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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Economics

Wright State University

2009

Virtual world

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Order And Creativity In Virtual Worlds, Evan W. Osborne, Shu Z. Schiller Oct 2009

Order And Creativity In Virtual Worlds, Evan W. Osborne, Shu Z. Schiller

Economics Faculty Publications

Economies are driven by dynamic creativity, but some sorts of creativity, especially if predatory, can destroy an economy. This tradeoff has been known for centuries to political philosophers who have analyzed physical space, but has not been addressed in virtual space. Like physical economies, virtual economies face the tradeoff of encouraging freedom to experiment, while discouraging experiments that damage society. Physical societies solve this problem both through encouraging competition and giving government the unique power to punish destructive activities. In virtual societies, this tradeoff has yet to be adequately assessed. Guided by the economic modeling of order and creativity, in …