Studying Beehives, Not Bees: Virtual Worlds Policy Analysis

Brenda Roth is the Assistant Dean for Curriculum at the NDU iCollege located at Ft. McNair in Washington, D.C.

May 14, 2010 - “Real people still act like people even though they are wearing bunny suits,” so says Dr. Ted Castronova in his keynote at the Third Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds Conference hosted by the National Defense University iCollege (NDU iCollege).

In virtual worlds, people still express their personalities, so things are of value only because people assign value to them. Dr. Castronova says it is all about replication, and controlled experiments can be replicated. Scientists know this because in order to generalize findings to a wider population, you have to be able to replicate the experiment.

This is the classic scientific method, but according to Dr. Castronova, pure theory doesn’t deliver. There is a real need for controlled experiments to solve social problems. It is about a network of people working together, he says.

Dr. Castronova painted a clear picture of how gaming creates a collaborative environment to serve as a petrie dish of sorts to replicate solutions to social problems like global warming and terrorism. This is a powerful statement, and one that I found fascinating.

As a social scientist myself, I listened intently as Dr. Castronova outlined how to make policy (and solve problems) in a virtual world:

1.Observe players dissatisfaction about something

2.Design new rules (policy)

3.Put it out and wait to see how people react

4.Implement the new design internally (private servers for testing)

5.Go public and see how it goes

6.Go back to step #1

Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if the government had used this method to test policies like health care? And, wouldn’t it be great to test out farm policies by going to Farmville on Facebook and talking to a few of those would-be farmers. Then, there are combat games out there that aren’t simulations (e.g., Tribal Wars) but are about real people building enclaves and fighting to take over other people’s enclaves.

I am on board with Dr. Castronova that solving social problems is crucial. If virtual worlds can help us do that, then where do I sign up?