Surveillant assemblages of governance in massively multiplayer online games:a comparative analysis

This paper explores governance in Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), one sub-sector of the digital games industry. Informed by media governance studies, Surveillance Studies, and game studies, this paper identifies five elements which form part of the system of governance in MMOGs. These elements are: game code and rules; game policies; company community management practices; player participatory practices; and paratexts. Together these governance elements function as a surveillant assemblage, which relies to varying degrees on lateral and hierarchical forms of surveillance, and the assembly of human and nonhuman elements.Using qualitative mixed methods we examine and compare how these elements operate in three commercial MMOGs: Eve Online, World of Warcraft and Tibia. While peer and participatory surveillance elements are important, we identified two major trends in the governance of disruptive behaviours by the game companies in our case studies. Firstly, an increasing reliance on automated forms of dataveillance to control and punish game players, and secondly, increasing recourse to contract law and diminishing user privacy rights. Game players found it difficult to appeal the changing terms and conditions and they turned to creating paratexts outside of the game in an attempt to negotiate the boundaries of the surveillant assemblage. In the wider context of self-regulated governance systems these trends highlight the relevance of consumer rights, privacy, and data protection legislation to online games and the usefulness of bringing game studies and Surveillance Studies into dialogue

Integrating Players, Reputation and Ranking to Manage Cheating in MMOGs

In this paper, we propose an approach that uses in-game reputation as a solution to the problem of cheating in massively multiplayer online games. What constitutes cheating is however quite context-specific and subjective, and there is no universal view. Thus our approach aims to adjust to the particular forms of cheating to which players object rather than deciding a priori which forms of cheating should be controlled. The main feature of our approach is an architecture and model for maintaining player-based and context-appropriate trust and reputation measures, with the integration of these into the game’s ranking system. When an avatar loses reputation, our approach intervenes to reduce its ranking. It is envisaged that players will come to attach value to reputation in its own right. We also present the results of relatively large-scale simulations of various scenarios involving sequences of encounters between players, with an initial implementation of our reputation and ranking model in place, to observe the impact on cheaters (and non-cheaters)

The Expression and Constraint of Human Agency Within the Massively Multiplayer Online Games of World of Warcraft and Eve-Online: a Comparative Case Study

This research aims to explore the human and nonhuman means by which human agency in MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) is governed and negotiated. In this thesis a theoretical framework incorporating three theoretical perspectives is adopted to cope with the composite virtual, technical, and social 'spaces' of MMOGs. The spaces of the MMOG are situated within Bourdieu's theories of field and capital, while the strategies and position-taking by actors within these fields are framed in a post-Foucauldian dialectic of governance, with particular emphasis on themes of control and surveillance. Finally, the complexity and agency of MMOGs in comparison to the architecture of the traditional panoptic institution, as arrays of interrelated technical objects, is accounted for by incorporating an actor network (ANT) perspective on nonhuman agency, with specific reference to Madeline Akrich's 'De-Scription of Technical Objects'. Participant observation has been selected for the methodological approach to data collection for this study, conducted in two month-long participant observation periods in two vastly different MMOGs: 'World of Warcraft' (WoW) and 'Eve-Online' (Eve). Mixed methods are used in analysis, consisting of a grounded theory approach to open coding, supported by documentary sources. Findings are discussed in comparative mode, allowing for a greater level of understanding of the human and nonhuman forms of governance and the different impact the coded game environment has upon human agency. Key findings highlight that the most significant forms of player agency and governance in each case are those are those negotiated by players, through obtaining authorial control over the coded rules that define the gameworld, despite publishers' vast power to define the gameworld through inscribing the code itself. These player-mandated practices of governance are usually framed as game play, and as they may be negotiated, their form and function are complex and shifting. This study aims to illustrate this by contrasting players' practices of governance and with coded rules in each case

Integrating Players, Reputation and Ranking to Manage Cheating in MMOGs

In this paper, we propose an approach that uses in-game reputation as a solution to the problem of cheating in massively multiplayer online games. What constitutes cheating is however quite context-specific and subjective, and there is no universal view. Thus our approach aims to adjust to the particular forms of cheating to which players object rather than deciding a priori which forms of cheating should be controlled. The main feature of our approach is an architecture and model for maintaining player-based and context-appropriate trust and reputation measures, with the integration of these into the game’s ranking system. When an avatar loses reputation, our approach intervenes to reduce its ranking. It is envisaged that players will come to attach value to reputation in its own right. We also present the results of relatively large-scale simulations of various scenarios involving sequences of encounters between players, with an initial implementation of our reputation and ranking model in place, to observe the impact on cheaters (and non-cheaters)

Integrating Players, Reputation and Ranking to Manage Cheating in MMOGs

In this paper, we propose an approach that uses in-game reputation as a solution to the problem of cheating in massively multiplayer online games. What constitutes cheating is however quite context-specific and subjective, and there is no universal view. Thus our approach aims to adjust to the particular forms of cheating to which players object rather than deciding a priori which forms of cheating should be controlled. The main feature of our approach is an architecture and model for maintaining player-based and context-appropriate trust and reputation measures, with the integration of these into the game’s ranking system. When an avatar loses reputation, our approach intervenes to reduce its ranking. It is envisaged that players will come to attach value to reputation in its own right. We also present the results of relatively large-scale simulations of various scenarios involving sequences of encounters between players, with an initial implementation of our reputation and ranking model in place, to observe the impact on cheaters (and non-cheaters)

Integrating Players, Reputation and Ranking to Manage Cheating in MMOGs

In this paper, we propose an approach that uses in-game reputation as a solution to the problem of cheating in massively multiplayer online games. What constitutes cheating is however quite context-specific and subjective, and there is no universal view. Thus our approach aims to adjust to the particular forms of cheating to which players object rather than deciding a priori which forms of cheating should be controlled. The main feature of our approach is an architecture and model for maintaining player-based and context-appropriate trust and reputation measures, with the integration of these into the game’s ranking system. When an avatar loses reputation, our approach intervenes to reduce its ranking. It is envisaged that players will come to attach value to reputation in its own right. We also present the results of relatively large-scale simulations of various scenarios involving sequences of encounters between players, with an initial implementation of our reputation and ranking model in place, to observe the impact on cheaters (and non-cheaters)

Organic Agriculture - Driving Innovations in Crop Research

At present, agriculture faces the unprecedented challenge of securing food supplies for a rapidly growing human population, while seeking to minimize adverse impacts on the environment and to reduce the use of non-renewable resources and energy. A shift towards sustainable agricultural production entails the adoption of more system-oriented strategies that include farmderived inputs and productivity based on ecological processes and functions (Garnett and Godfray, 2012). Sustainable agricultural systems involve the traditional knowledge and entrepreneurial skills of farmers (IAASTD, 2008). System-oriented sustainable practices include organic farming and low external input sustainable agriculture (LEISA). Elements of agroecology - such as integrated pest management, integrated production (IP), and conservation tillage - have been successfully adopted by conventional farms