[MUD-Dev] BlackSnow sues Mythic for online property rights

[Frank Crowell]

From: "kuvasza" <kuvasza at cox.net>
> "Sellers, Mike" <msellers at origin.ea.com> wrote:

>> Virtual property, I believe, will eventually come to be
>> recognized as real property by the populace and by the law.  Once
>> this really begins to gel, those companies that don't want to toe
>> that line will be forced out of the marketplace by those who do.

> This takes things on a radical, nasty tangent.  I can't see it
> happening.  It lets loose too many nasties lurking in Pandora's
> Box.

> If players owned digital property in an online game environment,
> couldn't they seek injunctions against online game companies to
> force them to continue a game they were discontinuing?  By ending
> a game (say to move from Gemstone I to Gemstone II) does a
> developer destroy the property of their customers?  Are character
> transfers between versions of a game mandatory?

We are at the embryo phase of virtual worlds. It's very possible
that sometime before I die there will be several models of character
and object ownship.  One approach could very well be the completely
transferrable character -- or portable character as I have called
them.

Gemstone X would not be forced to keep their game going, but they
may have to package up the character in some secure form and
register a transfer.  They wouldn't have the right to destroy the
character.

Computers went from mainframes, to mini, to micro -- at each point
getting closer to the consumer.  And there were some twists and
turns in the PC world until the IBM PC got a firm grip in the
marketplace.  It would have seemed strange to talk about PC
ownership in the early 1970s when all computers where owned by
computer centers.

MMORPGs have a mainframe, timeshare mentality.  So the idea of
character ownership is clear in their mind since they believe they
own everything associated with their world.  It will be a hard fight
to change that until the next generation of MMORPGs which will be at
least at the minicomputer mindset.  And then finally, there will be
the true virtual worlds, and the whole idea of virtual ownership and
character transfers will be common place.

It doesn't matter from a virtual worlds POV if BlackStone wins or
loses.  Tomorrow there will be another BlackStone or there will be
second generation worlds that will displace the first generation
worlds.  It's just a matter of time.

frank

postscript: I almost forgot to mention, the great convergence is not
video with computers -- it is virtual worlds with palm sized,
wireless computers.




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