[MUD-Dev] BIZ: Who owns my sword?

[Ren Reynolds]

On 10 September 2003 11:05, Crosbie Fitch wrote:

> The problem is that a MMOG provider is seen as being entirely
> responsible for the virtual environment they provide, and
> consequently the behaviour of players within it. And consequent to
> that, the safety of those players.

MMOG creators get caught up in the same moral panic as the rest of
the games industry. Which is a re-invention of the same moral panic
that has been applied to particular types of new media forms for a
very long time. It's an issue that has to be faced, thought I have
no idea how.

But we should recognize that game companies do have certain
duties. Some of these can be limited by various types of contract
between a games company and a player, a games company and various
types of service provider. But some responsibilities cannot be
contracted away. One of my issues with the view that virtual items
are property and moreover the property of players is that this bring
with it a whole bag of legal stuff that cannot be side stepped and I
think will harm MMOGs for players, creators and just about everyone.

The issue of broad consequences is a slightly different one I think.
It's largely predicated on the whole media effect debate i.e. a game
(or other media thing) can have a demonstrable effect (generally
negative) on the consumer. I think this is a different debate both
legally and philosophically.

Ethically of course it is based on consequentalism which generally
ends up in the debate (current going on a fresh in computer
ethics)over the nature of responsibility i.e. if we can prove the
media effects thing then who exactly is responsible and to what
degree - the MD of the games company, the programmer, the company
that made the tools to make the program to make the game - etc ? On
the legal front there is a whole history of cases in the US about
rock'n roll warping the mind of innocent young folk.

The way that MMOG and games are being treated in these latter
debates strikes me as pretty much the same as Rap, Rock, Comic and
of course that dangerous polluter of the mind - the novel.

Ren
www.renreynolds.com
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