Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T21:31:10.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Spontaneous disorder: conflict-kindling institutions in virtual worlds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2017

CARL DAVID MILDENBERGER
CARL DAVID MILDENBERGER*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland
*
*Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper analyses the emergence and persistence of disorder due to bellicose (i.e. ‘conflict-kindling’) institutions. It does so relying on a novel empirical approach, examining the predatory and productive interactions of 400,000 users of a virtual world as well as its institutions. The paper finds that while there are many cases of spontaneous order in that virtual world, and while the users are not more conflict-loving as such, bellicose institutions sanctioning suicidal attacks in a supposedly safe region spontaneously emerged and rigidly persist, thus upholding disorder (i.e. a particularly violent kind of ordered anarchy).

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 14 , Issue 5 , October 2018 , pp. 787 - 809
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aas, B. G., Meyerbröker, K. and Emmelkamp, P. M. G. (2010), ‘Who am I – and if so, where? A study on personality in virtual realities’, Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 2 (5). Available at: https://journals.tdl.org/jvwr/article/view/776/708 (accessed: 23 November 2010).Google Scholar
Abbink, K. (2012), ‘Laboratory experiments on conflict’, in Garfinkel, M. R. and Skaperdas, S. (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Peace and Conflict, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 532–56.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S. and Robinson, J. A. (2001), ‘The colonial origins of comparative development: an empirical investigation’, American Economic Review, 91 (5), 1369–401.Google Scholar
Aronson, E. and Carlsmith, J. M. (1968), ‘Experimentation in social psychology’, in Lindzey, G. and Aronson, E. (eds), The Handbook of Social Psychology, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, pp. 345–88.Google Scholar
Bainbridge, W. S. (2007), ‘The scientific research potential of virtual worlds’, Science, 317 (5837), 472–6.Google Scholar
Bargh, J. A., McKenna, K. Y. A. and Fitzsimons, G. M. (2002), ‘Can you see the real me? Activation and expression of the “true self” on the internet’, Journal of Social Issues, 58 (1), 33–48.Google Scholar
Baumeister, R. F. and Vohs, K. D. (2005), ‘Four roots of evil’, in Miller, A. G. (ed.), The Social Psychology of Good and Evil, New York: Guilford Press, pp. 85–101.Google Scholar
Brennan, G. and Buchanan, J. M. (1985), The Reason of Rules, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Buckels, E. E., Jones, D. N. and Paulhus, D. L. (2013), ‘Behavioral confirmation of everyday sadism’, Psychological Science, 24 (11), 2201–9.Google Scholar
Castronova, E. (2001), ‘Virtual worlds: a first-hand account of market and society on the Cyberian frontier’, CESifo Working Paper 618, 2 (1), 1–66.Google Scholar
Castronova, E. (2008), ‘A test of the law of demand in virtual world: exploring the Petri-dish approach to social sciences’, CESifo Working Paper, 2355, 1–23.Google Scholar
CCP Chronotis* (2010), The circle of life, EVE Online | EVE Insider | Dev Blog. Available at: www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=746 (accessed: 22 June 2011).Google Scholar
CCP Fallout* et al. (2010), New Dev Blog: The Circle of Life, EVE Online | EVE Insider | Forums. Available at: www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1293612 (accessed: 22 June 2011).Google Scholar
CCP Fear* (2008), Serious security, EVE Online | EVE Insider | Dev Blog. Available at: www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=577 (accessed: 22 June 2011).Google Scholar
CCP Hellmar* et al. (2003), CONCORD deploys special ops, EVE Online | EVE Insider | Dev Blog. Available at: www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=15 (accessed: 22 June 2011).Google Scholar
CCP LeKjart* et al. (2003), PKs in secure areas, EVE Online | EVE Insider | Dev Blog. Available at: www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=5 (accessed: 22 June 2011).Google Scholar
CCP Oveur* (2006), Nothing endures but change, EVE Online | EVE Insider | Dev Blog. Available at: www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=350 (accessed: 21 June 2011).Google Scholar
