Real Life Violence Associated with MMOs
I just published this article by Simon Hill, one of my writers at the Bright Hub MMO channel. I thought it was extremely interesting and well researched. I have heard stories like this from time to time, but all gathered together it is kinda nuts:
When MMO Drama Causes Real Life Violence
Some of the stories are pretty shocking. I definitely do not think MMOs themselves are at all to blame. You get enough people engaging in a certain activity, and conflicts will arise. But still… the circumstances and events are pretty outrageous.
Many examples were tied to virtual goods having real money value plus a lot of emotional attachment. Money and strong emotions are classic motivations for crimes. Simon Hill is quite right in another regard, the kid who killed for money for online gaming could as well have been a drug junkie, too.
The example about the russian clan who killed and then threatened the family… is unfortunately quite typical to eastern europe and Russia in particular. They identify themselves through their clan. There is/was a Red Alliance in EVE Online. I forgot their exact name, they had little outside interaction with other players. Only Russian speaking Russians were allowed to enter.
This particular group mindset already existed in the ancient Roman Constantinople. The horse races in the circus there had supporters of different parties, calling themselves the reds, greens, blues and so on – and they all shared the same political views and were often physically fighting, bribing and oppressing members of the other faction or forced people to join them.
I somehow cannot understand this kind of group behaviour, despite all smart explanations by scientists. Maybe because I would never feel comfortable to become part of any group to this extreme extent. They always seem to spawn evil, e.g. the Nazi SA started out as a gang of street brawlers before they were absorbed in the SS, who had a more mythological and racist background as ideology.
MMOs are full of group dynamics and social networks, even the more loot oriented solo-type like GW or WoW. They are very likely to trigger such behaviour in people, but I would also agree to Mr. Hill that they do not create it.
I have no idea why people tend to have this kind of group mindset, but MMOs offer all the triggers: social networks, money and emotional attachment involved.
Regarding the police and virtual theft: They are usually clueless about it. They do not know what to do in this case.
Also, there are problems where to draw the line. Hacking someone’s account is a crime, IMO. I do not doubt that. But what happens if I buy a 50$ super sword in the online store for my Witch, and the noble Paladin Muckbeast likes it so much that he does not give it back to me after taking “just a look” at it? This was probably my fault. But would it be a crime or only griefing if it would be a 1000$ sword and Muckbeast sets up a shrewd plan to make me drop the sword so that he can snatch it? Would the police help me, would a GM call it griefing… and do nothing than warn Muckbeast, not giving me back the item … or would nothing happen?
Or imagine there is no value attached to a certain item per se, but it is very rare to get in this game. You promise me to give me 50$ if I give you the sword. I agree and take screenshots of our trade agreement. I give you the sword. I never get any money from you, but a nice comment: LAWL NOOB!
This is why most MMOs forbid trade with items in their games in the EULA, to prevent this kind of transaction to be legal at all. People still do it.
I strongly support to forbid all trade of virtual goods, char trade, item trade, levelling services and so on. They are actually forbidden in all MMOs I can think of. People still do it, they should be aware that they are not protected by any law while doing so and are in fact rather violating the rules of their game themselves.
Longasc: “I strongly support to forbid all trade of virtual goods, char trade, item trade, levelling services and so on”
As do I. You’re already spending 180 dollars U.S. on an MMO with a subscription fee (sometimes less) every year, this inadvertently ascribes a certain amount of value to in-game items and characters. To allow players to further increase the value of in-game items by allowing for an uncontrolled amount of money to enter the system is to turn a way to have fun into something far too meaningful to be “just a game” any longer.
And yet, these MMOs are monetized as a service. How is paying someone else to level your character any less of a service? If you want to cut that part out, offer instant level capped characters straight from the devs. Go the GW model and make it part of the purchase, or offer them separately, it doesn’t matter.
Regarding the emotional attachment to the game assets, I’d call that a byproduct of the implied contract that you will have perpetual access to things you paid for. That’s just a cornerstone of capitalism. As long as the game design itself is about *stuff*, but monetized as *access to stuff you don’t own but we’re all happy to pretend you do until the law comes into play*, there’s going to be a fundamental psychological conflict. I can’t go so far as to call it breach of contract or false advertising, but there certainly is a core dichotomy that is conveniently glossed over.
You don’t see this sort of thing happening over gun ownership in Counterstrike, for example.
Regarding perpetual access, does it also imply (literally) eternal access to the game? There are lifetime subscriptions to LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online)… is there any fine print what happens in LOTRO goes bankrupt tomorrow and they pull off a “Tabula Rasa” and switch off the servers? I guess that was it with the “lifetime” subscription. Do they have a guarantee that the servers will run at least 10 years or so…???
I hate how account hacking gets sensationalized into stuff like “character murder” or “virtual item theft”. As somebody who has been known to enjoy the occasional “character murder” or “virtual item theft”, I don’t like people trying to classify these things as real world crimes. Being an in game criminal is supported by many games out there as a valid playstyle. Just press hacking charges as appropriate, and call it account hacking rather than implying that the theft of virtual items is the actual problem.
Longasc, I’ve wondered that myself. That’s why I address it a bit in my blog post about ending MMOs. I lean to the “make it a single player game” or “legitimize private servers” in the event that they do pull the plug, but I do think that most will just blow users off and happily take what money they have left. *shrug*
In many of these situations the MMO seemed to be “window dressing” on a more serious situation. The people who are stabbing others over money for an MMO subscription or a stolen virtual sword if not playing MMOS would be doing the same thing over other disputes or addictions.
Situation in Russia might well have been a couple of hacker gangs that just happened to play WOW, that’s the impression I got anyways.
The Dutch kid far as I’m concerned didn’t commit any crime by stealing the furniture – if people were stupid enough to be conned out of virtual property that way they deserve to lose it. Likewise account hacking IMO is a midsomenor at worst.
Oh, definitely, Serith. I posted a bit of a minirant over at Tobold’s place about how games are a risk factor. They aren’t irrelevant or harmless, but neither are they the prime motivator for these things. People who fly off the handle and go into dark territory aren’t doing so because games made them do so; there’s something else that’s busted in their clockwork, and games are only one symptom, usually not the root.
Unfortunately, it’s easy to frame discussions in terms of the visible circumstances rather than dig to try to find the root causes.
No Surprise that GM had to sink like the Titanic.. Just the pain and hard work of 300 Million Taxpayers going down the drain.. Whose responsible for that?