Virtual Lawmaking?

raublekick · 08-16-2005, 08:18 AM

We still don't know the means with which the sword was stolen. It all comes down to whether it was by sly in-game thievery (legal) or l33t h4xx0rzing (illegal).

Since UO had it's own law and jail system, and that game is ancient, I'd imagine that modern ones do as well.

Another aspect comes into play when deciding if legislation is needed: Thievery is only one such crime that can be committed in a game. What about PKing (player killing)? This is a big aspect of some MMORPGs, and there are generally rules to dictate where, when, and how a PK may take place. In the real world killing is pretty high on the punishment ladder. But, I would think that in a game the killing doesn't matter, because you respawn. It's the looting after a PK that really burns. So laws can't be directly transferred to online/game play.

Here's another thought to ponder: Did either man really "own" the sword at any point? They each probably owned a CD that contained the code that generated the sword, but the sword was created by the developers and the data which says "KoreanMan1 owns big sword of justice" is stored on the developers' servers. If this had happened on a single-player console or PC RPG through hacking of a memory card or harddrive would we still be worrying about the sword, or would we be worrying about the infiltration to get the sword?

08-16-2005, 08:18 AM	#6
raublekick Moderator Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Lancastuh, PA Posts: 1,678	We still don't know the means with which the sword was stolen. It all comes down to whether it was by sly in-game thievery (legal) or l33t h4xx0rzing (illegal). Since UO had it's own law and jail system, and that game is ancient, I'd imagine that modern ones do as well. Another aspect comes into play when deciding if legislation is needed: Thievery is only one such crime that can be committed in a game. What about PKing (player killing)? This is a big aspect of some MMORPGs, and there are generally rules to dictate where, when, and how a PK may take place. In the real world killing is pretty high on the punishment ladder. But, I would think that in a game the killing doesn't matter, because you respawn. It's the looting after a PK that really burns. So laws can't be directly transferred to online/game play. Here's another thought to ponder: Did either man really "own" the sword at any point? They each probably owned a CD that contained the code that generated the sword, but the sword was created by the developers and the data which says "KoreanMan1 owns big sword of justice" is stored on the developers' servers. If this had happened on a single-player console or PC RPG through hacking of a memory card or harddrive would we still be worrying about the sword, or would we be worrying about the infiltration to get the sword? __________________ http://www.good-evil.net slap that bitch, sell her coke