Changing Realities: User Creation, Communication, and Innovation in Digital Worlds

Abstract

By building upon advances in disparate technologies, digital worlds enable easier and more powerful forms of creation and communication, allowing digital worlds to be more innovative places than the real world. The power to be more innovative makes it inevitable that digital worlds grow beyond their social and game roots. Furthermore, market and economic forces seen as detrimental by conventional massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) accelerate this transition. Ultimately, entertainment and economic incentives will integrate digital worlds into everyday life.

Keywords: Information and Internet Services, Computer Software, Virtual Worlds, Online Gaming, Intellectual Property, Second Life

JEL Classification: L86