[MUD-Dev] [OT] Taking things too far.

[Scott Roberts]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Scott Stuart
> Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2001 11:46 PM
> To: mud-dev at kanga.nu
> Subject: [MUD-Dev] [OT] Taking things too far.

> I'm one of the administrators of a hard-core MUD, and we've currently
> got a serious situation we're not sure how to handle.
 
> We recently had a player report that he received an anonymous death
> threat by email from another player. The threat was regarding game
> issues, yet not only the character's life was threatened, but also
> the player's life (as well as his car, house and computer). The
> sender of the threat found this person's email address (which isn't
> published anywhere in the game) and sent an anonymous email, taking
> steps to hide his/her identity.
 
...
 
> We are taking it very seriously, but we're just not sure how to
> handle it. Have any of you ever dealt with a similar situation?

Such a situation mandates informing law enforcement.  While we're
shielded by common carrier law (or could be) in many situations, this
would be one where potentially the game's designers can be brought up
as part of the motive in any future trial (inasmuch as the
threat/murder/what-have-you is motivated by actions or activities
which occurred on the game, and cases could be made in civil or
criminal court that administrators could have acted to prevent the
action from occurring...etcetera).

That all being said, then my action would be first to inform the
senior staff of the game, then contact the player being threatened to
get a full story.  I'd do whatever I could safely and legally do to
determine positively the identity of the suspected threatener but not
take any specific action against that individual even if I was certain
of their identity.  I would then contact law enforcement authorities
(which I alternatively might do first, depending on the specific
nature of the situation and what the Directors had to say).

I've dealt with similar matters (though not identical) in the past.
We had a situation on a game that I staffed on where one player, an
adult, was involved in a sexually explicit role-played and personal
relationship with another player, a minor.  It was reported to staff.
We took steps to contact the parents of the minor involved and spoke
with them directly, informing them of the situation, and left it
there; after banning both players from the game.


--Scott Roberts
--Director of Customer Experience and Quality Assurance
--Skotos Tech Inc.
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