Danger in Online Worlds

FTC’s report on adult content in online worlds A full story from PC Mag says report claims adult content still viewable by children, despite precautions. Notably, “It is far too easy for children and young teens to access explicit content in some of these virtual worlds,” FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a statement. ” [...]

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Developer’s Buffet

Well, in the spirit of the holiday I can’t decide on just one main course; so I’ll give you a little of everything. Difference between a cheater and a spoilsport, towards the end of the lecture. The rest is a nice discussion of the roles of role-playing and the importance of narrative.. as well as [...]

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Your avatar and your identity?

A lot of thoughts lately from various sites about the role of your avatar and your identity. From Pixels and Policy, a great article about the attractiveness of avatars, and how it influences your popularity in virtual worlds. From a site focusing on gender, gender equality, and other issues, a great article entitled “Real World [...]

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Banning in Games

What rights does a player have not to be banned; and what responsibility does a developer, and further an administrator, of a game have to ban cheating, harassing, or obnoxious players? First I’ll talk about banning a player for in-game conduct, either through speech that’s found problemsome; or either through conduct in playing the game, [...]

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Evony – the lawsuit

I am not going to link directly to either supposedly libelous article, but instead will focus on the legal case and the practical life lessons involved. A critical blogger has been sued by the maker of Evony, an online free-to-play browser game. The sued party has listed each and every page of the complaint, pages [...]

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