CCP Taera* et al. (2008), New Dev Blog: Serious Security, EVE Online | EVE Insider | Forums. Available at: www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=840506 (accessed: 22 June 2011).Google Scholar
Collier, P. and Hoeffler, A. (2004), ‘Greed and grievance in civil wars’, Oxford Economic Papers, 56 (4), 563–95.Google Scholar
CSM Ankhesentapemkah* (2008), Suicide Ganking Part 2, Suicide Ganking Part 2 – CSMWiki. Available at: http://evajobse.net/csmwiki/index.php/Suicide_Ganking_Part_2 (accessed: 22 June 2011).Google Scholar
CSM and CCP (2008), ‘CSM-CCP Meetings 01 – 20–23 of June 2008’. Available at: www.eveonline.com/council/transcripts/2008/CSM_CCP_Meetings_20-23_06_2008.pdf (accessed: 22 June 2011).Google Scholar
CSM and CCP Games (2010), ‘CSM meeting with CCP, 18th to 20th February 2010 Iceland’. Available at: www.eveonline.com/council/transcripts/2010/CSM_CCP_Meetings_18-20_02_2010.pdf (accessed: 22 June 2011).Google Scholar
Destiny Corrupted* (2011), ‘Suicide ganking: solutions?’ Crime and Punishment. Available at: www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1513761 (accessed: 19 July 2011).Google Scholar
DiMaggio, P. and Powell, W. (1991), ‘Introduction’, in Powell, W. and DiMaggio, P. (eds), The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, pp. 1–38.Google Scholar
Duffy, J. and Kim, M. (2005), ‘Anarchy in the laboratory (and the role of the state)’, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 56 (3), 297–329.Google Scholar
Fehr, E. and Gächter, S (2000), ‘Cooperation and punishment in public goods experiments’, American Economic Review, 90 (4), 980–94.Google Scholar
Fiedler, M. and Haruvy, E. (2009), ‘The lab versus the virtual lab and virtual field – an experimental investigation of trust games with communication’, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 72 (2), 716–24.Google Scholar
Frevert, U. (1995), Men of Honour: A Social and Cultural History of the Duel, Williams, A. (trans.), Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Grossman, H. I. (1999), ‘Kleptocracy and revolutions’, Oxford Economic Papers, 51 (2), 267–83.Google Scholar
Guðmundsson, E. (2009), ‘Quarterly Economic Newsletter – EVE Online 2nd Quarter 2009’. Available at: www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=686 (accessed: 24 March 2011).Google Scholar
Guðmundsson, E. (2010), ‘Quarterly Economic Newsletter – EVE Online 2nd Quarter 2010’. Available at: www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=780 (accessed: 24 March 2011).Google Scholar
Herrmann, B., Thöni, C. and Gächter, S. (2008), ‘Antisocial punishment across societies’, Science, 319 (5868), 1362–7.Google Scholar
Hillman, A. L. (2004), ‘Nietzschean development failures’, Public Choice, 119 (3–4), 263–80.Google Scholar
Hofbauer, J. and Sigmund, K. (1998), Evolutionary Games and Population Dynamics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Holland, B. (2003), Gentlemen's Blood: A Thousand Years of Sword and Pistol, New York: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Huizinga, J. (1949), Homo ludens: A Study of the Play-element in Culture, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Johnson, D. R. (2001), ‘Due process and cyberjurisdiction’, in Ludlow, P. (ed.), Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 329–38.Google Scholar
Lastowka, F. G. and Hunter, D. (2004), ‘The laws of virtual worlds’, California Law Review, 92 (1), 3–73.Google Scholar
Leeson, P. T. (2007), ‘An-arrgh-chy: the law and economics of pirate organization’, Journal of Political Economy, 115 (6), 1049–94.Google Scholar
Leeson, P. T. (2009), ‘The laws of lawlessness’, Journal of Legal Studies, 38 (2), 471–503.Google Scholar
Leeson, P. T., Smith, D. J. and Snow, N. A. (2012), ‘Hooligans’, Revue d’économie politique, 122 (2), 213–31.Google Scholar
Mantzavinos, C. (2001), Individuals, Institutions, and Markets, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McKenna, K. Y. A. and Bargh, J. A. (2000), ‘Plan 9 from cyberspace: the implications of the internet for personality and social psychology’, Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4 (1), 57–75.Google Scholar
Ménard, C. and Shirley, M. M. (2008), ‘Introduction’, in Ménard, C. and Shirley, M. M. (eds), Handbook of New Institutional Economics, Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 1–18.Google Scholar
Messinger, P. R., Ge, X., Stroulia, E., Lyons, K., Smirnov, K. and Bone, M. (2008), ‘On the relationship between my avatar and myself’, Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 1 (2). Available at: https://journals.tdl.org/jvwr/article/view/352/263 (accessed: 23 November 2011).Google Scholar
