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VIRTUAL COMMONS - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Legal scholars are raising the issue of taxing economic transactions on virtual world and the unclear assignment of property rights of virtual and digital goods
  - - - Virtual worlds may be considered as 'Cultural Products' expressing intangible and symbolic values, generated in the virtual world. These has two main distinct products
        A. Game developers and designers provide the game architecture, which provides the landscape for interactions to take place
        B. The interaction between the online community generate different type of cultural products and consumption of digital goods
        
        Two main sets of shared resources can be identified:
        A. In-world resources in the form of gaming experience. (for e.g In WoW, the gaming experience is more focused on competition and co-operation between players. Whereas, in SL the digital environment shared and modified by different players is the gaming experience)
        B. Out-world activity produced by the players outside of the virtual world. (for eg. Users can share their gaming and virtual experience by sharing snippets or screenshots in websites, etc)
        
        "Mods" are ancillary software that provide a modified experience to the original game. For eg. new characters, levels, textures or even storyline.
        Game add-ons on the other hand are user developed software the improves the gaming experience without modifying the original gameplay. For eg In WoW you can have add on to improve your character's certain ability.
        
        The resources produced by the online community both in and out of game are clearly intangible and characterized by high degree of shareability. Unlike traditional physical artifacts, digital artifacts have strong public goods attribute - low subtractibility and high difficulty in excluding others from the resource.
      - Attributes of the Community and the Rules in Use
        
        A. Players constitute the real and active members of the online gaming community as they provide much of the gaming and entertainment experience
        B. MMOGs are developed by private software companies and are responsible for design and maintenance of the digital environment.
        
        Platform owners may not directly belong to the gaming community but their actions and behavior may affect the management of cultural commons both in and out of the virtual world.
        
        Unlike traditional communities dealing with common pool resources, online gaming community is much more complex and difficult to identify in terms of their members or even the degree of homogeneity.
        
        Each online gaming community may be characterized by different formal or informal rules or norms to manage the resources generated in the virtual world. Some players may prefer the entertainment experience over the social connections developed through these virtual worlds.
- - - - When a new MMOG is released, it attracts a huge number of users and the community grows. However when a new MMOG enter the market, the users tend to migrate for a new entertaining experience. Despite the decline the users, the existing community of virtual world tend to survive.
- - - - The quests are usually adventures that involves multiple tasks like killing a creature or gathering certain resources. These quest shape the gaming experience in different ways:
        A. Reward the player for completing a quests (in the form of items, points or in game money)
        B. Helps the user to discover the massive world and interact with NPCs
        C. Increases interactions between players of the online community as some quests needs the players to play in group
        
        One important aspect of socialization in this game are the guilds, which are named groups that play together. They make grouping easier the overall gaming experience much more rich and entertaining
        
        WoW also provides its own economic system where players can exchange their product of work with valuables in the markets (i.e auction houses or reciprocity inside Guilds)
        
        Despite the presence of markets, the major economic acitvity inside the game is not exchanging but production. For eg, players can design and create objects from scratch to use it for personal use or even exchange it.
- - - - SL involves two different types of interaction: Communication (in the form of local chat or global chat) and Economic Transactions (the users can world real money for in-world transactions in the form of Linden dollars purchased on LindenX exchange)
        
        The users can choose gadgets the clothes for their avatar or house they reside inside the virtual world.