The State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds, Edited by Jack M. Balkin & Beth Simone Noveck

Posted February 5th, 2007 by Taran

With SecondLife stabilizing in the media, virtual worlds are coming more and more to the top of discussion. It only makes sense. The virtual worlds are expanding; World of Warcraft, Everquest and The Sims Online all allow people of different interests to socialize in a binary environment - perhaps even slaying a few dragons or being a part of the Horde of more than one. Even Disney seems to be hopping on the bandwagon, but as usual they are hopping on their own. Where once it was the MMORPG, now the distinction between virtual worlds and games grow less distinct yet more refined.

It isn't a matter of if virtual worlds will become part of people's lives. It is a matter of when - unstoppable and moving forward on the backbone of an expanding internet, even in some cases allowing the expansion to be paid for by revenues from virtual worlds. Imagine a country like China grabbing developed nation status partly through virtual worlds - imagine people working at home in virtual worlds. The latter is already happening, though more commonly it is a part time job/business.

Virtual worlds are suddenly not as clearcut as they once were. That's where The State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds comes in - essays from established voices on virtual worlds.

Richard A. Bartle, co author of the multi-user dungeon. Edward Castronova, Julian Dibbell, Dan Hunter & Greg Lastowka - founders of Terra Nova. Jack Balkin, founder and director of the Yale Law School's Information Society Project (ISP), a research center whose mission is "to study the implications of the Internet, telecommunications, and the new information technologies on law and society." Raph Koster, lead designer of Ultima Online. The list goes on, each author of an essay stretching the fabric of the future of virtual worlds in different ways.

This book isn't going to make you play any games better, but it will make you aware of the future of virtual worlds in our world. The book is divided into 5 parts:

Introduction: Essays introducing Virtual Worlds
Game Gods and Game Players: The rights of players discussed as well as the right to play are balanced with the game creators needs and wants to create successful environments - ending in an essay on Law and Liberty in Future Worlds by Jack M. Balkin.
Property and Creativity in Virtual Worlds: From virtual crime to selling virtual items on eBay, virtual power politics to Cory Ondrejka's essay on user created content - ending with Yochai Benkler's essay 'There Is no Spoon'.
Privacy and Identity in Virtual Worlds: Tracy Spaight ('Real People, Virtual Worlds' documentary, 2002), Susan P. Crawford and Tal Zarsky deal with Law, Privacy and Data collection in virtual worlds.
Virtual Worlds and Real-World Power: The use of virtual worlds in the context of testing legal rules (Caroline Bradley and A. Michael Froomkin), how the new visual literacy affects law (David R. Johnson) and Democracy in virtual worlds and the future of collective action by Beth Simone Noveck - this section ties together a lot of things in different ways, allowing for some deep thought on the future of virtual worlds.

It is important to point out that, as Yochai Benkler's essay title indicates, that 'there is no spoon'. The future is open to a lot of interpretation (read your horoscope), but the scattered tea leaves of virtual worlds are where they are because of real Laws regarding property and identity. How those tea leaves may affect the Laws is a lot like wagging a dog with a tail in some regards, and yet it is likely to happen simply because it must.

While a lot of the discussion may be new to people, those who are up on the happenings of the internet will recognize some of the issues - for example, who governs the internet? In a world where we're still determining how we deal with each other on the internet through Law in many regards, the pillars of virtual worlds are not very stable - virtual worlds are, after all, built upon the internet and derive much from laws regarding the internet. While some argue for what they think should be on the internet and virtual worlds (as well they should), the disparity between that vision and reality is a divide not so easy to cross. In some ways, virtual worlds may accelerate changes in internet law and subsequently international law (or the same in another order). Unfortunately, I found the discussion on the dependencies on the internet somewhat disturbing, especially since the authors all appear to be from the country which has evaded internet governance at the World Summit on Information Society level. One cannot evade that level of virtual worlds; it is the glue which ties virtual worlds together.

Again, it isn't a matter of if. It is a matter of when. The book does offer perspectives which do not always agree, but which tolerate each other - a symptom of reasoned discussion - and which provide a lot of the 'right questions' as we know them now. The State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds is an exceptional book; it is well written and the essays are interactive with each other - a sign of true collaborative effort.

If you're serious about virtual worlds or even curious about the future of virtual worlds, The State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds (Ex Machina: Law, Technology, and Society) is a great book of reason and imagination tied loosely to reality, and which can bring people new to virtual worlds up to speed on some of the questions of the future. Overall, it gets a KnowProSE.com 7 of 10 - it would have ranked higher had it tied more directly to actual internet governance issues. Your mileage may vary - but it seemed to this reviewer that something was missing.

Exploring The Future of Virtual Worlds

Feb 5, 2007 by Taran Rampersad product

The State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds

If you're serious about virtual worlds or even curious about the future of virtual worlds, The State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds (Ex Machina: Law, Technology, and Society) is a great book of reason and imagination tied loosely to reality, and which can bring people new to virtual worlds up to speed on some of the questions of the future. Overall, it gets a KnowProSE.com 7 of 10 - it would have ranked higher had it tied more directly to actual internet governance issues. Your mileage may vary - but it seemed to this reviewer that something was missing.

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