1: E-bay. Everyone has at least heard of it, most of us have used it, and many times to great success. But how is E-bay so successful, especially when 99% of the time the things we are buying are from complete strangers. Not only that but E-bay's feedback system is one of the most comprehensive and long standing online reputation system that the web has. The reading I suggest is by Paul Resnick and Richard Zeckhauser entitled "Trust among strangers in internet transactions: Empirical analysis of eBay' s reputation system" from a macroeconomics journal. It is an examination of a large data set from 1999 revealing several interesting features including reasons why feedback is often provided, why this feedback is almost always positive, how reputation profiles became predictive of future performance, and finally how "players" not only reciprocate but retaliate in terms of feedback. An interesting study could be to analyze and learn about not only top buyers but top sellers, and further very poor rated sellers and poor rated buyers, perhaps tracing the sales they've made and the path to either riches or ruins they have taken.
2. This is a VERY IN DEPTH experiment, and in all honesty I am truly not even considering even trying this. With that said the idea is still incredibly interesting. The goal is to discover what is known as "End Game Content" in the World of Warcraft. This is undoubtedly where many players feel the game of leveling and learning end and the true game of mastery and critical development begin. End Game boss encounters require precise coordination and communication, not between a small group of say 4 friends, but rather between 20 to 40 people working harmoniously to destroy a boss that can completely destroy each and every character in 1 swing if not handled appropriately. An interesting article to examine to fully understand the complexity of this is by Mark G. Chen in his article "Communication, Coordination,and Camaraderie in World of Warcraft". It examines elements of "game theory" and "game theory literature". The notion of story telling and advancement. Concepts of creation from the player base. And elements of design not considered by game creators in ways that their player base goes about "winning" at their "game".
3. This final idea is truly accessible on virtually any forum, in any game, on any blog, anywhere that large groups of people are attempting to discuss intelligent or important (at least to them) matters. You see where there is intelligence there are "TROLLS". A troll is essentially an internet bully, however its much more than that. They base their identities off of others, through modes of interpretation resulting in the form of "shit talking". A general rule of thumb is to "not feed the trolls" i.e. buy into their egotistical game of "i'm better than you because of A, B, and C based on what you just said". However the article by Paul Baker entitled "Moral Panic and Alternative Identity Construction in Usenet" turns the tables analyzing these kinds of interactions and also techniques to resolve and destroy these trolls. A simple experiment that could provide hours of entertainment... feed a troll and beat him at his own game. If you're lucky you may beat a big and well known troll thus destroying his credibility to everyone else involved in the forum.
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