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Talks and Poster Presentations (with Proceedings-Entry):

P. Judmaier, J. Piringer:
"Myzel - Demonstration";
Talk: The State of Play: Law, Games and Virtual World, New York Law School (invited); 2003-11-13 - 2003-11-15; in: "The New York Law School Law Review", (2003).



English abstract:
The article shows the development of virtual society in an online game and the influence of
violence thereon. It is based on the proof of concept prototype of the game Myzel.
Myzel is a concept for modeling an environment for the creation of a modern society. It
creates a very flexible and dynamic environment in which the complex interconnections of
economy, politics and society are simulated. Players can develop a virtual society in a selforganized
way. The rules of the game should make modeling possible and not only simulation
of different society systems. Special emphasis is put on the role how information flows and on
media in society. This results into a mixture of simulation game and virtual community
software.
The players can set up almost all of the rules of the game themselves and are also responsible
for their observance. To model a real society there has to be some form of violence. It is an
instrument to prevent the members of society as a last resort from breaking rules. Violence
can also force the members to keep the rules. To prevent players from killing just for fun the
concept of Myzel tries to make violence as unattractive as possible.
Similar to violence the distribution of power is a very important fact in society systems. In the
real world power is an abstract element that consists of a variety of components. An important
aspect of power is, that someone can speak for a group because the group will do the things he
or she said. In games there are actions that are executed by the computer for a player. For this
Myzel has implemented a concept for simulating power.
Another emphasis was laid on the creation of groups of interests like they exist in
contemporary societies. The players should be able to experience the interaction between
politics, society and economy and try out different ways of resolving conflicts between the
opposing groups.
The proof of concept prototype was tested through four months at the beginning of 2001.
During this testing phase the concept of Myzel has been validated and conclusions have been
made about emergence and reasons of violence in virtual societies.


Electronic version of the publication:
http://www.nyls.edu/pdfs/v49n1asjudmaier.pdf.pdf


Created from the Publication Database of the Vienna University of Technology.