Ross Mayfield has posted a really interesting followup to my last post. He also remembered a little nugget of our conversation at ETCON, I wish I had remembered to write it down (as he points out, I was buying beer).

Ross: "What's interesting about virtual worlds is how when people meet each other in them their real identity is the least explicit of all the models. But gradually as they observe how each other acts in the game and chat, more clues are revealed about who they really are and trust increases. Modes of communication outside the gaming environment are commonly used and occassionally real world relationships are cemented by in-person meeting. Andrew pointed out that the ultimate test of trust is to hand over logins to someone else so they can literally walk in their virtual shoes. Kind of like giving the keys to your car and house in absence of insurance or rule of law."

In other news, a guild I know in EQ has decided to really put the screws on virtual communication and has started hosting a Voice Chat within Everquest - for the entire guild. 80-100 people will all have USB headsets and streaming voice with one another. [ they are working on some communication ettiquette now, about who talks in raids and such, what is allowable voice traffic and what still flows through text... ]

We had a conversation at one of the BOF sessions at ETCON about whether voice would work in a game like this, because most of the users of these games play them passively a large majority of the time (ie while watching television or chatting to another person elsewhere). I am interested to see voice, which is a heck of a lot more 'active' on a participatory scale, and how that works out. We'll see.