Talk given to the "Deep Think" group, in Second Life, on April 16th, 2012

1. Differences between online games and
virtual worlds and how they come about
Martin Oliver
London Knowledge Lab,
Institute of Education, University of London
m.oliver@ioe.ac.uk
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

2. What’s the problem?
• What’s a game?
• Ludology, narratology, etc.
• ‘Magic circle’, permeability and cultural
clashes
• Roleplaying and social convention
• Focus more on Warcraft than SL
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

3. What’s a game?
A game is a rule-based formal system with a
variable and quantifiable outcome, where
different outcomes are assigned different
values, the player exerts effort in order to
influence the outcome, the player feels
attached to the outcome, and the
consequences of the activity are optional
and negotiable.
– Juul, 2005
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

4. What’s a game?
• Games can be looked at from various
different perspectives
– Ludic structures (rules)
– Ludic economies (resources)
– Narrative structures (textuality)
– Diegetic experiences (representations)
– Etc.
(Carr et al, 2003)
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

5. The magic circle
What does it mean to enter the system of a
game? How is it that play begins and ends?
What makes up the boundary of a game and
what occurs at that border? At stake in
answering these questions is understanding
the paradoxical artificiality of games and the
way that games relate to the real-world
contexts that they inhabit.
(Salen & Zimmerman, 2003)
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

6. There may be…
• A physical component (setting, board, etc)
• Specific symbolism (the meaning of
pieces, moves, tokens, etc)
• Agreement (declaration, adjudication, etc)
• Convention
…and so on
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

7. The magic circle is ambiguous and
permeable
• Killer, LARPS and other ‘augmented reality’
games
• Cheating
• Spectators
• Biographies, relationships, etc
• Evolving games (new content, rules, patches,
etc)
• Players as (re-)designers (modding, home
rules, etc)
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

8. Role-playing raises lots of issues
A distinction can be made between role-playing games and
the act of role-play. Role-playing, the activity of acting out
or assuming a particular role, can be done in many forms
and within many games, not only in role-playing games.
RPGs just offer specific rules and settings which guide role-
play. Within this context I would like to discuss whether
role-playing games are a form of play or games. According
to their own definitions of games, Jesper Juul, Katie Salen
and Eric Zimmerman consider RPGs as “borderline” or
“limit” cases of games.
– Copier, 2005
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

9. Conventional role-playing
• Negotiable, extensible rules
• Many lack quantifiable outcomes
• A focus on constructing spaces and
identities
– …particularly when contrasted with adventure
games (“offline” games in a role-playing style,
lacking opportunities for construction)
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

10. Permeability of the magic circle
• Salen & Zimmerman discuss games in
terms of:
– Rules (formal, distinct)
– Play (permeable)
– Culture (extremely open, fuzzy/blurred)
• Role-playing as:
– Rules (game mechanics)
– Play (negotiable interactions)
– Culture (…and interactions with other cultures)
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

11. An example: World of Warcraft
• A highly developed and extensive set of
rules
– 85 levels, 10 classes, 12 races, 12
professions and huge numbers of skills,
abilities, talents etc
– Questing, instances, battlegrounds, role-
playing
– Various ‘flavours’ of server: PvE, PvP, PvE
RP, PvP RP
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

12. • What Warcraft is can depend on…
– What server you’re on
– What combination of class, spec, gear, etc
you’re playing with
– Whether you’re questing, raiding, PvPing, etc
– Who you’re playing with
– What’s happening in your chat channel
– What’s happening in your room…
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

13. Studying couples who play WoW
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14. • Interviews with couples
– Five, chosen for diversity
– Interviewed in-game
– Semi-structured interviews, chat logged,
lasted 60-90 minutes
– Thematic analysis
(Oliver & Carr, 2009)
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

15. • Permeable in all sorts of directions
The 1st online RPG I played was Guild Wars which a friend
had a spare account for. When I met [my partner] she
introduced me to WoW. [Interviewer: So your partner
was playing first?] Yes, I believe a friend or ex-partner of
hers introduced her to it. [...] She described it to me,
telling me what it was like ie the Auction House set-up,
quests etc etc. Then she let me have a go on her
account at creating a new character so I could see for
myself what it was like.
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

16. • With me liking PvP, it stems from playing games such as
Counterstrike and the like, where as [my partner] has
never really played them and is unused to PvP so
therefore tends to only enter it when I’m here as backup
• I did a few raids where i sat in the kitchen, because the
sofa wasn’t very comfortable. That was a bit weird
because i’d have to shout for [my partner] to be able to
hear me [Partner:] There’s only one desk in here which
means someone gets the sofa [Participant:] usually me :)
that’s where i am now
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

