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Protests, Politics And Parties In MMORPGs
The Importance of writes "LawMeme's James Grimmelmann has written an interesting piece on protests, politics and parties in MMORPGs. In particular, he talks about the 'tax revolt' in Second Life."
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What happened in the online trial
Several years back, the Lake Superior shard (UO game server) was having serious problems. So a bunch of folks who played on that server hopped over to the Atlantic shard to protest. For whatever reason, it was red dress instead of going naked: Screenshot 1 Screenshot 2, they put us in jail
Of course, naked protests aren't unheard of. I don't recall what this one was about, but we were a merry band of nude archers: Naked Posse
Frigax
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
When I tried to persuade a waring faction of savages to lay down their weapons and join me in peace, I quickly found myself splattered against a nearby wall by a stray rocket. Awakening in a nearby chamber (Damn cloning, I protested against that, too!) and proceeded to shout my pleas to pacify the barbarians shooting at each other. After several hours of this and quit, there's no use playing a roleplaying game with so little character interaction and virtually no economy.
Quake had to be the worst MUD I'd ever played!
Banaaaana!
Shit, man, he's probably gonna be in you're goddamn city at some point, he's trying to get you to agree with him, after all, just drive down and yell "Ashcroft's a fucktard!" It's not that much work. You probably won't even have to see any of those scary hippies with their infernal Puppets of Doom.
Seriously, I'm betting you think protests are dangerous, right? They're not, at all. Maybe WTO stuff, but they'll never have another one of those in the US again. It's like a barbeque, only with no food or water and nobody invited you. You yell some crap you may or may not understand ("No Blood for Oil?" Whatever.), at a wall or something because you'll never get to see whatever the hell it is you're protesting, then it starts raining and you go home. Unless you're meta-protesting Fred Phelps and he mistakes you for one of his kids and tries to rape you, you'll be fine. PATRIOT ACT protests aren't "cool" or whatever anyway, so there'll only ever be like a dozen old ladies there anyway.
Second Life?
Are the creators sure these people had a 'first' life?
[Chief Wiggum] Mod it down, boys! [/Chief Wiggum]
- I am made of meat.
Okay, you win. "Lord of the Flies" isn't the bible on what happens with the lack of government. Maybe it's the "flies" part that isn't reliable. I personally never trusted flies much myself. They always land on my food. It must be "Lord of the Rings." Rings are much better than flies, after all. If somone came up to you and said, "What do you want, a ring or a fly?" I bet you'd go for the ring every time. I know I would.
With lack of "government" (mortal kings, dwarf lords, and elf lords who were corrupted by the rings), the strong prey upon the weak (Ring Wraiths come after hobbits), and it all goes back to normal society when someone loses a finger (because anarchy is all fun & games until someone loses a digit).
I think it's obvious what conclusion we can draw from this: tax on items will go away from Second Life just as soon as one of the creators loses a finger.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
Personally, I only protest in games instead of real life because I don't have to really walk around in games, just click a mouse, and I never walk when I don't really have to.
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.