GE 4102 Video Game: History, Industry, Society, and Creativity - Modding, cheating, and creative play

GE 4102 Video Game: History,
Industry, Society, and Creativity
  Modding, cheating, and creative play

“Just as there is no formal difference between play and ritual, so
the ‘consecrated spot’ cannot be formally distinguished from the
play-ground. The arena, the card-table, the magic circle, the
temple, the stage, the screen, the tennis court, the court of
justice, etc., are all in form and function play-grounds, i.e.
forbidden spots, isolated, hedged round, hallowed, within which
special rules obtain. All are temporary worlds within the ordinary
world, dedicated to the performance of an act apart.”
                                                      Huizinga, 1938

For Huizinga, who first suggested the term ‘magic circle,’
“Play does not simply predate culture, play is constitutive of
culture.”

The term ‘magic circle’ was appropriated by game researchers

The magic circle “bounded a space and set it apart from normal
life. Inside the magic circle, different rules apply, and it is a space
where we can experience things not normally sanctioned or
allowed in regular space or life.”
                                                  Mia Consalvo, 2009

An important part of human development

A commonly given example of human intellect development: The hunt

A commonly given example: The hunt, mediated by tools, and division of
labor, rules, and community

An expression of higher intelligence

According to Consalvo (2007), a cheater is an accepted part of play and
gaming cultures

Not to confused with a spoilsport, who rejects the rules entirely (e.g.,
sweeping the chess pieces onto the ground) and thus denounced the magic
circle

Different ways of cheating in a video game?

Video games

      Too varied to classify

      Each genre of video games has a subculture of its own

According to Consalvo, every subculture contains distinct sets of gaming
capital

    Borrowed from Bordieu’s cultural capital, or a distinctive set of
    preferences and dispositions that separate people into social classes

In games, access to methods of cheating is a form of gaming capital which
players could accumulate and demonstrate expertise

Easter eggs

        Zerg rush

We need to know what is ahead in the story/game/etc

Games provide a social context in which we can accumulate gaming capital

Game developers also rely on players’ interests in gaming capital to extend
their interests in games

Paratext as a legal concept (Burk, 2009)

        Texts that modify or enhance the reader’s interaction with a primary
        text

                 For example, preface, index, dust jacket summaries,
                 reviews, and so forth

        Paratext offers new meanings, interpretations, or ways which the
        original text could engage new audiences

Paratexts in games as forms of cheating?

World of Warcraft

Players complete quests and
advance from level 1 to 85

More collaborative play required at
higher levels

Play against computer controlled                       Collaborative play against computer
                                                       controlled opponents
opponents or other players

Most play require fighting some
enemies, but may also include
trading, hanging out, chatting, and
traveling

                                      Buying and selling items

                                                                              Collaborative play against17
                                                                                                         other
                                                                              players

Modding in World of Warcraft

                                                     Default User Interface
Modding—the practice of end user alteration of
commercial hardware and software.

In World of Warcraft, mods are scripted
programming files that specify user interface
elements.

Most mods are distributed for free.

                                                    Modified UI – minimalist
Modders sometimes solicit donations in one of the
mod’s window.

“We can’t make hundreds of options, but you can,”
Blizzard employee speaking to modders at a gaming
convention.

Are mods cheating?

Banned mods

Cheating is a part of everyday life

         education, finance, social relationships

         the difference between cheating and creativity in any forms of
         established “rule and order” has always been contentious

Those in power and privilege positions use rules to maintain status quo and
inequality

Cheaters are usually those in weaker positions

         The powerful could change the rules if they like, so that do not need
         to “cheat”

However, the society may learn from cheaters to identify innovations (e.g.,
from hacking to modding)

The game developer’s dilemma:

    “How to encourage development of paratexts in a fashion that will
    enhance the desirability of the game, making play attractive, but
    discouraging development detrimental to the business plan for the
    game”?

    (Burk, 2009)

Cheating may enrich the game environment

But cheating may also reveal secrets and allows innocuous activities by
players

Before World of Wacraft was released

        Closed beta, March 2004 – October 2004

        There was no modding in WoW

        A group of hackers are modifying and replacing game files to modify
        the game

AnduinLothar, a modder of the earliest WoW modding team—CosmosUI:

    “This was before actually, there was actually an addon system. You had to
    modify the game files and put them in the [Interface] folder to replace
    them.”

FrameXML hacks

Modders had to replace the Blizzard Lua and XML files inside the
/Interface/FrameXML folder so that their files would be loaded instead of the
standard game files

If several modders tried the replace the same files, they ended up overwriting
each other

Cosmos Team's mission was to ensure that all mods worked together
seamlessly

        Distributed a single .exe installer file, cosmos.exe, as a
        compilation mod (actually contributed by many modders)

A Blizzard developer, Sam “Slouken” Lantinga noticed the effort

He proposed to his Lead Developer to develop a mod system

    Modders could place their mods in the /Interface/Addons folder without
    overwriting each other

    All of Cosmos’ mods turn into individual mods

Slouken remained as a bridge to help resolve technical issues of modding,
even though modding was supported by Blizzard, the effort is “unofficial”:

    “There is no official support for modifying the WoW interface. If you
    break it, you get to keep both pieces. :) “

Modding is a collaborative effort between players and companies

But who owns the mod?

Burk, 2009:

    “Game developers, like other publishers, are keenly interested in the
    control of separate paratexts that spring up around their games, but
    must be additionally concerned over paratexts such as software and
    hardware devices”

Copyright

        allows the holder to exclude others from making copies of the
        work, including exclusive rights of distribution, public display, and
        public performances

What about paratext?

        paratext as a form of derivative work

        including include translations, sequels, and adaptations          of
        stories to screenplay

        Since paratext requires some degree of copying from the
        original text, paratext would likely considered an infringement

                                                                           Burk, 2009

Blizzard WoW EULA

Why does company require the EULA, if their software is already protected by
copyright?

