Gamer’s Rights-Security
Seems minimal, yes? When playing a free game, or “freemium”, or pay-to-play, or subscription; at the very least you should walk away with at least as much as you came in with, huh?
So does that mean “security” in the sense that the playing field is level? Is that the utmost goal in security you wish? No cheats, bots, account-sharing (I know that dude hasn’t slept in 3 days, he’s creaming me), gold-buying from third-parties, or mysteriously-appearing floating islands that are incredibly “bought up” before your pathetic little avatar can run on her short legs to get there? Well? What about second-level? Does that mean security in the sense that the money you’ve put in your online bank has disappeared? All your hard-earned dollars transferred to virtual dollars, and then trounced by a virtual run on the virtual bank? Or the sword that you so carefully saved from your RL savings account is bought, only to see that every Tom, Dick, and Leif from Europe has bought it for half the cost? And now the serious part, third-level? Have you ever had your credit-card hacked from your online ongoing subscription account? Have you been overcharged by a 3rd-party goods dealer within the game that took $200 for a $20 scarf (these 3rd-parties are not sanctioned, sorry). Have you ever gotten an in-game email asking for confidential information? (It’s not us, we’d never ask for that information… didn’t you read the 14-page EULA that you clicked on?).
First off, the very basic act of your MMO that you are playing being defrauded. An interesting article from 2008 talks about how easy it is for some users to defraud MMOs with stolen credit cards, fake user information, and other stolen items. Now you may feel that this is the problem of the MMO alone, but if a substantial percentage of your compatriots on the game are using “other people’s money” to buy virtual goods, upgrade their armor, increase their levels… then where does that leave the honest player? Exactly. Does it rise to a legal duty; probably not… but then again from an economic standpoint word gets around and in time your “personal investment” is worthless once the looters have started in on a “vunerable world.” Another related whitepaper from Information Week (download requires registration) talks about how easy it is for bots, illegal scripts, and unscrupulous characters to overwhelm an online game that is soft on security.
Secondly, the example of Entropia being licensed for an in-game bank (in Sweden) may fall in the second AND third category. If you’ve real money invested, then it could be a real money loss, as well. There’s another groundbreaking article on How Security Breaches ruin it for all of us by ruining the illusion of a common playing field. If you’ve fought the long fight for that “special sword”, and then seen it “reproduced” in a hundred other hands… how does that make you feel? Is it a security breach, or just a peace of mind breach?
Thirdly, and probably the only category that will (eventually) bring ground-breaking legal judgments, is the real-world loss of money. Credit-card thefts, in-game robberies of online banks (with RL assets), these are few and far between. The only examples I am aware of so far are the Eve bank from last year, and the PSN incident from this year (which really didn’t count because only passwords were compromised, not credit cards).
The best link I have found so far in keeping up with security issues is Play No Evil which is written by a security expert, but with the subject of video games.
Jay Moffitt is a TN attorney. The statements made are not legal advice, and no attorney/client privilege is created. He claims no certification in the subject matter listed, and TN does not offer certification in this subject matter. Comments are welcome and will be responded to with courtesy and timeliness. Copyright September 27, 2009.
