The Perky Pug:engineering civic values

in World of Warcraft

John Carter McKnightAdjunct Professor of Law

Sandra Day O’Connor College of LawArizona State University

VWBPE 2011

WoW and governance•85 belf prot pally•adjunct professor of law•PhD student: governance of online communities

WoW: engineering values

Nation: values and goals through criminal law, tax incentives, wage & price levels

WoW: values and goals through software design, rule constraints and incentives, wage & price levels• Socially engineered, constantly modified polity of ~10 million people

so what are WoW’s values?

same as the culture it comes from

civic virtues and consumerism fundamental conflict civic virtues the big loser - we don’t really want them

not even the Perky Pug can change that

designed-in value conflict consumerism

• WoW from level cap to raiding (hundreds of hours of play) is *entirely* about working for money for better clothes and weapons

civic virtues• engineering cooperation and sound management of common resources has failed

• players are economically rational, not cooperative these goals are in fundamental conflict that conflict is a core experience of WoW

two sequential games WoW, like most MMOs, is *two* games• the leveling game• the endgame or raiding game

leveling: “alone together”

exploration of a virtual world “grind,” or ‘farming” + quests to level

enhance stats through better gear can be done any time, in any size chunks

less valued, seen as chore generally solo play + text chatting

raiding: advanced cooperation

10, 25 or (formerly) 40-person groups

set in a “dungeon” or equivalent: closed, bounded maze-like space

series of “bosses” leading to a main enemy to defeat

group commitment of 2-5 hours 4 or more times a week, plus extensive prep

but raiding is an elite pastime

how to give the masses a taste?

dungeons: • 5-person mini-raids spaced out every few levels

• optional content• much better rewards than questing, which make questing faster

social engineering 1 Leveling Guilds:

• ensure a pool of players to run dungeons with

• provide training through dungeons to enable raiding

• create trust through regular chat and occasional play together

social engineering 2 that wasn’t enough most players still soloed and thus didn’t get a taste of raiding

and an incentive to keep playing past the level cap

the dungeon finder

revolutionary pugging tool

computer-generated assembly of “pick-up groups” for dungeons

grouping across servers: little chance of ever running into the same player twice

vastly increased use of dungeons

engineered a “tragedy of the commons”

pugging for gear at level cap, you’re the *least* powerful

need to run dungeons to get currency or loot drops of better gear

in order to run “heroic” versions of the dungeons to get even better gearin order to raid….… if you have time/friends

farming heroics so the endgame for most became running the same handful of dungeonsover and over and over and over and over, in hopes of assembling a set of raiding gear

achievements to keep people doing this, “achievements” for using the Dungeon Finder

“Looking For More:” 10 random players

“Looking For Multitudes:” 10 achievement points for running heroics with 100 random players, plus title and pet

the Perky Pug

what’s a pug like? silence (“r?” “y”) greed (ninja looting) blaming others (rage-quitting) iLevel vetting (e-peen measuring)

memorized fighting with little challenge

why do it? dungeons are fun, and you don’t always have 4 friends around

most times, pugs are silent and efficient – if that’s your thing

it’s all about the e-peen, um, iLevel

designed-in value conflict

the Dungeon finder wants you to play together – but it wants you to get more stuff – even if you steal it

civic virtues vs. consumerism tragedy of the commons not just WoW - a fundamental tension in (at least) American culture

value conflict in game design

“fun is other people” but players want autonomy and other people often suck – because players want autonomy

thus: “fun is bragging to other people”

the bragging square web-based achievement/character display (DragonAge)

Xbox Live achievements Orgrimmar/Stormwind, Sunday afternoons

lessons virtual world exploration/play

rejected doesn’t speak to player values: efficiency and self-aggrandizement

people want to brag socially, not cooperate socially

lessons you can engineer collaboration a lot easier than you can civic virtues

incentives reward participation without addressing values/value conflict

don’t engineer values into conflict!

back to the classroom sense of mission of teaching

civic virtues but entirely geared to individual

achievement awards diplomas are our Perky Pugs this is broken at the design level – just like, and for the same reasons as, WoW is

what to do? don’t design value conflict in should we stop kidding ourselves, and declare civic virtues dead?

buy more stuff or, in academic-speak, “funding for further research is strongly indicated”

for the Horde!John Carter McKnight john.mcknight@asu.edu

johncartermcknight.com

SL: Kaseido Quandry

WoW: Kaseido of Misha