TY - GEN
T1 - The Ecology of Harmful Design
T2 - 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, DIS 2024
AU - Kou, Yubo
AU - Zhou, Yingfan
AU - Zhang, Zinan
AU - Gui, Xinning
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM.
PY - 2024/7/1
Y1 - 2024/7/1
N2 - Metaverse platforms have been on the rise in recent years, offering three-dimensional (3D), immersive virtual worlds while encouraging user-generated content (UGC) in various forms. Roblox, a popular metaverse platform, enables its users to create a holistic virtual world (i.e., develop a 3D game) for other users to interact with. However, complex UGC is also challenging to moderate. Roblox has been notorious for its users’ harmful designs, such as Nazi or terrorist role-playing mechanisms. In this study, we explore how harmful design takes place on Roblox. Through a grounded theory analysis of the ‘r/Robloxgamedev’ subreddit, we conceptualize an ecological view of harmful design, foregrounding three interconnected circumstances, namely sociotechnical risks, socioeconomic precarities, and normative (in)sensitivities, which work together to condition and give rise to harmful designs and bring about unique governance challenges to metaverse platforms. We conclude by laying out implications for design moderation.
AB - Metaverse platforms have been on the rise in recent years, offering three-dimensional (3D), immersive virtual worlds while encouraging user-generated content (UGC) in various forms. Roblox, a popular metaverse platform, enables its users to create a holistic virtual world (i.e., develop a 3D game) for other users to interact with. However, complex UGC is also challenging to moderate. Roblox has been notorious for its users’ harmful designs, such as Nazi or terrorist role-playing mechanisms. In this study, we explore how harmful design takes place on Roblox. Through a grounded theory analysis of the ‘r/Robloxgamedev’ subreddit, we conceptualize an ecological view of harmful design, foregrounding three interconnected circumstances, namely sociotechnical risks, socioeconomic precarities, and normative (in)sensitivities, which work together to condition and give rise to harmful designs and bring about unique governance challenges to metaverse platforms. We conclude by laying out implications for design moderation.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85200360904&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85200360904&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/3643834.3660678
DO - 10.1145/3643834.3660678
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85200360904
T3 - Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, DIS 2024
SP - 1842
EP - 1856
BT - Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, DIS 2024
A2 - Vallgarda, Anna
A2 - Jonsson, Li
A2 - Fritsch, Jonas
A2 - Alaoui, Sarah Fdili
A2 - Le Dantec, Christopher A.
PB - Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
Y2 - 1 July 2024 through 5 July 2024
ER -
