Cecil Kleakins

Last month, a Mefi post about a virtual conflict in a popular video game somehow caught my attention and I spent at least an hour trying to figure out what it was all about. Somehow, it captured my imagination as a sociological dilemma that occurred entirely in virtual space–yet the basis of the ethical knot was entirely in real space.

Real-World Taboo (funerals are sacred rites, spirits must be honored, etc)
Virtual Transgression (virtual funeral party for virtual avatar whose real player died is ambushed and massacred in game space)

MUDs and MMORPGs are alternate worlds where one can don an avatar in order to co-opt an alternate personality with all its attendant behaviors. The otherwise lawful and conscientious citizen can become a virtual Ken Lay (a fascinating read), bilking others out of millions in imaginary currencies. Yet this occurs firmly on the edge of a game which fully allows for such criminalilty in its very structure. These worlds, far from lawless, contain a set of silicon-clad rules which are nearly unbreakable. Free will is only allowed along firmly established trails. Yet where these intersections become most fascinating is where avatars escape from gamespace into meatspace–where what we call real life is infected with the downloaded backwash of gameplay.

This has led to the surreal appearance of etiquette in an otherwise lawless frontier populated by monsters where murder is commonplace.

Ok, I’ve procrastinated long enough ruminating on geek crack.

End Note: Much has been researched about the sociological structure of virtual worlds: their economies, the real-life player demographics, and the real and imagined legalities within gamespace and beyond.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 1st, 2006 at 11:31 am and is filed under Politics, Geek Crack. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.