Virual Crime: Real Justice

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2003-09-30 08:29am

BBC News

now, I don't play these games, but nevertheless, What. The. Fuck?
Thoughts?

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2003-09-30 10:18am

My feelings are "what a load of shit". When your virtual life takes over your real life, and when you think virtual crimes commited against your virtual character require real world justice, I think you need to be tossed in a loony bin to sober up and grip on your real life. I fully support prosecuting cyberthiefs who steal my real world possessions, such as my credit card number or money from my bank account, but virtual stuff from a virtual world which does not in any way affect real life? Who the fuck cares? I certainly don't. It's a game, someone cheated, yippee-i-yay, tell me what's new.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-09-30 10:21am

Fuck this. Let the cops deal with real criminals. Let Sony deal with the fact that people cheat.

I suppose we need to criminalize spawn-killing, too.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-09-30 10:25am

So we know need real police because some idiot let them take their Wand of Uber Magic+45671982?!

Sorry in the end of the day it's still a game, and before someone screams but they spent real money...they did so playing the game.

They found the item the same way that newbie finds it...complain to the server admins...not the police.

EmperorMing · Post by **EmperorMing** » 2003-09-30 01:36pm

Cry me a river. Another reason why I don't play online games.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2003-09-30 02:05pm

"d00d! tH3y 1$ <4/\/\p1N t3h $p4\/\/n p01nt! arr3$t th3/\/\!"

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-09-30 02:09pm

What the hell?

Next you're going to have some asshole suing somebody else for killing his character in SW: Galaxies. As murder or some shit.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-09-30 03:30pm

Morons.

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2003-09-30 05:00pm

Isn't this what moderators and admins are for? If it happens in a game, deal with it IN the game.

I am further reminded why I made the point in my design notes for my two online games to include lucrative bounties, NPC law enforcement, and/or item insurance.

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2003-09-30 07:58pm

Remember, the EQ world has a per capita GDP which is greater than that of Rumania or Russia. This is real money we're talking about, because people will spend real money to buy the virtual stuff in these games. The question, of course, is if the games will be of any interest once they're regulated like that.

Death from the Sea · Post by **Death from the Sea** » 2003-10-01 12:43pm

the caption for the last pic was pretty funny

It might be tricky getting a witness statement from a yeti

Notice how they rationalize investing police investigators valuable time

A game account that gives someone control of a powerful character can change hands for thousands of pounds. Even single powerful magic items can command a hefty price.

Just because one gamer is too lazy to earn the items in the game and desperate enough to spend real money on virtual items for a single game that makes the item real

I totally agree that this is retarded, police should be chasing real criminals not wasting time with people who are cheating in games.

Solauren · Post by **Solauren** » 2003-10-01 01:43pm

"Someone stole my Staff+3! I'm telling the cops"

Has it occured to the players of these games that if it was cheating to do that, IT WOULDN'T BE IN THE FUCKING GAME

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-10-01 03:15pm

Solauren wrote:"Someone stole my Staff+3! I'm telling the cops"

Has it occured to the players of these games that if it was cheating to do that, IT WOULDN'T BE IN THE FUCKING GAME

Irrelevent. Just because the game allows it doesn't make it right. The problem with massively multi-player games and the sort is the ability to do just about everything also makes it possible to do wrong things.

Personaly I think the concept is interesting, but there are more important things to spend money on. Sure I would love to have cops stop by the houses of cheaters, TKers, and the sort, but thats just not going to happen. I would rather the resources be spent going after real murderers.

beyond hope · Post by **beyond hope** » 2003-10-01 03:31pm

I can picture it going something like this:

Detective: So, let's go over this again... you claim the xenomorph was acting aggressively...

Gamer: Yeah! It had it's tail poised to strike! I didn't have a choice, man!

Detective: Odd. We've interviewed some of the xenomorph's friends... they say he had just respawned, and was lagging so badly he couldn't have even seen you yet.

Gamer: That's bullshit! That xeno was charging me! You've got to believe me!

Detective: And then there's the matter of those grenades you fragged your teammate, "RAID: Kills Bugs Dead" with...

Gamer: There was a cloaked pred about to stab him! Honest! Why don't you people believe me?

Detective: By the way, do you have a permit for that railgun?

