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Sims Griefers Get More Publicity
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a CNN article highlighting players turning to lawlessness and deviance in The Sims Online. This subject, which other reports covered a while back, seems to fascinate the media, and CNN says the problems of bad behavior are "..raising questions about whether limits on conduct should be set in such emerging virtual worlds, even if they are huge adult playpens." Additionally, the article ruminates on more serious problems, as disputes that escalate beyond the virtual "..could lead to more real-world, legal liability for both players and the companies that make the games."
I think it's interesting in a sense; criminals in a virtual world kind of add an interesting dynamic to the game. I don't see the problem with it unless assets in the game had real-life worth, which has obvious negative implications and probably requires some standards of conduct. I guess the penalty would be having your cd key blocked, a la Blizzard.
Crimson Knights
Some players have reported online spats leaking out of the game players have hacked into others' accounts, posed as acquaintances and spread rumors about real people through instant messaging. Some have even reported identity theft.
Sounds just like IRC. Stuff like this has been going on forever. It's not just in MMO games, it happens in FPS and Chat rooms too.
Sounds like the Sims Online is so boring, people need to make their own fun.
cpeterso
The Crimson Knights are essentially self-appointed guardians of order in the .hack fictional game 'The World'
Guess whoever moderated that off-topic, didn't know that and didn't... I don't know, but it has to be more than simply not knowing that reference.
I have a difficult time with this one. I do think that games such as SIMS might have a negative effect on society, but at the same time these are adults that have their own minds (should know right from wrong, reality from fiction). I don't really know where to stand on this one.
Although I understand where you're coming from, there is the issue that these people are paying a monthly fee to play a game thats supposed to be enjoyable. When the experience is ruined because some moron has found a way to harrass other users, it can be quite infuriating.
All this talk of the mob in TSO makes me want to play it! It seemed boring and repetitive before, now only if they made a Vice City Online....
- tom -
The couple say they have ransacked apartments, sent out their "troops" to urinate on others' lawns and once drove another player from the game.
Am I the only one of burst out laughing on that one? How evil can you get, really? While you're dealing drugs in Grand Theft Auto and driving over innocent people in Carmageddon, you piss on lawns in The Sims Online!
What's so bad about being lazy? What if there was a war and nobody showed up?
Clay Shirky wrote an excellent article about this online problem that has existed since before the internet when all there was were BBS titled: A Group is its own Worst Enemy. It's a long and very good read about how not all members of a large group are equal and how the more important members need some way to "defend" themselves to protect the health of the group. Near the end of the essay he says:
This sims problem is just another example of history repeating itself.
and all the comments from the farkers have been, "omg, lol, that is so c00l!!!11!. Seriously, just because one website beats another to a story doesn't mean the website is better. I enjoy the comments on slashdot much more. Hedonist123
http://goldysmom.blogspot.com
Can anyone actually verify the kind of griefing that goes on in the sims online? I read the original article about it, but i read from some that the things they were saying in the article weren't possible. Has anyone actually experienced any of this alleged sims online griefing first hand, or is this a case of the media manufacturing a story?
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
Isn't this always the case? Something exists for a small community and then it hits the mainstream, but the mainstream can't handle the sudden change.
I'm afraid the sims players who can't handle a group of people pee'ing on their lawns will have to develop a thicker skin if they choose to play online games with strangers. If you think that's bad, wait until you play a PvP game.
There's room for argument about what to do with harrasment, but that's up to the game admins and management to fix. If the sims is that bad, then quit. A simple vote with your dollar will get the message across.
What really gets me is the suggestion of law to control MMO*s. Really now, its just a game.
My cynical side sees the lowest common denominator, at least here in the US/Midwest area, as being extremely thin-skinned. A parent complains about something being "offensive" and the school board jumps through hoops to please them. An opinion that goes against the mainstream is now "traitorous" etc.
I think the interconnecting the net does either through the web or online games will really force some people to simply grow up, for the lack of a better term, and realize that even virtual worlds cannot be completely controled or fall in-line with their Xtian-Judeo ethics. Its a big world out there, you're better off learning to deal with your problems in an intelligent way and develop tolerance than running to the first authority figure and complain about how people aren't being "nice."
The way I think this would work would be to give people the ability to "file suit" against one another in the game. One filing wouldn't trigger anything since the court system would subsequently be as overloaded as the one in real life. You could set a number (maybe 100?) so that once that number of suits was reached against a single person the court system would be activated. A judge would be selected from available GMs and they would inform both parties (the last to file suit would be the complainant [sp?] and of course the respondant) via e-mail to get their evidence (not to exceed 5k) together for trial and submitted two hours before the trial (trial date/time set at a time when both parties are typically online). Note that if either party doesn't show up to trial they would be subject to a one-week suspension without appeal.
The GM would then review the evidence and decide (subject to review by their supervisor) if the case has merit. If it does, then an hour before trial the GM would send out jury requests to 50 potential jurors (these would be random and would not include anyone who has sued, or been sued by, either of the two parties to the suit; maybe even chosen from another server entirely). Out of those 50, the first 13 (no hung juries) to show up at the virtual courthouse (by selecting it from a menu) would be empaneled. These jurors would then read the documents (logs) submitted before trial.
