Project working title:
FRAMING THE LUDIC COMMONS – COOPERATION AND CONFLICT IN MULTIPLAYER GAMES
[Entire project description as PDF]

The basics

Generally speaking I'm interested in multi-player games.
Specifically, I'm studying how game design influences social behaviour in game spaces.

The assumption here is that while a certain class of conflict is essential to the enjoyment of a game, many game spaces are troubled by unresolvable conflict over collective resources (in the broadest sense). This manifests itself in the form of cheating, grief play, and generally irresponsible forms of play.

Fortunately, such problems have been studied extensively within the fields of game theory, collective action research, and political philosophy. An important part of my project, then, is the transposition of insights from the social sciences to the game design discipline.

See also: The More Elaborate Version (PDF)