To possess ownership, it must be a very real option, for those who seek it. Thus, if you’re happier meddling in the less obvious but still very satisfying attractions of an organic virtual world (politics, religion et al), then you’ll need to temporarily abandon the real you, and immerse. Nowhere else have I encountered the diversity and richness of in-game civic/organisational politics than in IRE’s text games. And in these environments, you’ll find them, excellent roleplayers bearing a torch, affecting those around them. And willing to embellish, or to make deeper an already unfathomable ocean of options for those who like to ask of themselves ‘Can I make a difference?’

Away from Achaea, in another IRE virtual world, an attempt was made to open up party politics. Was that feasible? Was it a futility to consider it at all? No, it wasn’t I think…it was badly handled, mismanaged, maybe, and died a quiet death, but one sensed along the way that it was possible, actually possible to open up this arena for those few who were keenly interested, assuming permission was granted by the Admin, for such an experiment. And I recall that ‘ownership’ was the primary reason for it.

There may well be examples of other virtual worlds where this could have been played out, in addition to the already challenging and detailed options listed by the contributors, above. But I can’t recall any such, off the top of my head.