"space makes you bitter" - sandbox culture in second life and eve online

“space makes you bitter”

the evolution of sandbox culturein second life and eve online

john carter mcknightvwbpe 2012

“two platforms, alike in dignity…”

second life• launched 2003• carefully managed real-money economy• about 50,000 concurrent users• community-driven “sandbox”• global user base• terrible UI and social tools

eve online• launched 2003• carefully managed real-money economy• about 30,000 concurrent users• community-driven “sandbox”• global user base• terrible UI and social tools

a roadmap1. programmer culture:

san francisco bay area and iceland

2. eve online’s emergent user culture3. second life’s emergent user culture4. y so difrunt?

1. programmer culture

iceland = san francisco?

• “the californian ideology”• “viking programmers”

“the californian ideology”

• (wikipedia)• Fred Turner, From Counterculture to Cyberculture

• Barbrook & Cameron essay

http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/17/the-californian-ideology-2/

recipe• “a mix of cybernetics, free market

economics, and counter-culture libertarianism”

- barbrook & cameronhttp://www.arpnet.it/chaos/

barbrook.htm

in california• Ayn Rand + hippie

culture + engineering culture + 1980s-1990s cyberpunk

• generally idealistic

in iceland

• the californian ideology + the sagas + globalization

• more nihilistic

david friedman – silicon valley scholar of icelandic law

http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Iceland/Iceland.html

mid-2000’s – iceland’s 60’s and 90’s

linden lab and ccp• programmer’s culture (not

sales/marketing)• decline in platform use by employees• growing rift between designers and

users

ideology in platform design

• negligible corporate management / governance

• weak social tools• individualism in design and coding

2. eve online’s culture

what is eve online?

facebook – eve online (albums) (csm7 propaganda)

3. sl culture

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2003/07/war_of_the_jess.html

4. y so difrunt?

the easy answer

• sl: making stuff = women, teachers, older

• eve: blowing stuff up = guys, younger

but wait!

that’s too easy!

demographics• sl as the last expression of the

techno-hippie demographic (california 1998)

• eve as the first expression of young bitter anarcho-capitalists (iceland 2008)

• sl – how 50-somethings wish the world was

• eve – how 20-somethings believe the world is

• sl – “your world, your imagination”

• eve – “space makes you bitter” “yummy tears”

“A year in EVE will teach you more about human nature than a decade in any other MMO, but what you learn may scar you.”

http://tentonhammer.com/eve/spymaster/65

mirror/mirror?

contact me!

johncartermcknight.com

combatanthropologist. blogspot.com/

@john_carter