An online community I used to be really active in was Final Fantasy XI, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). In the game, the virtual world is known as Vana'diel. Players establish online relationships with one another. I had my own character and I was careful with this virtual identity of mine. I tried to make sure that my in-game identity was known as a good and respectable one. Just like reality, in the game, there are famous players, notorious players and regular players. One's reputation determines the category of player one is known for.
According to Masum and Zhang (2004), reputation is a surrogate - a partial reflection representing our "best educated guess" of the underlying true state of affairs. In the real world, people establish reputation for the actions they do, things they say, the outstanding skills they have, amount of wealth or authority they have. Not surprisingly, it is similar in the Vana'diel. There are no official rankings or points you can accumulate for being a helpful or nice player. Reputation is mostly established via word of mouth, or the various in-game media. Players can either gain recognition or disdain for the actions they do, the things they say, their outstanding techniques, in-game wealth or authority. Players also have to be responsible for their own identity in the sense that if they break the regulations of the game, their account may be suspended or even banned. It basically works the same way as real life, where one has to be jailed or fined after being caught breaking the law. It is rather comprehensive because in this aspect, it is quite similar to how things work in real life as well.
In Vana'diel, reputation can be vital for a couple of reasons. In order to progress in the game where you need to gain levels for one's character, it is more feasible to form a party of about six players. MMORPGs are highly interactive. With a rotten reputation, one may be rejected by other players, one may be unable to receive the help needed or one may be snubbed by other players for no good reason.Phishing, according to Ian Loe's presentation, is the act of sending a message to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft (Loe, 2007). Attempts to assume identities in Vana'diel are not uncommon too. One of the main reasons why people phish in the FFXI world is because the items and virtual currency in game can be sold online for real, hard cash. One other way people try to assume other players' identities could be simply creating a new character that combines an underscore with the original player's online handle. Motivations for committing such acts can range from hoping to attain some gains to attempting to ruin reputations. Wrecking a virtual reputation tends to be easier since there are relatively lesser identity cues compared to the real life (Donath, 1996).
Despite the fact that online identities are more malleable than real life identities, it is not exaggerated to say that reputation online and offline works in a very similar way ("Online Identity", 2007). Some people take pains to build up a solid reputation online for reasons not very different to people establishing a good reputation in real life. Perhaps, whether it comes to online or offline identities, the rules of the game may be still the same.
References
Donath, J. S. (1996, November 12). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. Retrieved February 22, 2007, from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html
Keneally, L. (2004, October 29). Virtual Identity - Development - M/Cyclopedia of New Media. Retrieved February 22, 2007, from http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/The_Development_of_Online_Identity
Loe, I. (2007, February 14). Phishing, Pharming, and the latest potholes on the
Masum, H., & Zhang, Y. (2004, July). Manifesto for the Reputation Society. First Monday, 9 (7). Retrieved February 22, 2007, from http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue9_7/masum/
Online identity. (2007, February 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 22, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Online_identity&oldid=108207999
1 comment:
Good discussion of identity and reputation establishment in online games, as well as the tie back to motivations for identity theft (virtual items for real cash).
Full grades there!
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