Burk, 2010:

    “In the case of modding, one might argue that a mod that disables or
    evades restrictive components of the WoW API would not constitute a
    DMCA violation if the interaction were authorized. One might infer such
    authorization from the game proprietor supplying the technical
    information for the interaction, or encouraging modding that included
    mods of this type, or even failing to object to such mods for a long period
    of time, especially if such mods were brought to the proprietor’s
    attention.”

Therefore, the EULA is acting as a “take it or leave it” contract

         as a notice “against implied authorization for access”

Modding and Creativity
An ethnographic study into cultures of
   collaborative work in the U.S. and
   China’s modding communities

Field observations
    China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou,
       Chongqing, Xinjiang, Liaoning)
    California and BlizzCon
    Forums
    Chatrooms (IRC, MSN, QQ)

Interviews                                            The Chinese modders
    Face to face (25) – 19 in China, 6 in the U.S.
                                                     WoW U.S. modders’ chatroom: the
    Dinner with 50 U.S. modders                                IRC channel
    BlizzCon outing with 10 U.S. modders
    Chatrooms (IRC, MSN, QQ)
    Internet messaging
    Emails

Default User Interface
Modding—the practice of end user alteration of
commercial hardware and software.

In World of Warcraft, mods are scripted
programming files that specify user interface
elements.

Most mods are distributed for free.

                                                    Modified UI – minimalist
Modders sometimes solicit donations in one of the
mod’s window.

“We can’t make hundreds of options, but you can,”
Blizzard employee speaking to modders at a gaming
convention.

Field observations
    California and BlizzCon
    Forums
    Chatrooms (IRC)

Interviews
    6 Face to face                         WoW modders

    9 through chatrooms (IRC, MSN, AOL),
        Internet messaging, and emails
    Dinner with 50 U.S. modders            WoW U.S. modders’ chatroom:
    BlizzCon outing with 10 U.S. modders   the IRC channel

Contradiction in the U.S. Modding Community:
                         Ownership

We studied a case of WoW modders in the U.S. who fought against Blizzard
Entertainment over two addon (synonym of mod in WoW) policies:

   Policy 1—Add-ons must be free of charge. All add-ons must be distributed free of
   charge. Developers may not create "premium" versions of add-ons with additional
   for-pay features, charge money to download an add-on, charge for services related
   to the add-on, or otherwise require some form of monetary compensation to
   download or access an add-on.

   Policy 5—Add-ons may not solicit donations. Add-ons may not include requests for
   donations. We recognize the immense amount of effort and resources that go into
   developing an add-on; however, such requests should be limited to the add-on
   website or distribution site and should not appear in the game.

Blizzard wanted to alter the terms of ownership to maintain the quality of its
product :

   On March 20, we released the new add-on development policy to the public as an ongoing
   effort to help ensure add-on integrity, safety, and quality for the community.
                                                                       Nethaera, Blizzard Poster

Modders wanted the freedom to determine distribution of their mods :

   This policy completely disregards our ownership of the code as Intellectual Property. Blizzard
   should have no say in how we distribute and get compensation for OUR work.
                                                                         Portman, WoW modder

The disagreement on ownership led to a messy ethical debate. Thousands of
forum posts ensued.

Modders Fight Blizzard

Blizzard Strikes Back

But some modders were practically affected:

   I have always had donation links on my home page… [but made almost no money].
   In the week and a half since I made that change [added the in-game request], nUI
   switched from being something that made $20 a week into something I thought I
   could count on to put food on my table when I get laid off again in June.
                                                                        Erranthor, 2009

The policy changes Erranthor’s equation. He can no longer mod fulltime.

                                                        nUI developed by
                                                        Erranthor

But fulltime modding is not just about making a living. Fulltime modders like
Erranthor develop excellent mods. For example, QuestHelper developed by
Smariot clocked a massive 23 million downloads.

                                                   QuestHelper helping players
                                                   find their way in the game
                                                   (wikia.com/)

Fulltime modders have potential to develop into a sub-industry. But this
dream dissipated with the policies.

The contradiction arises because…

Mods have different values to both users and corporate developers.

From the user community’s perspective, Ito (2010) has argued that this value
is expressed as a form of reputation.

From the company’s perspective, this value is expressed as the ability to
maximize profit (Kow & Nardi, 2010).

If both values are aligned, e.g., by expressing reputation in a monetary form,
then perhaps the user and corporate communities can make better decisions
when arbitrating issues like ownership.

Curse.com, a commercial company that targets online gamers, sell premium
versions of its mod downloading tool to players.

They suggested a relative solution to reward modders base on their download
counts—a form of reputation.

        20% of our revenue from [Curse premium subscription] is going to the
        authors, which is split up based on popularity and authors will be able to
        redeem [reward points] for various items such as Amazon Gift Cards.
                                       CKKnight, WoW modder and Curse employee

We found other micropayment systems similar to the Curse Reward
Program that exist in the Internet, e.g., Flattr.

Flattr can also be used to collect donations for other digital contents.

Conflicts such as the disagreement between the U.S. WoW modders and the
game developer Blizzard over the new addon policies are fought over the
issue of ownership.

In the end, Curse.com found a mediating link in the Curse Reward Program.

Mediating links like Curse Reward Program and Flattr require further research
to determine their feasibility and issues of implementation and operation.