Resources

Articles

• The secrets of 'World of Warcraft's' success

  • by Daniel Terdiman, CNET News.com, September 6, 2006
  • "The first mantra of Blizzard is definitely 'easy to learn, difficult to master,'" Pardo said.

• Cons in the virtual gaming world

  • by Caroline McCarthy, CNET News.com, August 31, 2006
  • When virtual crime finds its way into online role-playing games, should real-world authorities step in?

• Virtual goodies, real greenies

  • by Daniel Terdiman, CNET News.com, July 26, 2006
  • Can selling cybergoods rake in more than your day job? In new book, Julian Dibbell gives it a shot.

• Real cash for virtual goods

  • by David Becker, CNET News.com, February 8, 2005

• A virtual world with peer-to-peer style

  • by John Borland, CNET News.com, May 9, 2005
  • Developers are hoping to construct a sprawling virtual world that runs on its inhabitants' own linked computers, rather than relying on powerful central servers like those that run Web sites or EverQuest?'s fantasy adventures.
  • see Solipsis

• Game Theories

  • by Clive Thompson, The Walrus Magazine, May 18, 2004
  • On-line fantasy games have booming economies and citizens who love their political systems. Are these virtual worlds the best place to study the real one?

• "Ultima Online 2 Announced"

  • CNET News.com, September 24, 1999
  • Origin Systems today announced that Ultima Online 2was in development. "We've learned a lot about online entertainment over the past two years since we launched Ultima Online," Jeff Anderson, vice president of development at Origin and executive producer for UO2, said in a press release. "But, most importantly, we've learned that we are not just making 'games' any more. We're building virtual worlds that will offer new ways for people to interact, socialize, and adventure on the Internet.

Articles (academic)

• Third-Person Perceptions and Online Games: A Comparison of Perceived Antisocial and Prosocial Game Effects

  • Zhi-Jin Zhong, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Volume 14, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 286 - 306
  • The current study applies the theory of the third-person effect (TPE) to examine people's perceptions of game effects on self and on others, and detects significant third-person perceptual discrepancies.

• The Psychology of Massively Multi-User Online Role-Playing Games: Motivations, Emotional Investment, Relationships and Problematic Usage

  • Ralph Schroeder and Ann-Sofie Axelsson (2006)

People and organizations

People

• Edward Castronova

  • Edward Castronova studies synthetic worlds: online environments where thousands or even millions of users share a persistent, fabricated geographic space at the same time. These places, billed and sold as games, actually seem to be offering something more than mere entertainment.
• Arpad Gabor

Projects & systems

• The Daedalus Project

  • Explores the Demographics, Motivations and Derived Experiences of MMORPG Users.

• PlayOn

  • The PlayOn project at PARC is an investigation into the social dimensions of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) and virtual worlds - extensive, persistent 3D environments that are populated by thousands of players at any given moment.

Misc

• Gaming Open Market (now closed)

  • Market place for MMORPGs virtual goods