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Chicken Killers or Bandwidth Patriots?: A Case Study of Ethics in Virtual Reality

Chicken Killers or Bandwidth Patriots?: A Case Study of Ethics in Virtual Reality

Kurt Reymers
Copyright: © 2011 |Volume: 2 |Issue: 3 |Pages: 22
ISSN: 1947-3451|EISSN: 1947-346X|EISBN13: 9781613509432|DOI: 10.4018/jte.2011070101
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MLA

Reymers, Kurt. "Chicken Killers or Bandwidth Patriots?: A Case Study of Ethics in Virtual Reality." IJT vol.2, no.3 2011: pp.1-22. http://doi.org/10.4018/jte.2011070101

APA

Reymers, K. (2011). Chicken Killers or Bandwidth Patriots?: A Case Study of Ethics in Virtual Reality. International Journal of Technoethics (IJT), 2(3), 1-22. http://doi.org/10.4018/jte.2011070101

Chicago

Reymers, Kurt. "Chicken Killers or Bandwidth Patriots?: A Case Study of Ethics in Virtual Reality," International Journal of Technoethics (IJT) 2, no.3: 1-22. http://doi.org/10.4018/jte.2011070101

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Abstract

In 2008, a resident of a computerized virtual world called “Second Life” programmed and began selling a “realistic” virtual chicken. It required food and water to survive, was vulnerable to physical damage, and could reproduce. This development led to the mass adoption of chicken farms and large-scale trade in virtual chickens and eggs. Not long after the release of the virtual chickens, a number of incidents occurred which demonstrate the negotiated nature of territorial and normative boundaries. Neighbors of chicken farmers complained of slow performance of the simulation and some users began terminating the chickens, kicking or shooting them to “death.” All of these virtual world phenomena, from the interactive role-playing of virtual farmers to the social, political and economic repercussions within and beyond the virtual world, can be examined with a critical focus on the ethical ramifications of virtual world conflicts. This paper views the case of the virtual chicken wars from three different ethical perspectives: as a resource dilemma, as providing an argument from moral and psychological harm, and as a case in which just war theory can be applied.

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