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Beyond Griefing: Virtual Crime

Beyond Griefing: Virtual Crime

Angela Adrian
Copyright: © 2010 |Pages: 15
ISBN13: 9781615207954|ISBN10: 1615207953|ISBN13 Softcover: 9781616923181|EISBN13: 9781615207961
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61520-795-4.ch009
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MLA

Angela Adrian. "Beyond Griefing: Virtual Crime." Law and Order in Virtual Worlds: Exploring Avatars, Their Ownership and Rights, IGI Global, 2010, pp.183-197. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61520-795-4.ch009

APA

A. Adrian (2010). Beyond Griefing: Virtual Crime. IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61520-795-4.ch009

Chicago

Angela Adrian. "Beyond Griefing: Virtual Crime." In Law and Order in Virtual Worlds: Exploring Avatars, Their Ownership and Rights. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2010. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61520-795-4.ch009

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Abstract

Because there is so much money involved in virtual worlds these days, there has been an increase in criminal activity in these worlds as well. The gaming community calls people who promote conflict “griefers”. Griefers are people who like nothing better than to kill team-mates or obstruct the game’s objectives. Griefers scam, cheat and abuse. Recently, the have begun to set up Ponzi schemes. In games that attempt to encourage complex and enduring interactions among thousands of players, “griefing” has evolved from being an isolated nuisance to a social disease. Much in the same way crime has become the real world’s social disease. Grief is turning into crime. Some consider virtual worlds to be a game and therefore outside the realms of real law and merely subject to the rules of the game. However, some virtual worlds have become an increasingly important as a method of commerce and means of communication. In most circumstance the law is reluctant to intrude into the rules of the game, but it will do if necessary. (Lastowka & Hunter, 2004) Criminal law applies in virtual worlds as it does in the real world, but not necessarily in the manner that a player would expect or want. The law looks at the real consequences of actions, not the on-screen representations. (Kennedy, 2009)

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