Making real money in virtual worlds: MMORPGs and emerging business opportunities, challenges and ethical implications in metaverses

Abstract

This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link AbstractToday, millions of people from around the globe play online role playing games (MMORPG), in which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world, either using their existing identities in the physical world, or more often than not, through new virtual identities that might not even be remotely linked to the identities of the players in the physical world. The number of users is growing at an exponential rate and we are probably on the verge of a new development that is going to be as significant as the Internet itself. This positioning paper will discuss the business opportunities and challenges of such a virtual world, that of Second Life, and will examine the resultant corporate social responsibility implications focusing on the ethical and policy-related ones. This will help to identify important research questions that need to be systematically addressed. Keywords IntroductionThe rapid development of massively multiplayer online role play games, also know as MMORPGs (pronounced more-peg), has resulted in the re-creation of many real world activities in the virtual environment. These activities are often released from many of the constraints of the physical world, although in some cases they are still primarily reflections of it. In the past few years several MMORPGs have been experiencing exponential growth and for many people they have evolved far beyond mere online games. The economic, social and policy implications for both the real physical world and the virtual world are likely to be very significant, as will be illustrated by many emerging examples later in the paper.In this positioning paper we will focus on the business activities and commercial applications that virtual worlds can host, and examine the wider implications of these virtual environments, often referred to as "metaverses". We will use the case of one such metaverse, that of Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com), to illustrate some of the key issues and challenges that arise when transacting in virtual environments. We will start by first considering the attributes of Second Life, in order to illustrate its popularity and usage, before examining how it can foster business opportunities for entrepreneurs. The paper will then move on to discussing the market implications and, based on these, propose an extension to the traditional taxonomy of business activities by including the "meta" dimension of the environment. Following this, the paper will consider the corporate social responsibility implications of this emerging business phenomenon by focusing on important ethical and regulatory issues. This is still an emerging and rapidly evolving area and more systematic research is clearly needed and further research avenues are suggested at the end.

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