Once trial starts and both parties are present, each would have the opportunity to examine the other by asking five fairly simple questions. The judge would enforce a time limit of one minute for the question and the response. Each party could have one witness, allowed to participate in two questions each. The judge can then ask two questions of each party.
Once all that's done, the jury votes for the complainant or the defendant. If the complainant loses, they are suspended for two days for wasting the court's time. If the defendant loses, their punishment would be decided by the judge based both on the current act and potentially any prior acts (lost suits), ranging from a one-week suspension to complete banning. A trial under these circumstances, by the way, should clock in at under an hour.
By the way, disabling people's chat in the courtroom during this time (except for those asking or being asked questions) would be a given.
Finally, a tag would be put on the defendant, win or lose. Their suit counter would drop in half so that fewer filings would be required over the next two months to activate a trial. Further, if someone loses three suits as a defendant they're banned.
Doesn't all that sound like fun? Well, probably as much fun as The Sims Online is likely to get, anyway. :)
Instead of banning these people from the game pernamently, how about creating a special server for those who have more "creative" inclanations for the game.
Would create a much more realistic enviroment for everyone who plays on those servers.
redune.com: The World 3.2 Megapixels at a time
I pay my taxes so that my life is enjoyable, but I have to deal with crazy shit every day! Where can't I find crime, extortion, etc. in any city?
Psychologists who study online behavior say in-game spats and the visceral responses to them aren't surprising. With simulations becoming more lifelike, the line between real and fake is blurred.
Supposing for just a second that this game has managed to shape up and get playable in the past few months, and supposing that any Sims game were an adequate simulation of real life (which it doesn't), then Maxis seems to have involuntarily exposed its captive audience to Baudrillard's ideas from Simulacra and Simulation . Maybe being mean to people in a reality-template is as bad as the real thing--who would've thunk it? What if TSO karma carries over into real life? What if this is all the matrix anyway?!?
Or maybe it was a slow news day and the media is overthinking the situation.
We recently had heard in the office over one of the Yellow Machine that's made by Anthology Solutions.
ok, so what is the sims online supposed to be? some semi-life simulation of a small city?
take a small city, take away all authority and make everyone wear a changeable rubber face(that can be changed by just keying in your ssn), and make everyone's age between 16 and 30 years.
so what happens? people run amok because there's no law system to set the limits, stupid people let them get tricked out of their ssn(login/pass in s.o.) and others after that appear as them doing stuff they wouldn't like.
doh!
the problem with games communities is that the game has to be few years old before all the dickheads get bored of it, and sims online is marketed to just those same dickheads(and some girls/women who are potentially clueless about defending themselfs in such virtual environment, and with sims online also that there is practically nil real skills that you could practice to become a better player apart, no extra careful tactic planning or timing the flag run and practicing to do the rocket jump at the right place, basically all you should do would be flirt around being all adorable).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
"It's only a game but the people operating those little animated cartoons are real," said Holly Shevenock, a postal worker from Harrisburg, Pennsylania.
Note to self: don't mess with the postal worker to much... She might finish that thought....
"It's only a game but the people operating those little animated cartoons are real, and they bleed just like all those impatient people that all come in the post office at exactly 12:01 pm every day and want instantaneous service!!!! those same people are the ones that bitch when we raise the price of the stamp by a friggin penny to put more people at the counter!!! They make me so mad, I just want to kill something!!!
we have all heard the end of that story one to many times...
Let me get this straight....
People buy Sims online, and they don't like it, because things have gone wrong. People are being lewd, others are forming crime syndicates to extort from and abuse other users, the economy is falling apart. In short, its Sim-anarchy.
I have a quick solution, quit the game. When you buy something, especially something involving a subscription, you have the option at any time to terminate that subscription and get on with your life. Just because you buy something and it sucks, you are not entitled to money, you lost your $50 and the $12 x months you played, try a demo next time. Unless you sustained some sort of permanant injury from your time speant participating in "the Simms online" you are not entitled to money. I never got that 2 hours of my life stollen from me when I got dragged to see "the fast and the furious" you don't get your time back either.
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
The obvious solution to me is not to make rules against it and kick people off(pissing off people who seem to me, to be playing within the limits of the game). Make the rules such that BEING a "hitman" negatively hurts YOU. If those redmarks are bad(I'm under the impression this is how you take hits on people), give players negative points for each red mark they make. If they dislike lots of people, it's probably not all those other people that are the problem. Make the red marks not count--or even count negatively against the person doing the hit.
I don't see how prostitution could be bad. Is it that big a deal to have a bit flipped saying "these two had sex"?
Or, have the Sims get paid a wage for being cops. And judges. It'd be pretty easy to find out "what REALLY happened". The judges could take away red marks and add them to the "criminals".
The more dimensions you add to a game, the better.
If you're of the type that believes that gangs exist because the people in them have no better options in their life, then think of the implications that might have for people in an online gang o.o
Is the Sims Online really THAT boring?