thoughtfulWoman arrested after virtual murderThe 43-year-old piano teacher became so angry about a divorce from her online husband that she logged on to the MapleStory computer game with his password and deleted his digital persona.
It has prompted a debate among online gamers and bloggers about whether virtual offences should be punished in the real world.
This one discusses virtual murder.
Netherlands Teen Sentenced for Stealing Virtual Goods
Stealing virtual goods is a crime, according to a ruling handed down by a judge in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, this week.
This one considers virtual theft.
A Rape in Cyberspace
How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database Into a Society
First published in The Village Voice, December 23, 1993
They say he raped them that night. They say he did it with a cunning little doll, fashioned in their image and imbued with the power to make them do whatever he desired. They say that by manipulating the doll he forced them to have sex with him, and with each other, and to do horrible, brutal things to their own bodies. And though I wasn't there that night, I think I can assure you that what they say is true, because it all happened right in the living room -- right there amid the well-stocked bookcases and the sofas and the fireplace -- of a house I came for a time to think of as my second home.
Rape in Role Playing Games
This topic has come up elsewhere, and I thought that it deserved a thread of it's own. Several women have mentioned either having had their female characters raped or knowing other people whose female characters were raped. I have no idea how common the experience actually is, but it's come up enough to make me think that it's an issue to be considered. What do people think about this sort of thing? Rape is something that happens in the real world, but it can be traumatic even by proxy. Does it make a difference if the violence is committed by an npc or by a pc?
These two consider virtual rape.
Now, this bundle of articles raises some fascinating issues.
- People tend to identify strongly with things they consider "theirs." Depriving someone of "their" stuff upsets them, and is often considered wrong by civilized societies.
- Some issues, such as sexuality, are very delicate and it is easy to cause lasting mental damage even on a hypothetical and verbal level.
- A great many entertainments rely on allowing people to pretend to do things they would not ordinarily do in real life, such as stealing a base in baseball or killing orcs and looting their corpses in a roleplaying game.
If we acknowledge that virtual actions can have real consequences, both positive and negative, then we should be responsible for our virtual actions as we are for our material actions; the cases become more legitimate on the grounds that virtual crimes cause real harm.
If we deny that virtual actions can have real consequences, and consider them to be "just pretend," then the cases lose their validity; only material actions should have consequences in the real world, because only they matter.
How then do we relate these concepts to the observable fact that almost all online games, which are tremendously popular, involve vast amounts of virtual killing, stealing, lying, and other acts that would be considered reprehensible in the real world?
Furthermore, do virtual acts of baseness release pressure and make it easier for people to maintain their civility in the real world -- or do they essentially amount to practicing baseness with the effect of making it easier for people to be violent or deceitful in the real world? Can one totally segregate pretend action from real experience, or does one tend to become what one practices in any way?
Discuss.
Good Question!
October 26 2008, 01:31:00 UTC 12 years ago
First of all, if I have an online character and someone DELETES it, it is roughly the same as burning my character sheet in a D&D game. I have spent hours and hours and hours developing that character, and, therefore, there in an investment of my time... if not MONEY, in that character. And, in a way, I think that since that character is a CREATION of mine... it is much like a piece of art, a story, or even a song. It is CRAFTED. So, yes, there should be laws to protect that. At the very least, a lawsuit should ensue.
Now, having said that, if my character is RAPED or otherwise assaulted, within the rules of the game, than, well, that happens. (OMG! How un-PC of me!).
The fact is, I HAVE had characters raped. In particular, I had a MALE character SODOMIZED by an OGRE! I lived through it. I have also had characters killed, tortured, maimed, eaten, humiliated, burned alive, poisoned, and regain consciousness in a dark pit under a pile of the rotting corpses of all of my best friends. And, speaking of "best friends", I once had a character totally betrayed and sold to the enemy by two of them. So far, I haven't had any lasting psychological damage from any of these experiences.
That is not to say that, at times, these experiences cannot SEEM very intense... and, in some regards, "real". Still, though, I enter into that virtual world in order to be faced with challenges that I am not normally faced with in the so-called "real" world. It is in the virtual world that I learn to deal with them. Hopefully, none of these things WILL ever happen to me in "real life", but, if they do, I have a plan!
You see, I have been practicing survival skills all these years in RPGs. When I go into an area where I feel there is a threat, I keep my head, stay alert, check to see where the exit routes are, check to see if there is anyplace from which I can be ambushed unexpectedly. I do ALL of these things, essentially, because I DON'T want to be sodomized by an ogre in real life.
People who cannot emotionally handle these types of things should find another game to play, pure and simple... or take up a new hobby all together.
BTW... I once had a female character sexually harassed and left behind to die by an all male party, What they didn't know was that, not only didn't she die, she was an assasin. When she came back, she came back disguised as a male magic user. She couldn't do squat, but they didn't know that. They thought I had just rolled up another character.
She systematically killed them all.
Re: Good Question!
October 26 2008, 04:19:45 UTC 12 years ago
I think this might be argued under "destruction of property" or "infringement of intellectual property," which are already illegal in a general sense.
You raise a very good point about characters as craft projects. I pour a tremendous amount of energy into mine, and while I can put up with having a character die if it was my fault ... I get furious if someone else damages their usefulness to me. Reason being, I tend to use roleplaying games for personal growth opportunities, and every character is designed to give me opportunities to try something new. I had one who was a good sport (which wasn't even the designed feature) and that was how I finally got an inkling of how to enjoy the success of a valiant opponent in a contest. So if someone damages a character's usefulness to me, they're interfering with an ongoing project of benefit to me, which has a negative impact on me.
>> The fact is, I HAVE had characters raped. In particular, I had a MALE character SODOMIZED by an OGRE! <<
O_O Hasn't happened to a character of mine in game, or in a game I was running. I wouldn't rule it out, though. I've dealt with touchy topics in game before. I've had characters (mine or other people's) with traumatic backgrounds, including a couple of rape survivors. I've set up scenes that pushed a character's, or even a player's, boundaries for constructive purposes. Heck, I once introduced Hitler as a sympathetic character and my players didn't revolt (or more precisely, I introduced what was left of the soul that had formerly been Hitler...) It depends on the intent and the presentation, I think. If you're just being a jerk, you can hurt people, even in a game; but if you're carefully traversing thin ice as a team, you can get some glorious moments.
>> You see, I have been practicing survival skills all these years in RPGs. When I go into an area where I feel there is a threat, I keep my head, stay alert, check to see where the exit routes are, check to see if there is anyplace from which I can be ambushed unexpectedly. <<
Excellent point! And thanks to my gaming experience with 50' of rope, I once saved a $500 pump from falling through the rotted floor of the pumphouse. We tied one end of a rope to the pump, and the other end to a tree, and that was enough to keep it in place until the handyman came.
>> People who cannot emotionally handle these types of things should find another game to play, pure and simple... or take up a new hobby all together. <<
I tend to agree. There are things that I aim to avoid in gaming, though. Some people think it's hilarious to backstab other PCs, and don't mind if it happens to them; I hate that sort of thing, so I make it very clear that's not the kind of game I want to play. However ...
>> She systematically killed them all. <<
*laaaaauuuuugh* ... this is the sort of thing I'd do, and enjoy, and I shall keep it in mind should someone ever ignore my desired gaming parameters.