CONTROL OVER VIRTUAL WORLDS BY GAME COMPANIES: ISSUES AND RECOMMENDATIONS.

Author List: Roquilly, Christophe;
MIS Quarterly, 2011, Volume 35, Issue 3, Page 653-671.
Game companies use five components-four core components and one complementary one-in a 5Cs model to ensure the control and development of virtual worlds. A multidisciplinary review of the literature reveals that game companies make use of copyright, codes, creativity, and community to do this. They use the contract as a complementary component to reinforce their control over the four basic components and to compensate for the lacunae they present. In order to examine the extent to which game companies use the contract in this way, an analysis is performed of all contractual documents from a sample of 20 virtual worlds, providing evidence of general trends and emphasizing any differences between the virtual worlds in terms of the business and gaming models sought by each game company. An explanation is provided of why these contracts do not constitute a sustainable model for the game companies, given the high level of legal insecurity they present. Some basic recommendations can be made in order to improve the sustainability of the 5Cs model by modifying these contracts in such a way that they are enforceable and by matching their content with appropriate business and gaming models. This could lead to further studies aimed at providing answers to some of the intriguing issues affecting scholars and practitioners.
Keywords: Community; contract; creativity; EULA; virtual world
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List of Topics

#184 0.163 modeling models model business research paradigm components using representation extension logical set existing way aspects issues current integrated languages traditional
#100 0.139 affective concepts role questions game gaming production games logic play shaping frames future network natural processes evidence addresses reference theorizing
#120 0.108 virtual world worlds co-creation flow users cognitive life settings environment place environments augmented second intention spatial interactivity ownership objects immersive
#223 0.096 insurance companies growth portfolios intensity company life portfolio industry newly vulnerable terms composition operating implemented factors asset focus disaggregation choices
#70 0.085 contract contracts incentives incentive outsourcing hazard moral contracting agency contractual asymmetry incomplete set cost client parties examine effort structures double
#280 0.079 control controls formal systems mechanisms modes clan informal used internal literature outsourced outcome theory configuration attempts evolution authority complementary little
#83 0.070 personal computers use lead order using users pcs innovativeness understanding professional help forces gained usage increase trends parallel introduced expressed
#145 0.054 differences analysis different similar study findings based significant highly groups popular samples comparison similarities non-is variety reveals imitation versus suggests
#74 0.050 high low level levels increase associated related characterized terms study focus weak hand choose general lower best predicted conditions implications