Slashdot Mirror
Experts Discuss Virtual Theft And Real Crime
Harlequeen writes According to the BBC, police forces across the globe are looking into whether on-line theft in MMORPGs can be considered a real crime. A law expert called in by the BBC seems to think they can, but does virtual crime need real justice?" The piece takes earlier revelations about Korean cybercrime as a starting point, and Dr Roger Leng of the University of Warwick agrees that "the law has no problems treating the intangible as valuable", suggesting: "It's possible to steal any form of property right which is not represented by tangible objects."
It's a good thought but it falls down on the basis of the article Slashdot posted a few days ago but I can't find: The reason guards will never truly form in a successful MMORPG is that the guards have no weapons.
Don't let the profusion of "swords", "guns", "spells" or other "HP damaging" items fool you. "HP" is meaningless. There's nothing you can do to truly harm an antisocial person on an MMORPG, because the only weapons you have are social.
How long would you be willing to be a guard, if "being a guard" entailed killing the same theif, over and over again, with nothing to show for it but maybe some equipment loss for the theif and maybe some XP loss for the theif, bearing in mind that both are just numbers on a server somewhere? After you answer that, you'll understand why there are no player guards.