virtual worlds

This research project, headed by Centre director Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, looks at the limits of governability of virtual worlds. In his previous work, "Napster's Second Life?", Mayer-Schönberger analyzed the regulatory dynamic among providers of virtual worlds. As virtual world slowly move towards more permissive regimes of user rights (spearheaded perhaps by Linden Lab's decision to let users of SecondLife retain their intellectual property rights), virtual world providers have fewer options to differentiate themselves from competitors. Size continues to play a dominant role, but governance may increase in importance. more >>

With the rise of multi-player online games and virtual worlds - from World of Warcraft to Second Life - we have witnessed the development of vibrant virtual communities, in which participants spend a dozen and more hours a week online. But how do participants value - in economic terms - the time they spend online?

One way of answering this question is by looking at the value of virtual goods created and traded online. To this end post-doctoral fellow Qiu-Hong Wang advanced a research project that used a mix of theoretical modeling, experiments, and time series data analysis to offer robust answers for how valuable time spent in virtual worlds is - and which factors mostly determine that value.

The paper is currently under review and will be available here in draft form shortly.