This last week Raph Koster's blog pointed to an Associated Press article that has wider implications. These are implications that, to my mind leave me asking "whose game is it?" - But have me coming up with more than one answer. For those of you who may have missed it, here is the article:"Dutch youths convicted of virtual theft On the face of it, anyone who has ever read an End User License Agreement (EULA) will think they have an immediate answer: The game belongs to the developers. But maybe not... Mark Jacobs has made it known far and wide that the very bane of his existence as a game developer is gold farmers; in fact he has launched an all out war on them in Warhammer Online. Blizzard bans more players for gold selling than some communities have residents. But with all those efforts made by both EA and Activision/Blizzard their efforts are just a matter of the proverbial Dutch boy putting his finger into what may have become an ever widening hole in a dike with millions of dollars on the other side. Beyond the legal implications, however, the article got me thinking about some practical implications as well when it comes to the question: whose game is it? What about the situation where a game developer like Mythic decides its game is supposed to be about Realm vs. Realm but the players decide they want something different out of the game? The blogosphere is rife with articles blasting players for not playing "the right way". Consider some games like Ryzom where players were not only able to create their own content but were then able to upload it to the games main servers where other players could access the player created areas. Games like Ultima Online (UO) have a long history of user created worlds, albeit not exactly with the willful tolerance of EA. Not only was I a gm for such a world I spent a good deal of time designing content and live events for a "private shard" as they are called. In any successful organization there comes a time when it will grow past its original founders as so many corporations do once they go public. However, virtual worlds are unique. As players we spend a good deal of our lives in them. We invest a good deal of ourselves in them. Even when the latest greatest MMO hits the shelves many games still have a devoted and loyal player base. I had one dear friend that told me she would be the last one there to "shut out the lights" when EA finally closed down their UO servers. There is little doubt in my mind that once she shuts out the light on EA's servers she will be turning them on somewhere else. See you online, Julie Whitefeather |