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In-Depth Information
a
WoW
player, have both fi led suit against companies for such practices.
Hernandez' suit, fi led in 2007, was meant to be a class action against Inter-
net Games Entertainment (IGE). Patentarcade.com, a website devoted to IP
protection and the gaming industry, reported that:
The amended complaint in the Hernandez suit alleged that “IGE's cal-
culated decision to reap substantial profi ts by knowingly interfering with
and substantially impairing the intended use and enjoyment” of
WoW
through its gold-farming, camping spawns, and spamming chat . . . led
to lost time, competitive disadvantage, and diminished experience for
honest game subscribers (Patentarcade Staff 2009).
Both of these suits were settled, but such practices continue to pop up
in ephemeral companies that form fl uid but irrepressible parasitical in-
dustries, including the sale of accounts with highly valuable characters—a
practice forbidden but not snuffed out by most publishers of multiplayer
games.
8
Hey, sounds like a good game premise to me. I'm sure somebody's
done it.
In conclusion, the previous two sections are intended to illustrate many
of the ways in which interactors or players exert causal infl uences
through
their interactions with one another
that are outside of the direct control of
designers. By providing affordances for discourse and discussion as well
as affordances that encourage or require group action within multiplayer
games, designers create conditions for an effl orescence of possibilities for
action and experience. At the same time, designers rely on the social, stra-
tegic, and artistic actions of individuals to enhance the dramatic shape of
incidents and whole actions. Both designers and players can fall prey to
parasitic forces that intend to subvert the intended experience. In many
cases, designers have had to “embrace and enfold” such forces because
of their power (e.g., sale of in-world materials for real-world money) or
popularity, as in the case of “cheats,” acknowledging to varying degrees
that they have become normative. Both designers and interactors are con-
stantly called upon to deal with the various dark economies that plague
(and tempt) them. It is up to the designer (or publisher) as well as the vir-
tual community of interactors to safeguard the experience.
8. Like the “ask” for donations to political candidates and even to parties trying to advance
legislation, it seems that gaming—like democracy—comes with corrupting infl uences that
must be borne (for the time being) by players and citizens. Of course, opinions may vary.
