Over the last week and some, I have explored the idea of play-labour, of social-investment, and how these might affect the amount of “fun” a player perceives they are having.  The term itself comes from Juliam Kucklich, a video-game theorist, and applies to any form of activity that someone may profit from – Gold Farming in World of Warcraft, paying someone to level your character, buying other people’s characters and accounts, etc.

Upon entering this project (and until recently), I had done nothing but jump from the vanilla server to the modded one to create a symmetrical BFC.  I helped the other people in my group build, and I begged for resources or for help in finding their locations.  I did nothing but work on completing the project – but Minecraft is a game, and therefore, I was putting aside my pleasure to create something someone else had told us to build.  Therefore, I could argue that social-investment, my want for Darren’s approval in the project, and my interest in obtaining a school bursary might be pushing me to forgo “fun” and to become a wage-earner.

In its overall structure, our project depicts the life of a construction team – our corporate manager reminds us daily that we must work harder, get more done.  We have a union building run by one of the workers.  We have industrialized our space with construction signs, coal factories, and offices – offices that sell franchises.  And in this, we are exactly like the real world.  But, why have we done this?  Why have we made our imaginary world, this digital world, so like our own?  Is it because we could not add some of these structures in the vanilla version?  Additions to help others understand that we are working on this project and it is not abandoned like so much of this server?  Or is it because we wish we could control our lives as easily as we do this server? That if we made a structural mistake, we could easily tear down each block, harvests them, and reuses them with no waste?

I realized late in the game that I knew nothing about this server.  I had to ask Darren and Nic questions each time I wanted something – and in this too, I was thinking as a worker; what is the easiest, cheapest and most cost-efficient (time-efficient) way to obtain material?  Ask someone who knows (AKA: Darren and Nic).  In doing this, I took exploration and fun out of Minecraft but also questioned Darren and Nic’s motives in helping me.  What makes (made) them want to help me?  Is it their investment in the project, the need to see us succeed and prove something to the world, to excel in their own research through ours?

Therefore, I realized that to appreciate the work I was doing, the work I was adding to this server, I had to take some time and explore it.

As a Commons, our server appear to have room to expand; unlike the vanilla version, this server is hidden and only certain people have access.  Enhanced with countless modifications, this server offers so much potential and could benefit from more minds accessing its contents (I know I will not even touch half of what we have offered!).  On the other hand, our server is already deteriorating.  Although we appear to have room to expand, when multiple players are online at the same time (3+) the server lags – the system cannot sustain our efforts and thus falls apart  without allowing us to execute what we want (destroying blocks, accessing server, etc). How then, is Minecraft able to both create a perfect Commons and a tragedy of the commons?

In one effort to explore the world, I left the safety of our project in lieu of the sea. With a small wooden boat, I started my adventure in search of Mangrove trees, and, which legend told, grew in the water (actually, Nic said it grew in the water but…).  I found that my boat travelled too quickly for the server – the system could not call up the bytes it needed, and so, late in its response, I would see darkness and literally fall through the world.  This darkness shows the underworld of Minecraft – all the blocks and passageways and objects we should not see.  The lag was so terrible, it broke the world in the part I was accessing, and I fell down (Somewhere – minecraft’s crust? It’s center?) before disconnecting me from the server completely.

Throughout my exploit, I kept chatting with the other members online, and as I kept dying, and continuously forced to disconnect and reconnect to the server, we somehow created something akin to a poem:

“Remember!

Lag in the morning, sailors are mourning.

Lag at night, sailors take fright.

But thrice did I ignore these rules, and return to that lurking devil which we call the sea.

And thrice did she take me,

swallow me into an abyss of darkness, and all for that white wood, Mangrove.

all is vanity, vain glory, death comes forth – takes me – disconnection.

Damned thee accursed mangrove, damn thee.”

I found it interesting that this terrible adventure turned into such a fun evening.  Of course, I kept dying and losing my boat, but I was thoroughly enjoying my time chatting with Nic and Darren and creating ‘poetry’.  In addition, even though the commons broke – the server does not “tick” as quickly as we do (as Nic has told us), our commons expanded, allowing me to create a poem with our combined messages.

So again, how does Minecraft simulate both a tragedy of the commons and a commons which has room for expansion – for extra people?  Our server is literally deserted: buildings scattered and unused.  Nic (or was it Gersande?) has suggested that some parts of the server are always active and therefore using up resources – could these be causing the horrible lag?  It makes me think of our own abandoned buildings on the vanilla server, and in real life.  These monuments scream for attention, taking up space that could be better used for something else but that no one wants/can afford to take time and dismantle them or render them useful again. Why? Why are we turning a blind eye when these resources are lagging our commons – taking up resources better used for something else. Why do we allow our cities to cling to these decaying, dangerous buildings which have little to no use, or acts only as a shelter for wild life?

Next week: the Chicken Cooker, the Sorting machine, and the theory of supply and demand.