Células troncales pluripotentes inducidas (iPSCs)

Another setting that sparked the emergence of in-game activities that were assigned labour connotations is that of MMOGs (Nardi et al. 2008). Play in these games involves a significant amount of repetitive actions, such as the killing of monsters for the acquisition of rare items (which are colloquially referred to as “drops” or “loot”). Players can use these items as part of their character progression inside the context of the game or trade them with other players or vendors inside the game for game currency (e.g. gold) and items. Regardless of the in-game functions these items serve, they soon became the product of an unregulated market, as players started trading them for real-world money, an activity that is referred to as “Real Money Trading” (RMT)) (ibid.).

7.1.2.1 The work in MMOG digital economies

Castronova (2008), in his seminal work in EverQuest Online61, was the first to point out the existence of economies in MMOGs. His analysis looked into not only the virtual economies that manifest inside the context of the game and partake in how it is played but also how in-game actions can lead to the realisation of real-world digital economies. As was described above, the acquisition of any type of in-game items is one of the predominant features entailed in playing said games. These assets play a role in the game’s currency, as they can either be sold to other players or in-game traders for in-game money.

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Transactions such as these are legitimate, due to the fact that they are afforded by the game itself and constitute part of game’s virtual economy (ibid.). Their presence in the game is an intentional design decision by the game’s developers (ibid.) and partake in many sides of playing the game. For example, players would not be able to progress without (1) killing monsters, (2) acquiring gold or good loot and (3) using the acquired goods for buying new equipment. The question that emerges is whether these virtual economies have any significance to real economies. Some would claim that virtual economies are effectively constrained to the world of the game, where they are enacted. Castronova, on the other hand, argues that as long as the content in virtual worlds is granted monetary value by the players, in-game economies and virtual loot effectively become part of the real-world economy too (ibid.). In fact, trading of virtual items for real-world money indeed takes place through auction sites like eBay or dedicated websites that specialise in this business62.

Essentially, what is involved in this business is for players to upload auctions of their avatars63 or specific virtual goods they have in the game and selling them to the highest bidder for a specific amount of real-world money. When an auction is over, players (buyers and sellers) meet online to exchange the auctioned digital goods. This transaction solidifies the connection between virtual and real-world digital economies, by blurring the boundaries between them (ibid.). Of course, this phenomenon has led to the emergence of an unregulated market that manifests outside the borders of the game and in many cases, as discussed below, breaks its structure.

7.1.2.2 The commodity in MMOG digital economies

The discussion about virtual economies and their connection to real-world digital economies raises the question of what is the capital in the context of MMOGs. As Castronova argues (ibid.), one of the dominant forms of capital inside the social context of virtual worlds are the accumulated digital assets that partake in gameplay, such as: avatars’ experience points and acquired skills,

62 _{http://www.mmorpg-shop.com/}

63 _{In-game representations of a player’s character, which hold all the equipment and the skills}

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equipment, gold, and weapons. Towards the acquisition of all of these items, players invest a multitude of hours playing the game. To quote Castronova:

“The avatar’s stock of experience points, skills, and possessions is a capital stock, just like capital stocks on Earth. Possessions are like physical capital, and avatar skills and experience levels are like human capital. There, as here, investments in capital stock increase the power of the investing entity.”

In essence, the value that is attached to these virtual assets depends on the time and effort it takes for one to accumulate them. The commodity, both in the virtual economy of MMOGs and in their real-world counterparts, is based on the scarcity of these goods. As such, commonly found items are sold for small amounts of money, while rare ones will fetch huge prices that might rise up to the margins of thousands of dollars (Dibbell 2006). Of course, by themselves they have no real-world value at all. However players assign a price tag to them based on the meaning and use these items have in the societal context of the game (Lastowka & Hunter 2004). On top of that, their prices fluctuate, as items that are initially perceived as rare might end up becoming commonly available to players due to finding methods of easily acquiring them and providing them to the market (Dibbell 2006).

Dibbell (2006; 2007) goes into more detail with regard to how these economies are enacted. His interest in the setting led him to immerse himself in the business of “gold farming64_{.” His accounts touch upon not only the actual activities of}

RMT but also on the overall structure of the market and how those who wanted to maximise their profits essentially exploited the games’ mechanics by finding ways of quickly accumulating rare in-game items and then selling them on eBay. In doing that, they were either hiring professional players who repeatedly performed the same in-game actions (e.g. killing the same monster over and over again in hopes of receiving rare drops) or by creating scripts that performed these actions automatically, without the need of any hired employees.

64 _{Internet slang that refers to the repetitive killing of monsters in order to acquire rare items}

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This insight is further enriched by Tai and Hu (2017) who revisited the topic of Chinese gold farming 11 years after Dibbell’s inaugural investigation. Their main motivation for doing so was the existing literature’s lack of academic rigour (Nardi & Kow 2010), especially due to the fact that it was based on cursory investigations or journalism articles. Through their work, they provide examples of the offices, the working conditions, the roles involved in this business, and the motivations of those engaging in it. Along these lines, Zhang and Fung (2014) supplement the existing knowledge base of this business, by exploring the guild business in China, which they refer to as a “secondary industry” that sits in-between players and videogame companies. More specifically, they talk about how guilds (groups of players with a hierarchical structure, which organise events and tactics in specific MMOGs) become profitable businesses that are not only responsible for managing players and in- game actions, but also advertising new and existing MMOGs, finding subscribers for particular games, maintaining the player base for existing games, etc.

Of course, the biggest profiteers in this market are not the ones who engage in manual labour, but those who develop these scripts (called “macros”) in order to acquire loot for them (Dibbell 2006). Whilst these practices brought monetary gain to those that engaged in this business, they became problematic for the players, as they soon destabilised the game’s virtual economy. More specifically, acquiring rare items and escalating inside the game’s ranks became a matter of not necessarily playing the game and spending time in game scenarios, but rather buying goods through the unregulated digital economy described above. On top of that, players’ own gameplay was impeded by the influx of bots65_{, as the latter could kill monsters and receive loot quicker and}

more effectively than them. These practices soon became illegitimate ways of engaging with the game (Burk 2010) and eventually led to a backlash within the community. Even the games’ developers took a stance against gold farmers by banning their accounts and prohibiting any RMT (Dibbell 2007). Similar

65 _{Bots constitute in-game avatars that are controlled by computer programs or macros instead}

of players. Bots are used mainly for automated actions, such as the repetitive killing of the same enemy.

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destabilisation and backlash was also reported in the context of company- supported monetisation schemes that were integrated in Diablo 366 (Prax 2012; Prax 2013).