Mildenberger, C. D. (2013a), Economics and Social Conflict, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Mildenberger, C. D. (2013b), ‘The constitutional political economy of virtual worlds’, Constitutional Politcal Economy, 24 (3), 239–64.Google Scholar
Mildenberger, C. D. (2015), ‘Virtual world order – the economics and organization of virtual pirates’, Public Choice, 164 (3–4), 401–21.Google Scholar
Morningstar, C. and Farmer, F. R. (1991), ‘The lessons from Lucasfilm's Habitat’, in Benedikt, M. (ed.), Cyberspace: First Steps, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 3–25.Google Scholar
Nee, V. (1998), ‘Sources of the new institutionalism’, in Nee, V. and Brinton, M. C. (eds), The New Institutionalism in Sociology, New York: Russell Sage Foundation, pp. 1–16.Google Scholar
Nisbett, R. E. and Cohen, D. (1996), Culture of Honor: The Psychology of Violence in the South, Boulder: Westview.Google Scholar
North, D. C. (1990), Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
North, D. C. (2005), Understanding the Process of Economic Change, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
North, D. C., Wallis, J. J. and Weingast, B. R. (2009), Violence and Social Orders: a conceptual framework for interpreting recorded human history, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Óskarsson, P. J. (2010), ‘Democracy and the internet – the theoretical foundations and practical applications’. University of Iceland, Master's thesis.Google Scholar
Powell, B. and Wilson, B. J. (2008), ‘An experimental investigation of Hobbesian jungles’, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 66 (3–4), 669–86.Google Scholar
Schelling, T. C. (1978), ‘Altruism, meanness, and other potentially strategic behaviors’, American Economic Review, 68 (2), 229–30.Google Scholar
Shirley, M. M. (2008), ‘Institutions and development’, in Ménard, C. and Shirley, M. M. (eds), Handbook of New Institutional Economics, Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 611–38.Google Scholar
Skarbek, D. B. (2011), ‘Governance and prison gangs’, American Political Science Review, 105 (4), 702–16.Google Scholar
Slater, M., Antley, A., Davison, A., Swapp, D., Guger, C., Barker, C., Pistrang, N. and Sanchez-Vives, M. (2006), ‘A virtual reprise of the Stanley Milgram obedience experiments’, PLoS ONE, 1 (1). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0000039.Google Scholar
Slonim, R. L. and Roth, A. E. (1998), ‘Learning in high stakes ultimatum games: an experiment in the Slovak Republic’, Economics of Governance, 66 (3), 569–96.Google Scholar
Thomson, J. J. (1976), ‘Killing, letting die, and the trolley problem’, The Monist, 59 (2), 204–17.Google Scholar
Velleman, J. D. (2013), ‘Virtual selves’, in Foundations for Moral Relativism, Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, pp. 5–21.Google Scholar
Whitty, M. T., Young, G. and Goodings, L. (2011), ‘What I won't do in pixels: examining the limits of taboo violation in MMORPGs’, Computers in Human Behavior, 27 (1), 268–75.Google Scholar
World Bank (2011), World Development Report 2011. Conflict, Security, and Development, Washington DC. Available at: http://wdr2011.worldbank.org/fulltext (accessed: 18 April 2011).Google Scholar
Worth, N. C. and Book, A. S. (2014), ‘Personality and behavior in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game’, Computers in Human Behavior, 38, 322–30.Google Scholar
Yee, N. (2006), ‘The demographics, motivations, and derived experiences of users of massively multi-user online graphical environments’, Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 15 (3), 309–29.Google Scholar
Yee, N., Bailenson, J., Urbanek, M., Chang, D, F.. and Merget, D. (2007), ‘The unbearable likeness of being digital: the persistence of nonverbal social norms in online virtual environments’, CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10 (1), 115–21.Google Scholar
Yee, N., Harris, H., Jabon, M. and Bailenson, J. (2011), ‘The expression of personality in virtual worlds’, Social Psychology and Personality Science, 2 (1), 5–12.Google Scholar
Zimbardo, P. G. (2005), ‘A situationist perspective on the psychology of evil: understanding how good people are transformed into perpetrators’, in Miller, A. G. (ed.), The Social Psychology of Good and Evil, New York: Guilford Press, pp. 21–50.Google Scholar