I just read the article @ Gamasutra The China Angle: The Year of the Addicted Gaming Rat[^], and just HAD to write some thoughts around “Divorce China Style”.

This article first made me a little shocked, then a little sad about how things are evolving in the virtual world. But then I started thinking a little more about the subject.

Why would this shock me and then make me a little sad? After all, it’s inevitable! A lot of people meet in online communities like MMO’s, Facebook, Myspace, IRC and hook up in Real Life. And a good percent of these I am sure end up in a marriage.
And as all real life marriages, couples share stuff, so why not virtual assets too? I mean, they could build a huge house on their bought island in Second Life, or spend 100’s of hours in any online game, acquiring phat lewt, or even use RL money on ebay or powerlevel services!
There so much about online communities that can be translated into RL money, and time… And as we all know, time = money
So I actually settled on a “But of course!” feeling in the end of the article.

But then I kept thinking…. And here is what scares me a little. Imagine in one of the MMO’s out there, two players meet in-game, they live on separate sides of the world, and have no plans whatsoever to meet in RL. But there is some common interests between them, and they like each other “virtually”
So they decide to get married in-game, as so many players do in online games.
And like RL marriages, they start sharing virtual assets like housing, phat lewt and might even give each other their account details so they can help each other level.
Then comes the day when they don’t like each other as much as before, or they might have drifted apart as often happens in online communities, so they decide to have a divorce… What now???
Who keeps what? Who gets the house? Who keeps the phat lewt and the mules and the different accounts they might have shared?
Since this is no legal marriage, RL lawsuit won’t get anywhere. So what then?

My thoughts right now is that there’s a possibility future MMO’s might need to enforce virtual laws. Or even make lawyers/judges/courts to settle virtual lawsuits!
Just take a minute and imagine a virtual world where you can be sued!
I guess it would solve PK-problems though… :p

1 Comment to “4 virtual weddings and a lawsuit”

1. BionicBadBoi — January 14, 2008 @ 9:29
   

   I suppose it would be easiest if the companies providing these games made a set of rules, and provided judges or actual lawyers to settle such disputes. It sure sounds complicated.

   In the kind of MMO I’d like to play where the guilds will have assets that can be shared with its members by rank of privilege, I suppose you might have had use for a judge of sorts as well, if the company’s assets were to be liquidised and distributed among its members or founders.

   Getting sued for PKing sounds rather unlikely. If PKing is possible, it shall be done. but of course, you could argue that if somebody constantly bothers you when you’re online (ganking/griefing you) then you could perhaps sue for harassment. Still, it is unlikely that it will ever happen. I don’t know what to do with the helplessness of the bothered part.

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