17. • When we were both playing a LOT of WoW, I don’t think
it was particularly healthy for our real relationship, as
although we were playing together a lot of the time, we
weren’t actually talking all that much in real life [Partner]
[emote, smiles] sat typing to each other ...
• I can get touchy about the RP side that some players
extend to eg ‘flirting to a degree of explict- ness’ [Flirting
with you, with your partner, or just in general?] Mainly
when it involves [my partner], I dont like it in real life and
that, as stupid as it may sound, also extends to the game
world. I understand the ethics and styles of RP but
somehow when people are flirtatious with [my partner] I
panic and get defensive/protective.
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

18. Relating identity and character
• Gee’s notion of three identities
• Real: the “me” playing the game
– Recognised as problematic in contemporary sociology
• Virtual: the character in the game
– A ludic, mechanical construct; not something
‘learnable’, but ‘out there’
• Projective: the ‘project’ of playing that character
– Something with narrative, enacted qualities
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19. Communities of Practice
• “The nexus of multimembership”
– Always a member of multiple communities
– Demands of each can be in conflict
– Identity work involves negotiating how to deal
with such conflicts (endure, change
convention, hide, leave…)
– An unavoidable issue
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

20. From another study:
“Whilst in Razorfen Kraul, one of my companions
started asking if I was a girl in real life. I ignored
them. They asked again, and I said I wasn’t going
to say. They asked again, and I said that it really
wasn’t relevant. They insisted – so I asked if they
were trying to hit on me in some clumsy way. And
they said that yes, they were, and they were just
trying to make sure what I was because if I was a
guy they’d have to be gay to hit on me.
Needless to say, that’s as far as it went.”
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21. Some simple analysis
• An example of negotiating two identities
– Three identities present (self, character, team
member)
– Two in conflict (sexuality of player and
character)
• Unresolved for this character
– Didn’t stand a chance either way
– They got fed up and left
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22. Today, Emma’s player introduced some story elements that
(without going into detail) explained why Emma has both
desires and problems. It was all very interesting and worked
to add depth and potential to the romance, but it was fairly
personal and very sensitive.
Just as the player was logging off, however, they revealed
that this background was, essentially, what had happened in
their own life. I didn’t have time to respond, as I knew the
player was heading off to work, but I did put down a marker
that we need to have another out-of-character chat.
To be honest, I feel rather shocked. I’m concerned that this
isn’t just story background, but might be the player working
through personal issues within the game. I’m not sure I’m
particularly well placed to deal with these.
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23. Analysis
• The concern: play as play, or play as therapy?
– Roleplaying often draws on personal experience
– What’s an appropriate way to incorporate this?
• Potential issue for shared enterprise
– Play/therapy could be in tension; what are we working towards
(together)?
– Particularly an accountability issue: who should say whether
something oversteps the mark?
• Issue for shared repertoire
– Does this shift our interaction beyond my ability to respond?
• Resolved through out-of-character negotiation
– Reassured that my concerns weren’t justified; this was play
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24. What about Second Life?
• Is it a game?
– No universal rules (although there are
economics)
– No universal play
– Interactions with other cultures also variable
…but that’s also true of WoW…
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

25. • Not marketed as a game
– From introduction video: “A place to
connect… a place to shop… a place to
work… a place to love… a place to explore…
a place to be”
• Not marketed as a place to play, but
implied playfulness
• Marketed as distinct from but connected to
other cultures
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

26. A place of subcultures
• Destination guide suggests lots of role-
playing
– 129 role-playing communities
– Prevalence of Vampire avatars and islands
– “Adult” areas
• Some games, too
– Bowling, capture the flag, etc
• However, games & playing are arguably
not the ‘default’
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

27. Summing up
• ‘Play’ invariably relates to other things we
do, even if it’s marked out in important
ways
• ‘Games’ are usually marked out in quite
obvious ways (rules, artefacts) but ‘play’ is
more nebulous
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

28. • Warcraft has ways of handling this (e.g.
RP servers) but even then, there is
ambiguity and complexity
• Second Life clearly isn’ t positioned as a
game, but there’s mixed messages about
play
– Is the whole environment ‘playful’? Does
‘playfulness’ imply distinction?
– If this isn’t a ‘play’ island, do conventions of
play apply?
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk

29. • How explicit can you be?
– “While on this Island, it’s assumed that…”
• Even if you want to stay ‘in character’,
‘meta’ discussions are needed from time
to time; can you (at the least) mark out
“magic circles” where you don’ t play?
www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk