Slides for panel talk given at ECREA 2008 in Barcelona

1. Constructive Communities: Understanding user-
generated content in virtual worlds
Jonas Heide Smith (jonasheidesmith@gmail.com)

2. Some big questions
What motivates the
production of user-
generated content in
virtual worlds?
How can developers/
designers support user
creativity?

3. A slightly smaller question
How can we think about
user-generated content
in the context of virtual
worlds?

4. User-generated content
Publicly available material
existing as a product of end-
user activity whether
intentionally produced or not

5. THE NEW YORK TIMES

6. COMMENT IS FREE

7. WIKIPEDIA

8. FLICKR

9. AMAZON.COM

10. User-generated content
THE USER...
Adds extras
COMMENTARY
Develops content from scratch
CREATION
Adds value by personal goal-
seeking
PUBLIC ACTION

11. LODE RUNNER (1983)

12. DOOM (1993)

13. SIMPSONS DOOM

14. HABITAT (1986)

15. Lessons from Habitat
quot;The first goal-directed event
planned for Habitat was a rather
involved treasure hunt... It took
us hours to design, weeks to
build (including a 100-region
island), and days to coordinate
the actors involved. ...
We thought it would occupy our
players for days. In fact, the
puzzle was solved in about 8
hours by a person who had
figured out the critical clue in the
first 15 minutes. ... a huge
investment in design and setup
time had been consumed in an
eyeblink.quot;
Morningstar & Farmer (1991). The Lessons of Habitat. Published
in Cyberspace: First Steps, Michael Benedikt (ed.), 1991, MIT
Press, Cambridge, Mass.

16. Approach #1
Make more generic
content

17. ULTIMA ONLINE (1997)

18. WORLD OF WARCRAFT (2004)

19. Approach #2
Allow users to co-create

20. LAMBDAMOO (1990)

21. SECOND LIFE (2003)

22. LITTLE BIG PLANET

23. SPORE

24. SPORE

25. MACHINIMA

26. User-generated content
THE USER...
Adds extras
COMMENTARY
Develops content from scratch
CREATION
Adds value by personal goal-
seeking
PUBLIC ACTION

27. quot;COMMENTARYquot; in
virtual worlds
Usually happens outside the
VW
Usually impossible in game
worlds

28. quot;CREATIONquot; in virtual
worlds
Often possible in social
worlds
Almost always impossible in
game worlds (who value
game balance over player
freedom)

29. quot;PUBLIC ACTIONquot; in
virtual worlds
Other users are typically the
very reason for logging on
In game worlds, action is
only public in a very abstract
market economic sense
Even in social worlds,
actions have to be highly
goal-directed to leave a
mark

30. Conclusions
Users must presently
choose between the non-
goal-oriented and the non-
involving
Virtual worlds (allegedly
highly social) have untapped
potential
Publicly beneficial UGC
seems to be harnessed
more powerfully in quot;non-
socialquot; game types