Creationist Capitalism in Virtual Worlds: Originality that Pays
Tom Boellstorff is an anthropologist and professor at the University of California, Irvine. His interests include the anthropology of globalization, sexuality, and digital mediums. His recent works include Coming of Age in Second Life and Ethnography and Virtual Worlds. In his book, Coming of Age in Second Life, Boellstorff discusses the concept of “Creationist capitalism”. Creationist capitalism is presented as “a mode of capitalism in which labor is understood in terms of creativity, so that production is understood as creation” (Boellstorff 206). He asserts that “Techne is the modality this creation takes” and that “self-fulfillment becomes a means of production” (Boellstorff 206).
Second life, a virtual world, was developed and owned by Linden Lab, and was launched in June of 2003. In the virtual world, users are able to generate avatars, and interact with other avatars, places and objects. They are able to explore the entire virtual world, participate in group activities, shop, and trade virtual property/services with each other. A virtual world, unlike the real world, can be owned by a corporation. This corporation is responsible for the coding of the platform and management of “many aspects of social interaction” that people in the “actual-world governments could only dream of attaining” (Boellstorff 206). In the Second life world, the avatars can earn ‘real’ money in the virtual world and “retain intellectual property right over anything they create” (Boellstorff 12). With the use of Creationist capitalism, Second life is able to draw “structuring principles from the individualistic ethos of contemporary capitalism” (Boellstorff 207).
IMVU, another virtual world, was founded and owned by Eric Ries who served as Chief Technology officer from its inception. Similarly to Second life, users are able to use avatars to socialize, meet new people, chat, and play games. Currently, IMVU has over 3 million active users, and has the largest virtual goods catalog containing more than 30 million items. IMVU has its own economic and currency system based on IMVU ‘credits’. IMVU now has a community of Content Creators. This is a community of IMVU members who can “earn real money or credits” as they “build up [their] own retail empire” and utilize “industry standard tools [to] receive validation” for their work (IMVU). Within these content creators, users can design their own clothing, and sell them for profit. Thus, participating in what Boellstorff argues as Creationist capitalism.
Political economy in these virtual worlds describes the relationship between the law, customs, and the government, as well as the distribution of income and wealth. In this case, we can look at Creationist capitalism as a form of Political Economy. In both Second life and IMVU, users have the ability to generate their own intellectual property, and to maintain rights over these items. They are then able to sell those items within the community and earn ‘real’ money within that virtual world. In both virtual worlds, the users understand that in order to buy more items, they must make money. By creating their own content, they are able to make money. They are able to open a small business in which they can allow their creative natures to thrive. The understanding within these virtual worlds is that content must be created, and can be owned solely by the creator. Then, the creator can turn around and sell that to other users within that world to generate a profit. Thus, creating intellectual property and selling it to generate profit for the future.
