Jhyme
Amarr
Igneus Auctorita
GoonSwarm
   |
Posted - 2007.09.06 22:30:00 -
[1]
First off, I want to commend CCP on hiring a social scientist to do analysis on an MMORPG community. This is a pioneering step-- not many other game companies have done this. However, I want to emphasize one point: That the results of these studies should be used just for flavor purposes and PR. These kind of results should not actually be used to base any kind of game mechanic or tweaking decision yet.
Eve is a complex system. And because it's a complex system, you can't simply bring someone in that doesn't have extensive experience in the game to make predictions on game mechanisms. Some people might say, a bunch of graphs, how pretty-- so what? Can't this guy do better? Show us some models and some regressions! But that's exactly what an economist hired from the outside would be doing, as he has no background in the game. I think our econ dev realizes that, as he emphasized the descriptive nature of the data within the article.
Alternatives for CCP:
Why don't you make some of the data public that this economist has access to? It's already there, as those charts and graphs came from somewhere, why not just make it public? If you want to go the extra step, why don't you hire someone to make tables, SPSS, STATA, or even excel files of these kind of data, and take suggestions from the professional community within Eve on what kind of data should be available?
This has two benefits:
(1) There is a large professional community within Eve. Eve has a steep learning curve, and its complexity tends to attract a specific type of player demographic. I have met talented artists, medical students, and even social scientists at top-notch universities within Eve. There are others that would love to take the data, make a theory from their own in-game experiences, and put it to the test. These people have the added benefit that they are actually EVE players, they live in the EVE universe, and know many of the mechanisms inside out.
(2) There are many social scientists out there who have growing interest in online MMOG communities. Here is a secret about academia: they are already paid by their institutions to do research in whatever their areas are in, you don't really need to pay them. If they have interest and the theoretical background to do research in EVE, they will do it if the data is available to them. What's in it for them? Journal publications. Of course my original criticism applies here, but what's in it for CCP? Publicity about EVE outside of EVE. Sure it might be nice to log into EVE insider and read an economic blog, but imagine EVE getting a mention at a major academic conference or in a journal. The media are more likely to be interested if studies about a game world are done by parties independent from the game world.
Data transparency ftw!
Best,
Jhyme
M.A.,
Ph.D Candidate
|