Economics and social conflict : evil actions and evil social institutions in virtual worlds / Carl D. Mildenberger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mildenberger, Carl D.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social conflict--Economic aspects.

Violence--Economic aspects.

Video games--Social aspects.

Computer games--Social aspects.

Violence.

Social conflict.

Physical Description:

xiii, 258 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Summary:

Economics and Social Conflict brings a classic through experiments to life; social interaction in the natural state. Examining the behaviour of almost 400,000 people living in the virtual anarchy of the online computer game EVE Online, it highlights the economic aspects of these people's 'evil' behaviour. The social conflicts the players are engaging in is characterized by non-instrumental violence, a phenomenon that has not yet been the focus of economic research.

In this book, Mildenberger shows that evil actions seemingly motivated by a 'taste for harming' are increasingly relevant for the performance of the online economy and that the commonly held belief that social rules that foster conflict will be eventually overcome might be too optimistic. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Evil actions and evil institutions 3

1.2 The research object: an 'MMORPG' 4

1.3 The structure of the book 6

2 Introducing Moral Evil and Natural Evil 8

2.1 A philosophical primer 8

2.2 A psychological primer 17

2.3 Moral evil and natural evil, evil actions and evil rules 26

2.4 Conclusion of the primers 33

3 Defining Evil in an Economic Way 34

3.1 Why economics? 34

3.2 Economically evil actions 36

3.3 Evil social institutions 63

4 Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Play Games as a Field of Research 77

4.1 What is an 'MMORPG'? 77

4.2 Doing research in MMORPGs 81

4.3 Methodology 102

4.4 Conclusion on MMORPGs as a field of research 118

5 EVE Online 121

5.1 Gameplay 122

5.2 Economic environment of EVE 125

5.3 Political environment of EVE 136

5.4 An introduction to economic evil in EVE 140

6 Piracy 147

6.1 Lowsec piracy 147

6.2 Ransoming as a pirate 162

6.3 Discussion on piracy 170

7 Suicide Ganks 173

7.1 Suicide ganks as malicious actions 173

7.2 Evil rules regarding suicide ganking 183

7.3 Discussion on suicide ganks 195

8 Wars - Other Forms of Natural Evil in EVE 200

8.1 Some numbers on wars 200

8.2 The Privateers nerf 201

8.3 Other forms of natural evil related to wars 203

8.4 Conclusion 206

9 Altruism in EVE - A Simple Experiment of Online 'Dictator Games' 207

9.1 Method 209

9.2 Findings 210

9.3 Discussion 212

9.4 Summary 215

10 Conclusion 216

10.1 The findings 216

10.2 Gathering the findings 218

10.3 Closing remarks 220.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-251) and index.

ISBN:

9781137281883

113728188X

OCLC:

808413667