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 enlarge | Author: Edward Castronova
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 63492
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 344
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.7
ISBN: 0226096270
Dewey Decimal Number: 794.814678
EAN: 9780226096278
ASIN: 0226096270
Publication Date: October 15, 2006
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Serious Economic & Sociological Analysis of Game Playing March 19, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book survey's the landscape of online game playing and its impact on business, law, politics, social behavior, etc. If you are looking for a comprehensive analysis, Synthetic Worlds provides a thoughtful and accessible option.
Oddly, for a 300 page book, my version had a very small font size. If you suffer from eye strain, you may want to make sure the type is suitable for you.
Eh...alright November 10, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
it's good for what it is, though the author writes it as a term paper for college "This is what the chapter is about..." exactly like that. Lots of dryness there, lots of facts. It's also mostly focused on the Economy of and existing in MMO, not so much the culture people are thinking of (dating, avatars selection, gender bending, etc.) or how MMO's are ran as a buisness.
Important Questions, Mostly Uninspired Answers October 25, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Castranova is one of the first intellectuals to notice the importance of new societies that are being created in cyberspace. Much of this book is devoted to (sometimes redundant) explanations of why they are more than just games.
Around the middle of the book, he switches from describing a typical world for the benefit of those who doubt the importance of virtual worlds to describing how to design good worlds. This is where I started to find the book interesting and the questions thought-provoking, but the answers often unconvincing.
His most important discussion is about the near-anarchy that prevails in most virtual societies. He attributes this partly to the "Customer Service State" of for-profit world builders who are too cheap to pay for as much government as he assumes citizens want. But he seems to believe this is too inevitable to be worth much analysis. His more interesting question is why don't the world's citizens organize a government of their own? His answer is that citizens don't have enough power over each other to enforce laws they might create. But he doesn't convince me this is true (are boycotts useless? is repeatedly killing an outlaw not punishment?), nor does he explain why the designer face little pressure to change the design of the world to make it easier to enforce laws (what would happen if the world were designed to enable one person to effectively banish a person she doesn't like from her view of the world?). I suspect part of the answer is that there's less demand for government than he expects. I see some hints that his desire for government in cyberspace is a simple reflection of his desire for government in the real world. Yet I'd expect the analysis of whether government is desirable to be nontrivially affected by such differences as whether poverty and death cause much harm.
He claims "A fun economy should have property, theft, and jail too", but only gives a few cryptic hints about what theft and jail add to an economy.
He claims "there should be no goods which never depreciate", and partly justifies that by pointing to some benefits of a continuing need to produce new goods, but leaves me wondering why the rule should be universal or even close to universal.
He hints at the desirability of creating p2p virtual societies so that control over them can be decentralized instead of being determined by a corporate owner, but I'm disappointed that he fails to analyze whether this is practical.
One insight I liked was this description of how to deal with the desire for everyone to have high status: "How do you make a world in which everyone is in the top 10 percent? The answer: AI."
He has a disturbing idea about the military uses of virtual worlds - an aggressor need not be hampered by unfamiliarity with the land he's invading if he has unlimited ability to practice the invasion in simulation.
He has some ideas about how virtual worlds might help deal with threats such as grey goo, but doesn't develop them as well as I would like. His ideas on using virtual worlds to make AIs more friendly appear to anthropomorphise AI in a rather naive and dangerous manner.
a book by an economist has no right to be this readable! July 18, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
a fascinating look into the "big picture" of online gaming worlds. as a WoW player, it made me think a great deal about how the game is actually structured as a society, and how economics can explain this structure. The book is a bit more speculative when it verges outside of the concerns of economics into politics but this doesn't detract. Castronova's an engaging writer and not at all afflicted with "academese"
A lot of food for thought January 6, 2006
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Edward Castronova raises a lot of interesting issues surrounding online synthetic worlds, including topics like "Why hasn't a virtual government spontaneously arisen in online games?" He also lays out a very clear primer on synthetic world technology -- especially for the skeptical person who might typically dismiss online virtual worlds as a "mere game."
Castronova's somewhat florid writing style might put off some readers who are expecting a somewhat more formal academic treatment of the material. From my perspective, the book seemed more like a series of (very) long casual essays at his excellent group blog "Terra Nova." That's fine -- my wife is reading a book right now which is, in fact, a published dead tree collection of blog posts. But I was expecting a tone and a formality in the book which was not there.
Also, I realize that online phenomena and book publishing do not typically react well to "recent advances" in events or topics, but I wish Castronova could expand more on the sociological, or if you wish, anthropological aspects of online gaming. I realize he is an economist (and he treats the issues surrounding online game economies quite well) but I think this book would be well served with a longer discussion about the conventions and culture of many online games.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit. There are sometimes observations that are elementary (once someone points them out) but quite mind bending in a sense. For example, the idea that gold pieces and certain equipment in EverQuest, a Porsche Boxster and the money in a checking account are all quote unquote real assets which one can easily put a market-driven value on.
If you aren't sure you'd enjoy this book, I encourage you to have a look at the Terra Nova blog first. (You should be able to locate it using your favorite search engine; I suggest a search on "Castronova Terra Nova".) While the blog is written by several individuals including Castronova, the content and topics are quite similiar to this book.
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