[MUD-Dev] Teaching ethics in MUDs (was Re: "An essay on d00dism and the MMORPG")

[John Buehler]

Marian Griffith writes:

> In <URL:/archives/meow?group+local.muddev> on Thu 22 Feb, Adam Casbarian wrote:
>
> > Let me pose this question:
>
> >   If a girl gives her real life address to some guy she fell in love
> >   with, they meet and she gets raped, is the mud liable to some
> >   degree?  Could that mud be sued?
>
> I am tempted to say that in the USA and in France yes. Realistically
> however the answer should be no (though that would not prevent any-
> body from attempting). The mud was not involved in the crime at all,
> other than being the medium through which the message was passed. It
> is equally impossible to sue the phone company had she passed her a-
> dress through that medium, or the contractor who built the house where
> she was raped.
>
> Strange question really.

Not so strange, actually.  You're assuming that there isn't anything
in the medium that encourages players to pursue rape fantasies.
Consider the case of EverQuest, with a player publishing fiction using
the Norrathian venue.  I think Verant did the absolutely right thing
by taking steps to discourage that player.  As it turns out, all they
could do was cancel that player's account.  By nipping such a thing in
the bud, they are publicly declaring that the choice of fiction is not
consistent with entertainment that Verant is attempting to present.

At one level, this is just being business savvy and avoiding future
lawsuits.  At another level, it only makes sense to discourage
behavior that has negative consequences.  It's socially responsible.
I say that by taking the situation to an extreme.  If the fictional
work had not been stamped 'outcast' by Verant (my choice of terms) and
that style of story came to be associated with EverQuest, the story
images begin to be a bit of backstory for players of the world.
Players would start to make little, innocent comments about rapes and
such, bending the Norrathian venue a bit at a time.  That contributes
to situations where rapists and pedophiles might pursue contact
outside the game.  I'm not saying that it *causes* it by any stretch.
The question is one of whether Verant is permitting the environment to
encourage it.  They chose not to permit the seed to grow, and I
applaud them for it.

JB


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