Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds

Eureka Dejavu reflects on the idea of taking a virtual Hajj to Mecca.

UPDATE: On Friday, January 29, 2009, Dancing Ink Productions released the findings from this project. Click here and here for a list.

Dancing Ink Productions is on a global quest to explore how virtual worlds might provide insight and a cultural bridge into one of the most misunderstood communities in the world: Islam. In the past five months we've spoken on this topic at places ranging from the Global Knowledge Summit in Kuala Lumpur to the U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar.

Today we are delighted to announce that the Richard Lounsbery Foundation has funded a collaboration between the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and Dancing Ink Productions (DIP) to launch the “Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds,” project. Rita J. King, DIP's CEO and Creative Director, and me (Joshua S. Fouts), Chief Global Strategist, are both Carnegie Council Senior Fellows.

The Richard Lounsbery Foundation was the first foundation to invest in exploring the potential of virtual worlds as a platform for building better understanding between cultures. In 2003 I presented a crazy idea to Ambassador David M. Abshire, president of the Lounsbery Foundation. My idea was this: Virtual Worlds and massively multiplayer online games could be used for public diplomacy. Abshire, it should be noted, is a longtime Washington visionary whose many lofty achievements range from founding the seminal think tank CSIS, (the Center for Strategic and International Studies), to being U.S. Ambassador to NATO under president Reagan, to his job today head of the Center for the Study of the Presidency.

Thanks to Abshire's faith in the idea, the Lounsbery Foundation awarded a $125,000 grant to create the “Public Diplomacy through Games Competition.” The winner of the contest was “Peacemaker,” a roleplaying game that allows players to experience the challenges of making peace as if they were leaders of Palestine or Israel. The game was designed and created by a couple of graduate students from Carnegie-Mellon University who went on to receive additional funding, numerous awards, and launched their own game design company.

My path into virtual worlds started in the massively multiplayer online game, Star Wars Galaxies. Thanks to the creative vision of Raph Koster, (who was then Chief Creative Officer for Sony Online Entertainment, which owned the game) Star Wars Galaxies was designed as two distinct experiences in one: 1. A traditional quest-driven game; and 2. A community-driven content platform (a place where people other than the game designers can create objects and narratives). Raph knew that MMOGs had a much richer potential than simply completing quests. People were having transformative social experiences. And he knew that if you allowed the players the freedom to create the content, something special might happen. And indeed it did.

My “Ah Hah!” moment came when I logged onto Star Wars Galaxies in August 2003 and saw no less than five different non-English languages being spoken: German, Dutch, French, Portuguese and Spanish. And I wasn't on a server reserved for Europeans! I interviewed the players and found that they weren't in the U.S., but were, in fact, scattered across the globe. I regularly socialized in Star Wars Galaxies with people in Australia, Europe and South America. Then, after playing Star Wars Galaxies for a few weeks, I began to notice the intensity and investment around friendships created in these spaces was unique and powerful. Could it be that games and virtual worlds were providing a unique venue for building friendships between cultures?

The more time I spent in these worlds, the more convinced I became that these spaces provided a uniquely rich and transformational opportunity for us to explore new ways of dialogue. Somehow, in spite of the fact that people are meeting each other as avatars that might not be representative of their appearance in “real life,” a more authentic version of a person seems to be expressed.

Rita has been documenting the concept of digital anonymity and virtual identity for over ten years. In her March 2001 cover story for the Village Voice, “Terms of Service: Sweaty Scenes from the Life of an AOL Censor,” Rita offered these prescient thoughts:

“Just as playing Dungeons and Dragons doesn't turn a kid into a Wizard, pretending to be a homicidal maniac online doesn't make a man a killer. But determining what it does make him is one of the biggest ethical dilemmas facing society.”

Fast forward to yesterday when Joel Rosenthal, President of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs (who has already demonstrated his innovation and leadership by launching a Global Ethics Studio which will incorporate a cross-section of Internet and media platforms at universities around the world as a "global, interactive network sharing content and discourse on international policy issues.") announced our shared “Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds” project.

When Rita J. King and I first presented the concept of the “Understanding Islam” project to Joel and his team, they got it immediately and they supported our approach to turning it into a quest rather than a series of static events that often tend to mimic real life to such a degree that outsiders tend to question whether virtual worlds really add anything to current teleconferencing technologies.

In our first meeting Joel convened a group of staffers who asked provocative and challenging questions. Even though virtual worlds were relatively new to them, Joel's team understood this project, and its relevance to their work, in a fundamental way. In the time since, they have invited us to participate in compelling Carnegie Council events that spark fresh ideas and perspectives and create the kind of dialogue that the world needs most at a time of cultural crisis.

We have an exciting few months ahead. And we look forward to sharing them with you as they unfold. As always, welcome your comments and thoughts.