When teenagers run virtual democracies

On the 12th February 2019, a subreddit called r/SimDemocracy was founded. Its founder, Gageboi, wanted to conduct a small democracy experiment: what would happen if a subreddit—a forum—governed itself? SimDemocracy’s story sits atop tens of thousands of other stories told about democracy experiments set up and run by teenage players. Across a myriad of games, such as Minecraft, Habbo, and NationStates—and a myriad of platforms, such as Discord, Reddit, and old-style forums—teenagers have pursued the goal of running their own virtual democracies to mixed success. This video can’t cover all of their stories, obviously, but what it can do is provide an overview of the lifecycle of teenage-run virtual democracies. From the very moment of their founding, virtual democracies can be plunged into a power struggle between their founder, who possesses the power of a God, and their player base. Teenage politicians can fight amongst themselves over every little detail in a constitution—expelling Senators, packing courts, and impeaching Presidents. These battles can also happen in the courtrooms, with teenagers unveiling bundles of screenshot evidence to a jury of seven other teenagers. All stories must eventually come to an end, and the stories of virtual democracies are no exception, be it through managed decline, Balkanisation, foreign conquest, revolution, or coup d’etat. PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/c/trolligarch CONTACT FORM: https://forms.gle/wDhdVo6Wotp1Ewr39 TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Introduction 08:50 Founders and the God Problem 15:13 Making and Breaking Constitutions 29:46 Constitutional Rights and Wrongs 47:00 Coups, Conquests, and Collapse 59:41 Epilogue MUSIC: Sharp Edges - half.cool Rinse Repeat - DivKid Distrust The System - The Soundlings Virtual Roaming Charges - half.cool Final Girl - Jeremy Blake Press Fuse - French Fuse Sunrise Drive - South London HiFi Creme Brulee - The Soundlings Life After Death - DJ Freedem Sheet Rhapsody - DJ Freedem Savior Search - DJ Freedem Cutting It Close - DJ Freedem Digifunk - DivKid Temple of Treasures - Patrick Patrikios Between The Spaces - The Soundlings I Had a Feeling - TrackTribe Body and Attitude - DJ Freedem Invisible Enemy - Jeremy Black Two Face - Causmic Rinse Repeat - DivKid Come Vibe With Me - Patrick Patrikios Coupe - The Grand Affair Brooklin - Quincas Moreira Polymetric Juggling - DivKid Burlesque - National Sweetheart Trapped - Quincas Moreira ADDITIONAL SOURCES: - Joshua Fairfield, ‘Anti-Social Contracts: The Contractual Governance of Virtual Worlds’ (2008) 53 McGill Law Journal 427 — Argued that social networking sites can exhibit similar characteristics to 3D counterparts, allowing for a comparative analysis between platforms (e.g. Reddit and Discord) with games (e.g. Habbo and Minecraft) - James Grimmelmann, ‘Virtual Worlds as Comparative Law’ (2004) 49 New York Law School Review 147 — Coined the term "the God Problem" - Gregory Lastowka and Dan Hunter, 'The Law of Virtual Worlds' (2004) 92(1) California Law Review 1 — Also described the God Problem (using the term "Wizard Problem") - Jens Meierhenrich, ‘An Ethnography of Nazi Law: The Intellectual Foundations of Ernst Fraenkel’s Theory of Dictatorship’ in Ernst Fraenkel and Jens Meierhenrich (eds), The Dual State: A Contribution to the Theory of Dictatorship (OUP 2017) — Concept of the dual state - Benjamin Tyson Duranske, Virtual Law: Navigating the Legal Landscape of Virtual Worlds (ABA, 2008) — IC-OOC distinction in virtual democracies; "escapism" of sim govs - Edward Castronova, Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games (University of Chicago Press 2005) — IC-OOC distinction in virtual worlds - Sumit Bisarya and Madeleine Rogers, Designing Resistance: Democratic Institutions and the Threat of Backsliding (International IDEA, 2023) — Democratic backsliding in real-life - Andrew Jankowich, 'EULAw: The Complex Web of Corporate Rule-Making in Virtual Worlds' (2006) 8 Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property 1 — Terms of Service supremacy - Nicholas Suzor, ‘The Role of the Rule of Law in Virtual Communities’ (2010) 25 Berkeley Technology Law Review 1817 — High-cost infrastructure being a deterrent to revolution - Savannah Wei Shi, Mu Xia, and Yun Huang, ‘From Minnows to Whales: An Empirical Study of Purchase Behavior in Freemium Social Games’ (2015) 20(2) International Journal of Electronic Commerce 178 — Social facilitation theory