoidance is, in essence, a variation on the old con known as the "shell game."
        It plays out in corporate and governance thusly: One concentrates authority in a
        small group (corporate board and their purchased politicians) whilst diluting
        responsibility over as large a group as possible (stock holders.) With this
        manner of construct, the authority can pretty much do as it pleases and, when
        things get nasty, the authority points to the responsible body, stock holders.
        But the catch is that only the very biggest of the stock holding groups have a
        voice that will garner a response from the corporate board. Funny how these
        stock holding groups and corporate boards seem to all blend together into a
        rather small group of the same folks.

        As a test of your "responsible citizens" theory of corporate ownership,
        please go buy what shares you can afford of a corporate stock, complain about
        what and how they do, and let us know the result.

        That our governments allow corporations under current law is proof simple that
        the politicians are in their pockets: The entire corporate law/structure is a
        responsibility avoidance device. Companies, whether incorporated or not, are run
        by humans who make decisions with consequences and should be held fully
        accountable and would be if our political systems weren't so very corrupt. Take
        a look at where your congress critter's re-election money comes from for an
        eye-opener than only the willfully ignorant (another definition for the word
        "stupid") can pretend away.

        Caio.

           
        • That our governments allow corporations under current law is proof simple that the politicians are in their pockets:

          Which demonstrates one of the weaknesses of democracy - it only works if there is an educated and interested populace.

          Those in power wish to remain in power, in democracy it means they must campaign to become re-elected. Ideally votes would be based on service to the citizens. However, with apathetic citizens, it becomes who gets the most ads on TV/newspapers/etc to rally an interested mi
          • Those in power wish to remain in power, in democracy it means they must campaign to become re-elected.

            Either that, or they're just puppets and the corporations that own the puppets simply pay campaign contributions to all possible sides to make sure that anybody elected will do their bidding no matter what.

  • That's right (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Red Flayer ( 890720 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2005 @09:49PM (#14349392) Journal
    So, the article is basically saying that it's a new thing for people in MMOGs to have the level of trust where they'd invest (collectively) thousands of dollars in a cooperative venture (EVE). Especially since that the same time, Linden Labs established a currency trading service, despite a private service being available, because people can't trust other people.

    The difference here is that the entire foundation of success in EVE is trust and cooperation. In order to have the kind of cash necessary to buy shares, you have to have trusted people previously.

    I can't see this working in most other MMOGs, since 'griefing' and scamming are well established in the cultures of WoW and others. Though frowned upon, thiose are games where trust of others is not necessary (as TFA points out, but does not stress).

    Trust is the reason that guilds are successful in MMOGs, as has been discussed many times on /. It's the same principle, just not as fiscally structured as the 'neutral outpost' in EVE.
    • Since I play Eve...

      A little background on why people would trust ISS.

      ISS is very large alliance. If they break the trust of other people, it will hurt them in the long run.

      Yes, scamming is part of the game, that is why trust is hard to come by. Its often earned through very hard work.

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