I felt like writing this as a kind of antithesis or observation of a field that is very much not like what MLP tries to convey, and also to use the momentum of my recent motivational low for something productive.

Someone pointed something out recently - I don't remember where - that at least should make one think, regarding player behavior in the MMO space game "EVE Online". He said, it's a fictional game, it's phantasy. Doing things we can't realistically do in real life. So what are you phantasizing about?

More specifically he said that if a player feels inclined to play a criminal in an MMO and to cause other players grief, they're acting out their suppressed urges, and they would totally do that in real life if consequences were as tiny as they are in the game.

I think he wanted to point out that we should at least not kid ourselves about that.

There are many things I'd like to do in that game, but somehow, they don't involve causing other players grief. That's just not inspiring to me, nor entertaining.

There are even those who delude themselves by claiming they're preparing new players for the harsh world of EVE by blowing up their ships using trickery, but the irony is that they are the ones who make the game world what it is.

It's kinda related to the situation of mafia protection money: Protection from who? ... From the mafia's punishment for not paying.

There is a player who leads maybe the biggest alliance in the game (aptly named Goonswarm) who organized actions to, for example, try to ruin the game's economy, and CCP cherishes it, because it's all a sandbox environment and an experiment and all that. But it should make them stop and ponder (which apparently it doesn't) that that guy just so happens to be the same who just before that got a 30 day ban for encouraging the player community to drive a suicidal player into taking action and actually ending his life.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-04-27-ccp-players-attempt-to-destroy-eve-online-economy-is-f-ing-brilliant

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-26-ccp-launches-investigation-after-eve-online-fanfest-panel-accused-of-mocking-suicidal-player

That is one example of how they're nourishing antisocial behavior and mindsets that can and do bleed over into real life. EVE Online has a rich history of meta-gaming, where players extend ideas into the area outside of the game's set rules - often with malicious intent, because the way the game is designed hinges on that. I don't see bold new ideas put into practice to do something amazingly constructive in EVE. In that department it's just following the constructive tools given that ultimately serve the purpose of fueling the mayhem.

Referring to social and evolutionary sciences... playing games - the animal world shows us what it's all about: It's preparation and practicing skills for the real world. Conditioning habits.

Look at the games humans play and you know how their world works.

It gets even more interesting when said meta-gaming comes into the mix and successful players join the game development team. Then it becomes like a huge goon-jerkoff.

The day might come where CCP will reap what they have sowed when some players take the so welcomed meta-gaming to the next level and act out a grand scheme that destroys CCP itself. Can you imagine any more fame and glory for a criminal character, for a player who loves to inflict harm and cause destruction? No better way to destroy the game economy than to destroy the game itself. I mean, the borders ARE blurring, and it's not really helping that CCP is actually represented by corporations and a faction in the game just like every other group there. Waging war on CCP is just the next logical step in this social experiment that CCP encourages so much. I guess the real world isn't rotten enough for them - they felt the need to rebuild it on a smaller scale, in the so-called virtual world, to observe what they already should know and see everywhere in the real world.

A philosophy/approach that is only tolerated up to an arbitrary limit set by one party is unwise and will not prevail, since it creates the desire to challenge that authority.

CCP is playing with fire and they might burn themselves.

It is much more interesting (but requires courage and pioneer spirit) to run social experiments with a better future in mind, instead of encouraging the worst in people. Because then the common modus operandi of competitve business becomes masked by self-delusion, and it's all just about catering to the lowest common denominator in order to maximize profits, and the philosophy talk is just the distraction from those motivations.