The Dibell article, although written over a decade ago, touches on an issue addressed by several classmates. I've read several articles in the past few months about situations where actions in a virtual world resulted in legal trouble.
Click here to read the short article on Virtual Killing
In the article, a woman got arrested for deleting her in game husband's character in maple story. Although the crime was actually hacking, the reason was because he divorced her in the game. For some people an in game marriage might be a fun feature but for others it might be more serious. The woman told police: "I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry."
As in the situation of Mr. Bungle, people still have issues with social relationships in online communities. What does it mean to be "married" in Maple Story? Had her online husband given her the password to his account, would there still be legal repercussions for deleting his character? In this case probably not, but one might argue that these characters have worth in a monetary sense. In the case of Second Life the monetary unit Linden Dollars can be converted into real world currency and vice versa. There is also the psychological and mental anguish associated with losing a character that a user helped develop over several hours or days.
Speaking of second life, here's another article about a woman who divorced from her husband after he cheated on her in the game.
Women divorces husband for cheating on her in Second Life
Is virtual cheating with another person's character grounds for divorce in real life? Does that count as cheating on your spouse? How much weight should we put on these online interactions?
Maple Story Image Taken from http://maplexblog.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/maple0064.jpg
Second Life Image Taken from http://delphi.louisville.edu/localresources/images/technology-second_life.gif
Would you consider using phone sex services grounds for divorcing your spouse? Cheating doesn’t have to occur IRL for it to be considered cheating.
ReplyDeleteI feel like using phone sex services would be worse than in what the guy did in second life. It might be because I feel there's a separation between a user and a character. If I play a violent video game, I don't feel like I'm actually killing someone just because a character I control does so.
ReplyDeleteI would consider using adult phone services as cheating, but in game and interactive communities it depends on the situation. In the case of the story above it sounded like the guy was cheating. His character was married to his wife's character in the game and virtually cheating on her in the game. However, some people just want to test out the features of the interactive community or game. I don't consider controlling or watching virtual characters engaged in an activity in the same light as real life characters, or oneself engaged in such an activity (phone sex, etc...).
With that said, I realize that people have different levels of attachment to a character in an online interactive game, and they play these games for different reasons. I understand the wife's perspective in the article on Second Life because she doesn't know how much of her husband's indiscretions in the game are a reflection of real life desires.
I just read a classmate's blog for the ICS 691 course and she brought up a good point. A classmates blog Some people, like Griefers for example, get their kicks by causing trouble in virtual worlds. It makes it harder to access the seriousness of the husband's interactions in Second Life when a group of other people don't take those interactions very seriously.
ReplyDeleteI believe these things can be included in the "scary" and "dangerous" categories of SNS. The inability to differentiate real-life from SNS may be the most concerning aspect of SNS use. I realize that there are many people, perhaps the majority of people, who use SNS that don't have this problem but the subject deserves attention. The danger comes when an act performed in SNS triggers real-life violence.
ReplyDeleteFor many games, killing or violence is all part of the game. I agree with Mike that people who kill characters in video games or virtual worlds are not committing murder. I don’t believe that the premise behind Second Life is to engage in extramarital relationships, although people do so. That being said, I can see how easy it is for the wife to believe that her husband’s indiscretions are based upon his real life desires, regardless of how seriously he takes the game.
ReplyDeleteI agree that killing characters in a video games is not murder. First of all, in most gaming situations, the violence doesn't meet the lawful definition of murder. So, at best it maybe manslaughter or self-defense. In games like UT, since a character is reborn after being killed it would probably fall under the realm of Mutual Combat, and the State wouldn't pursue charges. Yes these are real terms and the definitions are important. Except maybe GTA (Grand Theft Auto), where the activity in the game is distinctly criminal.
ReplyDeleteBut I think some situations could be some form of unlawful activity. Consider if you owned a car and somebody prevented you from using it. It is your property, you have a lawful right to use it. This is what Mr Bungle did. In the very least it shows the "perp" has a phsycological/personality defect.
But that any of this should come as a surprise, is the surprise. People are people and the they are going to carry their neurosis with them, whether they are interacting in the RL or the VL.