Game Theory experiment in Second Life

a.k.a how i earned some lindens

on Thursday a group of students from a German university is conducting an experiment in Second Life testing a cooperative game. It goes as follows ( as I relate from my experience):

• You are recruited into the game, you are given 1000L to start with but your earnings depend on the decisions you and the other person make during the game


• You are either person A or person B in the experiment and your role is assigned to you through a random generator. If you are A you stay in the room shown above, otherwise you get transported to one of the sky cabins by selecting teleport on the blue columns. This is basically to make sure that the pair don't see eachother during the game and can't neogotiate in private.


• A starts by offering B a certain amount of money. The "moderator" in the game quadruples the amount and give it to B. I was offered 500L, so I end up receiving 2000L, in total I now have $3000, including my initial 1000L


• Now B offers back an amount to A and the game ends. This amount is not quadrupled and B can offer A 0L if he wants. I offered the A person in my game 1000L.


• end result, I have 2000L and the other person has 1500L

Note that the more A offers B the bigger the pot but also the stake is larger for A because what if B does not respond to A's offer of goodwill and gives back o in return?

The optimum strategy, theoretically, in this case for B would be to keep all the money A gives him since the game ends after his decision. However what people actually decide to give back reflect a preference for "fairness". I for one, thought A is pretty fair by offering me 500 so I gave 1000 back. Had he/she only given me a meager amount, I ( or another player) might be less inclined to cooperate.

I don't know what is the aggregate result yet for this experiment, I'll go and ask. Nevertheless, it's a very novel way of testing as traditionally recruits are usually college students with similar background. Second Life allows for a better cross section although there is the risk of people using double avartars to do the experiment.

my favorite question on the exam

in case anyone outside of the class is looking at this blog
I am not a nerd and this entry is actually an exam question

My favorite question no doubt is the Second Life one, I find it interesting to think of this "game" as more than a game. The infusion of small corporate entities (individual sellers) into this game and the fact that some people actually make real money on second life ( much like the way people sell books and things on ebay) merits closer inspection. The fact that Second Life is more of a platform that is being continuously developed by its users rather than a static game makes it very "web 2.0".

making jewelry

Green for Saint Patrick's Day!

my little canoe/sailboat

believe it or not, you can actually make jewelry with the seemingly crude building tools that second life gives you - no I haven't actually made one, but I'm learning.

a while ago I made this canoe/sailboat with the building tools, it's fair simple (just gotta watch your coordinates and you're fine). jewlery however is different, using what is called "tiny prims" (prims being the units that make up the object), one use a tweak of texture to produce what looks likes gem stones - sometimes by h0llowing out a basic shape, other times by slicing or tapering it.

you then link the tiny prims together to produce a whole object - be it a necklace, bracelet or earing.

There are also scripts that help you along, so far I found Ariane Brondie's "Necklace Generator" which will allow you to generate a series of objects facing the center in a circle, ideal for necklaces ( as the name implies). The creator of this script has also used it to make flexi skirts, which are tricky because of they flutter as you walk, unlike non-flexi skirts which doesn't change shape. (the skirt I'm wearing above for example is a flexi skirt)

racisim in Second Life

today while camping, I received the following message:

sheitanor Aichi: Ce soir valerie fais un exposer sur la supériorité de la race blanche ..... pour les curieux ca se passe ici http://slurl.com/secondlife/Adrift/21/129/35

(tonght valerie will do an exposition on the superiority of the white race... for the ones curious, th address is http://slurl.com/secondlife/Adrift/21/129/35)

I went there and the place is call "La France aux Francais" - France for the French, there were a bunch of people who have already gathered in protest, several admins were there as well. Voice chat was also going on but malbeureusement je comprend pas trop.

in the picture you see two things, first the sign of dumping nazi in the trash, second the group, france en couleur ( france in color). I think this event is a reminder that second life is not just a game, there is a person behind every avatar and there is little room for insult and hatred even in the virtual sphere.

Second Life Server Issue

(almost empty dancepad area after server failure)

HippiePay is one of the most visited spots in SL. Since joining SL, I have twice exeprienced what looks to be either an attack on the island or a server failure:

symptom:

• everyone on dancing pads or other kinds of poseballs suddenly get ejected from the system ( i.e. signed out)


• if you are one of the first to realize and sign back in, there is no one there


• then you discover the system has retained memory of everyone's earning - the money is there with no owner to claim it!


• if you sit on any of those poseballs you get money, you also commit what it called "ball-hopping, some people were confused while others are intentionally taking the chance to profit


• hippiepay (or anywhere else) bans you

I was almost banned the first time this happened ( I was signed out and then I didn't know what's going on), I managed to argue this through with a "helper" and get my earnings back. This second time I saw hippiepay helpers cruising the island catching people "ball hopping" and sitting to collect the money themselves ( persumably to prevent others from doing so and to hand over the money later).

No one has been willing to tell me what issue this server is experiencing, perhaps as a commercial hub they fear the publicity will decrease the value of their land.

HippiePay never compensates those whose money got erased from such accidents, even though I would persume that the system would have a record of who is on which pose ball, at least for a short period of time. (evidence is if you get up and try to get back on the same pose ball it tells you to change to another one)

it would be interesting to know whether the different land owners in SL shares a server provided by LindenLab or have one of their own.

Game Enviroment in Second Life

So last night I stunbled upon an Egypt game sim, "Era of the Gods" in which you can be captured, sold, mutilated.... ( bloody) the instructions say yell " don't do XX to me" in group chat if the captor tries to force it on you. Or you can get an observer tag and watch. No, I didn't see the battle, there was basically no one there last night.

today I am in Rome

interviewing the princess of sparta revealed the following: your avatar does not die in a game, or hurt in any other way, however you wear a HUD, head up display that tells you how much energy, stamina, life you have left, etc. Interestingly, you can be at any place in SL that enables scripting and play the game! You can come back to life just as in any other game. Here it is illustated on the picture i took of the arena by the yellow light beams to the left ( kind of hard to see).

So what is interesting is the fact the fighting is not actually done by stringing together a number of gestures because gladiators and other combating characters have to be able to respond to changing situations. I have yet to discover how it actually works.

another SL source

Here's a FAQ on wiki that's worth looking at, it answers some basic question and also some more advanced stuff like how to build things

https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Help:Second_Life_FAQ#How_do_I_detach_something_from_my_head_.3F_.28or_other_body_part.29