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Banned Sims Online Chronicler Bites Back
Thanks to GameSpot for its interview with Peter Ludlow on his recent banning from The Sims Online following his documenting of tawdry dealings in the MMO title. He discusses the interesting, if unintended griefing dynamics that have sprung up in The Sims Online: "You are given tools to mark individuals as friends (green links) and other individuals as bad (red links)... clans can emerge that will deploy the red links as weapons to control property in the game and extort in game currency from users", and why exactly he was banned from the game by Maxis/EA ("They say it was a TOS violation, but that hardly seems credible"), before concluding with his concerns over the title: "It's as though [EA] bought a shopping mall that was supposed to have all sorts of content for children and homemakers, but then let gangs and prostitutes run the place, and let scammers stand in the doorway and intercept everyone."
But even if Ludlow was censored, is that wrong? Ludlow says so. He just completed reading a biography of Benjamin Franklin, and "the Pennsylvania Colony, at the time, was basically the possession of the Penn family. Franklin had the temerity to say to them, 'It's not your world.' And a question is going to begin to arise in some of these worlds about exactly how arbitrary and capricious game owners can be just because they're maintaining the infrastructure for a virtual community."
This claim is ridiculous -- can he really not tell the difference between a real life colony and a virtual world? The Penn family didn't create the grass people walked on or the air they breathed. Wheras Maxis created everything. I think this shows how he has lost touch. He has taken the game too seriously and feels like he owns part of it. This is a natural recation but it's just not true in the end. It's Maxis's game through and through.
As for the story that they reported to the authorities about hearing a kid mention he beat his sister -- I cant see why that is any of maxis's resposibility. How many people do you think talk in chat rooms an in online games about bad things they have done which may or may not be true. Also, How many people make false reports of such stories? This is role that maxis COULDN'T perform logistically even if it wanted to. And, if it did police the chat with a heavy hand people would be up in arms about it and rightly so.
Also, he was generating a lot of bad publicity ( he was a self-described muck racker) for the game. This happens all the time and lots of people get banned from all sorts games for it and sometimes for even worse reasons like GM's being in a bad mood. It seems that his problem wasn't with the game but rather with the people it attracted. It seems like he had no problem with the game except that it wasn't the happy go lucky world that he imagined. And that's what he complained about. And those are the complaints he went around advertising by putting his site in everything.
Don't get me wrong though, I dont think he is a bad guy and I do think the newbie griefers should be banned too. But I don't this that maxis did the wrong thing either. From their perspective I could see this guy as someone who is really just there to complain about all that is wrong with people. Maybe that doesn't deserve a totall ban, but I think we should imagine what it was that HE was doing wrong before we jump down Maxi's throat with sensationalist stories about evil corporations. In the end it is they who have the chat logs and he only has his word.
meep
Yeah its a sim. The difference is, in the real world someone can (and will) punch you in the teeth if you're being a dickhead.
...excuse me?
:)
Like, could you imagine a "gang" of 14 year olds trying to push people around at a mall?
Kid: Hey asshole, this mall is OUR turf. $50 or you don't enter.
Me:
Kid: You heard me, bitch! The money or you get the fuck lost.
Me: Sorry, i've got shopping to do...
Kid: Fuck you! -- Get him girls! Use your unfriendly markers!
Me: What the hell? Get outta' my way! *Starts grabbing kids and hurling them into the fountain*
Oh yeah, and thats another thing - if I really started tossing kids around at the mall, i'd probably have a little organization called the Police to deal with afterwards. (Maybe you've heard of them?) AFAIK, they don't have those in TSO.
But hey, I can't blame the players. With no cops, and no fear of physical harm, i'd prolly be pimpin hoes and sellin crack too!