The Proteus Paradox: How Online Games and Virtual Worlds Change Us—And How They Don't

261 Pages·2014·0.814 MB·English

by  Nick Yee

the proteus paradox
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nick
yee
the
proteus
paradox
how online
games and
virtual worlds
change us—
and how they
don’t
new haven &
london
Copyright ∫ 2014 by Nick Yee.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations,
in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the US
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permission from the publishers.
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Set in Monotype Joanna type by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.,
Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Yee, Nick, 1979–
The proteus paradox : how online games and virtual worlds change us—
and how they don’t / Nick Yee.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-300-19099-1 (hardback)
1. Computer games. 2. Virtual reality. 3. Shared virtual environments. I. Title.
GV1469.15.Y44 2014
794.8—dc23 2013024662
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992
(Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Doug, for showing me that this was possible
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contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall 1
chapter 1: The New World 9
chapter 2: Who Plays and Why 22
chapter 3: Superstitions 39
chapter 4: The Labor of Fun 59
chapter 5: Yi-Shan-Guan 78
chapter 6: The Locker Room Utopia 96
chapter 7: The ‘‘Impossible’’ Romance 117
chapter 8: Tools of Persuasion and Control 138
chapter 9: Introverted Elves, Conscientious Gnomes,
and the Quest for Big Data 159
chapter 10: Changing the Rules 177
chapter 11: The Hidden Logic of Avatars 197
chapter 12: Reflections and the Future of Virtual Worlds 209
Notes 217
Glossary of Online Gaming Terms 235
Index 241
acknowledgments
Throughout my research career, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to
have had supportive and prescient mentors who helped me think
about and study online games and virtual worlds in new ways. At
Haverford College in 1998, Doug Davis’s course on personality psy-
chology also involved learning how to hand code HTML and run
web surveys. When I proposed an independent study project explor-
ing EverQuest gamers, Doug unknowingly launched my research ca-
reer by helping me identify the psychological questions waiting to
be answered. His ideas of how psychology and technology intersect
have always been and remain an inspiration. During my graduate
program at Stanford University, Jeremy Bailenson’s contagious inten-
sity and drive led to the four most productive years of my academic
career as we used virtual reality to understand what it means to have a
digital avatar. I couldn’t have asked for a more supportive and astute
graduate adviser who could discuss theory, methods, and technical
tools with the same savviness. It was also during my graduate pro-
gram when Nic Ducheneaut brought me onboard as an intern at the
Palo Alto Research Center as he pioneered new ways of collecting
and analyzing large-scale data in online games. As a mentor and
ix