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Daniel Kline

ENG 101

Professor Bolton

13 March 2014

The Judge, The Jury, and The Virtual Thief

In an interesting article - "Should Gamers Be Prosecuted for Virtual Stealing?" - author

Alex Weiss calls out the judicial system on the trial of a teenaged "criminal" who was being

prosecuted for stealing within a video game. What seems to be a straight-forward legal blunder

becomes a rather heated debate as to if they had made the right call in arresting the child. More

importantly, it begs the question: do in-game actions accurately reflect the players' actual ethical

beliefs? Weiss is correct in stating that physical prosecution for virtual theft in the realm of video

games is wrong because each game reacts differently to such behaviors, and even though a

person may be a "pirate" in a game, does not necessarily make them criminals in the real world.

Weiss makes a great opening statement regarding the trial:

As a reformed online-gaming thief, this ruling makes no sense to me. It places too

much value on the time people spend playing video games. Video games are not

work or investments for which people should be compensated; they are escapism

(727).

They say that time is money, but that may not always be the case. Productivity is what makes

time valuable, so compensation for piracy of an object that does not even exist would place the

value on the time spent to gain a merely hypothetical item. If this can be seen as just, where

would it end? It is a well known fact that there are people out there who live large portions of

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their lives within MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games like EVE, World of Warcraft, and

Runescape. This extreme separation of life and recreation should not suck any real world

elements into it, especially the judicial system, because they fail to set a limit of time spent in

games and choose to sever themselves from the real world. If such a crossover were made legal,

then people would eventually develop reasons to sue their neighbors for watching television or

some other nonexistent crime. All in all, those who choose to spend their time unproductively

should not to expect to be compensated for what they lost during the process.

While some see turning to the law for in-game crimes as right, they fail to realize that

video games have their own system of punishments, so physical prosecution would not be

necessary. Weiss observes how games like World of Warcraft strictly punish their players for

scams, theft, and vulgar language. He says, "Violators can be banned, and victims' lost goods are

refunded." Weiss then goes on to point out how EVE actually encourages behavior of piracy to

give its players a sense of virtual freedom (729). There are many games with many different

styles and rules of engagement, so a universal punishment for these "crimes" would be unfit and

unfair. In essence, video game creators build games from the ground up, laying out rules and

laws and creating abilities; the chances are that if you are even able steal within the game

without the use of hacking, is likely to be okay.

Additionally, physical prosecution may be providing justice for the theft committed yet

providing injustice on a law abiding citizen. Video games make it too easy to steal, so what

happens when a non-criminal seizes the opportunity simply because its not necessarily illegal?

There is a sense of curiosity and fantasy that is overlooked when someone accuses an in-game

pirate. Depending on the game, there is typically a direction of character types laid out on the

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table: pirates, philanthropists, vigilantes, capitalists, and even barbarians. In these be-who-you-

want-to-be worlds, it is virtually impossible to determine the real life characteristics of the player

based on the character they create, so we now revisit the question: do in-game actions accurately

reflect the players' actual ethical beliefs? Many players enter these virtual worlds as an escape

from a bad day or as an outlet for creativity, so within these new worlds, people tend to be who

they are not. I know this because I can honestly say that I have dabbled in a virtual world as a

thief and murderer. A video game I have recently played- called Rust- is based in a post-

apocalyptic world where each player fends for themselves against the terrain and other players.

In this game, every player murders, steals, and lies as a method of survival, and observing the

behavior of the players, it would seem that you are playing video games with dangerous

criminals, but what about myself? I have never stolen before, and doing such a thing has never

even crossed my mind, yet thats how I play in Rust. Taking a step back with that knowledge, I

needed to realize that I was not the only person filling the shoes of a character who is my polar

opposite. The fact is that people who believe that every video game thief is a malicious criminal

in real life blatantly overlooks those who only steal out of in-game spontaneity.

The only point Weiss fails to mention is that even though piracy within the game may be

harmless, its effects on society may be greater than originally thought. Theft is everywhere, so

in-game theft comes to no surprise as it can be observed as lightening the way today's culture

looks at general piracy. Some gamers take advantage of low security virtual realms to "practice"

piracy and build harmful habits to fulfill in-game needs. Weiss gives an example of this fun-

filled piracy:

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in 2010 Pirates destroyed a ship that another player had filled with six years

worth of in-game subscription renewals. At the time, the six years worth of play

was valued at more than $1,000 in real money through EVEs rather complicated

financial system (728-729).

Though physical punishment is out of the question for this virtual crime committed in space-

capitalist hell, there must be consideration toward what is happening (727). This concept is

synonymous to desensitizing with violence. Though desensitization is not exactly illegal, it only

leads in one direction: down. As this culture is being heavily influenced by acts of piracy in

everyday video games, one can only notice what that means for the future of this world.

There's a fine line between judicial law and video game law, so the punishments thereof

should remain separated; it is a what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas approach to law and

order within the virtual realm. Even though some games allow piracy, one should think twice

about committing the act for the sake of our future. Could these arguments just be hasty

generalizations of a truly harmless phenomena or be truth about what is hiding deep down inside

of the hearts of our youth? Think about it.

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Works Cited

Weiss, Alex. Should Gamers Be Prosecuted for Virtual Stealing? The Norton Field Guide To

Writing. 3rd ed. Richard Bullock, Maureen Daly Goggin, and Francine Weinberg. New

York: Norton, 2013. 727-729. Print.

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!Horry-Georgetown Technical College

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The Judge, The Jury, and The Virtual Thief

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Daniel Kline

English 101, Section 3

Professor Bolton

18 March 2014

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