After the debacle of Friendster's creative identity insurgency and suppression, we learn of another cyberspace governance problem. EA's The Sims Online has not been doing as well as hoped - except for an energetic red light district budding into an enthusiastic movement. Enter a philosophy grad student and prof, who plumb the avatarworld and blog about it. The Alphaville Herald, named after one of the greatest films, and the blogosphere's TSO for avatar Urizenus, has dedicated itself to scoping out Sims' misbehaviors. After pressing EA on some discoveries (underage cybersex, a confession of RL violence), the bloggers found their account revoked.
Excellent Farhad Manjoo reports on this (Salon sub or daypass only)
...what is becoming increasingly apparent in the virtual world: There's a fundamental divergence between the interests of a community (typically high-minded goals like freedom of speech and assembly) and the interests of the corporations that run those communities (typically not very high-minded but otherwise understandable goals like making money and avoiding public association with words like "prostitution").
...a group of players in Alphaville joined together to form what they call the Sim Shadow Government -- a development that some players have welcomed, but that others can't stand.
One comparison is apt: Julian Dibbell, whose classic essay "A Rape in Cyberspace" (1993) is very germane here, has this sad commentary:
"It's similar to what you have with shopping malls. They're becoming the last refuge of public space for teenagers, but they're run by companies, and they can kick you out on a whim."
Beyond the Friendster FoF echo, we can also reference James Grimmelmann's fine article on IP and cyberspace governance.
(thanks to Sarah Roberts)
Ah, I am so pleased that someone *finally* got the William Blake (book of Urizen) reference. You guys are my heros!! I should give out a prize or something. --Uri
Posted by: urizenus | December 19, 2003 at 18:04