MMORPG’s Changing the World?

Tuesday, Aug. 16 2005 | Author: Dave

I was reading my newsfeeds for the day and stumbed across a great site that has a post about how MMORPG’s could change our world over the coming years.

With over 10 million players in various games, and growing, they are becoming their own micro-society.

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games have an amazing appeal to them because you get to decide who you are and what you look like, unlike the real world.

Anyways, check out the article:

3. Someone will go to jail for stealing a Bonebiter.

You may have heard about a guy who recently was convicted of murdering a man during a dispute over a rare, valuable sword. That sword that was not made of metal or anything solid, but rather of 1’s and 0’s inside a computer hundreds of miles away. It was a sword he had won in the MMORPG Legend of Mir 3.

Insane, right? I mean, let’s say our friend John has his Bonebiter (one of countless powerful weapons in WoW) and a man steals it somehow. Should the thief be convicted of a crime and punished in the real world? Did you snort with laughter at that question? Why?

The victim worked many hours to “earn” the object. The victim used it daily and depended on it. He derived happiness and satisfaction from it. So why shouldn’t depriving him of it be punishable by law? If you say, “but it’s just something he used in a game,” I’ll say that golf is also just a game. Want to see what happens to me when I steal a new set of golf clubs?

Many other interesting and funny things are listed within the article, some I agree with, and some I don’t.

Share and Enjoy

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Hope you like that post!

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8 Responses for "MMORPG’s Changing the World?"

Brad

August 17th, 2005 at 4:21 pm
1

wow…that is extremely obsurd, to the point I think I actually should type “LOL” in a literal sense. You wouldn’t convict someone of mass murder for playing Grand Theft Auto, you wouldn’t convict someone of reckless driving for playing Crazy Taxi. If something can be “stolen” in a game like WoW, the best thing to do would be build in consequences and in-game effects for such an action, not take it into the real world. Many games have such things, although most MMORPG’s rely mostly on player action to deal with things not built into the game on it’s own (and vigilanty revenge is popular….but not in reality….usually).
David

August 17th, 2005 at 8:42 pm
2

The thing is, if it was stolen in the real world, ie transferred from one player to another then should there be consequences? They did something in the real world that was taking something that did not belong to that person, but since it is only data in a game, does it really count as stealing?
Brad

August 17th, 2005 at 11:57 pm
3

if it was “transfered from one player to another” that only happens in the game….so that really doesn’t change anything :P. if someone’s account is compremised or something and items get transfered maybe….but that’s an account deletion at the worst…not a criminal or civil law issue.
David

August 18th, 2005 at 8:55 am
4

Well in real life the guy did not try to get the other players account deleted, he instead attacked the theif in real life, and I doubt it will be the last time that real life consequences will occur due to an online game.
Nick

August 18th, 2005 at 10:57 am
5

Hypothetically, if the attacker had caught the theif while the theif was trying to trade it and attacked him in real life before the trade was successful would it be considered protection of personal property?
cliche

August 18th, 2005 at 12:18 pm
6

“That sword that was not made of metal or anything solid, but rather of 1’s and 0’s inside a computer hundreds of miles away.”

That’s gotta be the stupidest comments i’ve read recently. And don’t get mad because of this statement, because it’s merely 1’s and 0’s. By the way, can you give me the number of your checking account so I can transfer some 1’s and 0’s to my account? I mean, it’s not like I’m taking anything metal or anything solid, right?

The fact is, items in MMORPGs have real world monetary value. Similarly, there is an economy within the game, and coincides with real world economy right down to the fluctuation of currancy and exchange rate. In fact, economy itself is merely a collective belief in value, and is run by a bunch of 1’s and 0’s.
John

September 25th, 2005 at 8:07 am
7

I’ve found a rather intresting concept while cruising thru the web. Have a look on it.
http://gcommerce.blogspot.com
Loki

January 5th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
8

cliche, your comment is not correct, on most MMORPG’s, real world item trading is not allowed. Example: if im selling my lvl 100 character in some game for like 100$, my account will get banned and i can’t use it again (nor can the one i was selling it to) if the admins find out about it. This has been circeled in some games as Runescape, as in Runescape selling accounts is not allowed, and they look Ebay and places like that for it. But selling “joke” and giving account with it is allowed. So if you go to Ebay and look for Runescape accounts on sale, you will only find jokes of 200$ and lvl 99 characters with them. In games like Kalonline (korean MMORPG) it really doesn’t matter if you sell accounts or money on Ebay as the makers of that game don’t watch over Ebay, and hardly care for stealing in-game either. I can go around scamming people from their belongings as much as i like to, as the game makers focus more on making new, expensive (have to buy with real money) items into the game.