Yes, there is a fruit store called Farmville

I figured that a good way to start my blog posting would be to look at the aspects of “gaming” that most interest me. Being a student of Law and Politics, the aspects of gaming I am interested in may seem mundane and completely boring but nonetheless they interest me.

Gaming and Law

Strangely enough I overheard a conversation in the Info Commons this week regarding the buying and selling of World of Warcaft accounts. The first thing that I find really interesting is the fact that these accounts DO actually get bought and sold. To me it reveals something about the passion involved in gaming subcultures and the type of elitism that can go on – the fact that people are willing to fork out real world money to buy an account with a high-level character in order to one-up their friends and have bragging rights. The second thing that interests me, and which was mentioned in the overheard conversation, was the fact that the practice in many places is illegal. Like the selling of concert tickets on TradeMe, I overheard that WoW accounts cannot be sold online without attracting the attention of authorities. The issue is an interesting one regarding property, copyright and a new media version of ‘scalping’ (that practice of buying something scarce like a concert ticket and selling it off at a higher price).

Firstly: ownership. Does a person own their WoW account or is it merely the “rented” property of the game owners/developers? I understand that people pay to use the game, but does this give them the right to make their own money from it? Personally, I don’t view the practice as wrong so long as the parties involved understand what is going on. Essentially what is happening is that one player of WoW is forfeiting their password/account to another player who then goes on to continue playing the game at no real loss to the game creators. Still, however, it remains an ethical issue.

Secondly: copyright. I gathered from the first reading that there is apparently a court case (Sony v. Bleem, 2000) which established the right for gamers to take screen shots from games for fair use. I don’t know how far this precedent extends, but I assume given the amount of individual input into an account on World of Warcraft and the amount of personal gameplay and agency involved that there is an argument for personal ownership of WoW accounts.

Thirdly: scalping. This is a combination of both ownership and copyright and poses an ethical issue. Is it right for people to make money by buying and selling WoW accounts? Personally I don’t have an issue, but many other people do have a problem with it, viewing it as a form of stealing from the game creators. It is certainly an interesting issue to look in to.

Gaming and Politics

Gaming is often thrown around negatively in the political arena. Every so often a complaint is made about video game violence in relation to children, with games such as Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt pointed to as being particularly evil. Like most things in politics, this connection between video game violence and youth crime is drawn upon so often yet never really substantiated. I once did an assignment regarding violent television and behaviour in children with the conclusion being that there is no solid evidence of a causal connection between the two. I assume that the same goes for video games.

To me, it is a matter of WHY games are being played. They could be played as an emotional release, as a way to train the mind or simply out of boredom. What different players take out of the games cannot be generalised as such to demonise them as instructional tools for murderous psychopathic children.

On the other hand, political concerns cannot be ignored. The question must be asked whether a modern environment filled with easy access to video game violence does contribute to social problems or not. If anything, video games are developing a culture of young people that think and act differently to previous generations. So it must be asked: what does this mean?

Those are just a few random thoughts on the topic of video games. And, to finish, I will post what I promised those in my tutorial:

Craig Robertson