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-10-01 03:57pm

lol

thinks about mike's continous atttempts to get me to join Ashron and UO....

fuck no!
Never again

BTW somehow I avoided all of the PKer groups by simply keeping a low profile. I did get the theft problem at one point, but said fuck it....

Soontir C'boath · Post by **Soontir C'boath** » 2003-10-01 04:05pm

I notice DiabloII wasn't added.
Diablo on Ebay
Now these gamers are going too far heh.
I've heard of people losing tens of thousands of dollars if they're acc. get hacked away. Oh well, fuckem good I say.

Cyaround,
Jason

beyond hope · Post by **beyond hope** » 2003-10-01 04:19pm

The Yosemite Bear wrote:lol

thinks about mike's continous atttempts to get me to join Ashron and UO....

fuck no!
Never again

BTW somehow I avoided all of the PKer groups by simply keeping a low profile. I did get the theft problem at one point, but said fuck it....

Some of my friends were UO vigilantees: they'd go out looking for PKs and kill them (or at least try to.) I was always scared to get started on anything like Asheron's Call: my roomie would play that so obsessively that I was reminded with the experiments with the rats and cocaine.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-10-01 04:37pm

"Thinks about installing exercise wheel in mike's room...."

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-10-01 04:46pm

This is incredibly stupid. Why waste police time and money with something that if a serious issue, can be solved with a mere patch? If you spend real money for a game object and it gets stolen as part of the game then tough shit for you. Go play something else if you don't like it.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-10-01 05:53pm

Alyeska wrote:
Solauren wrote:"Someone stole my Staff+3! I'm telling the cops"

Has it occured to the players of these games that if it was cheating to do that, IT WOULDN'T BE IN THE FUCKING GAME
Irrelevent. Just because the game allows it doesn't make it right. The problem with massively multi-player games and the sort is the ability to do just about everything also makes it possible to do wrong things.

Actually, I'm not too sure about that.

In RPGs the thief class is a fairly recognized type. It is probably assumed that people will want to do it, and that many RPGs have such a character, to program it into the game.

It may not be right, moralistically speaking if it was real, but as a game, it's right for that character to do it because that was what the character was designed for.

What else do you expect the half-orc thief to do? Not steal stuff?

Personaly I think the concept is interesting, but there are more important things to spend money on. Sure I would love to have cops stop by the houses of cheaters, TKers, and the sort, but thats just not going to happen. I would rather the resources be spent going after real murderers.

In terms of games, I would say that those that actually cheat or exploit bugs are worse than those that play the games by the rules, even if they may do stuff like stealing.

beyond hope · Post by **beyond hope** » 2003-10-02 04:51am

By extension, anyone who's played Age of Empires had best consult a lawyer: you'll soon be on trial for war crimes for killing all those hapless workers.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-10-02 12:23pm

beyond hope wrote:By extension, anyone who's played Age of Empires had best consult a lawyer: you'll soon be on trial for war crimes for killing all those hapless workers.

Or Black and White. "Yeah, I did kill all of my worshippers and lay waste to the entire civilization. But they deserved it."

LordShaithis · Post by **LordShaithis** » 2003-10-02 12:33pm

Most American MMOG companies are already at work establishing the concept that every item in the game belongs to them, not the players. Thus the players can't make a legal fuss over losing anything.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2003-10-02 12:38pm

Solauren wrote:"Someone stole my Staff+3! I'm telling the cops"

Has it occured to the players of these games that if it was cheating to do that, IT WOULDN'T BE IN THE FUCKING GAME

To be fair, there are plenty of people who do find and abuse bugs or unintended features in the system to pull stuff like that that wasn't intended by the designers. I know a person who did it in Diablo II at my high school. But I agree that getting the police involved is silly when it should be an admin.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-10-02 04:09pm

I agree it is an interesting concept, but expecting real world law to apply to a virtual world is ridiculus. The worlds of the online games are dangerous places, that is WHY WE PLAY THERE. Nobody wants to play an online game that focuses on going to work from 8-5, sitting in traffic, paying the mortage, and hauling the kids to the doctor.

If you get conned out of your Torque Wrench of Chewbacca should'nt that be considered part of the roleplaying environement? Should you not bring it up to the virtual sheriff?