The Weird World of RPG

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ukgimp on Mon, 2005-08-22 05:25.

Bollocks

13 comments

Source Title:
Student held over online mugging

Source Url:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4165880.stm

Story Text:

The BBC report on an online mugging in Japan. The "crime" was commited by bots in RPG games - Life, stranger than fiction...

Police in Japan have arrested a Chinese student over the use of a network of software "bots" to steal items in an online role playing game (RPG).

and

However, for every improvement in bot detection, the bots themselves become more complex and more difficult to spot.

Seems a bit heavy though, arresting the dude, but maybe i dont understant the seriousness of RPG.

Comments

There are a subset of people out there who live for their online lives. There are entire black economies in online "credits", special items, "grinding" (paying someone to do the tediuos work of taking a brand new character up to high levels, so you can do "the fun stuff") and more that you just DON'T want to know about.

Did you know there is a Sims Online brothel? I wish I didn't...

this is important because of the lack of laws

goodroi on Mon, 2005-08-22 05:42.

the full story is here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4165880.stm

Basically this exchange student used a bot to steal virutal items from players in an online game and then he sold them for money on auctions sites. If these were physical items it would be a clear case of theft. Since these are virtual items there is no law that clearly addresse the issue. This is another example of how the laws have not caught up with technology. In SEO there are many ways that you can sabotage your competition and there are no laws to stop you.

ps you can make good money dealing with the rpg people

strange...

ppg on Mon, 2005-08-22 05:47.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4165880.stm

Quote:

their items were then sold for cash on auction sites.

I guess the owners of hte virtual items could sue for damages since the items seem to have some worth in the real world?

Quote:

Use of bots is a frequent problem in online gaming, and most game publishers have invested heavily in trying to eliminate them from their games.

Hmmm, mebee the game developers can make a case for damages.
Does seem somewhat ridiculous tho. If a bot killed someone's online character in a game, could a case be made for online murder?

The world get stranger every day.

>edit< beat me to it goodroi :)

nevermind online murder...

willohara on Mon, 2005-08-22 06:52.

Qui Chengwei, 41, from Shanghai, had won the 'dragon sabre' in the internet game Legend of Mir III, but decided to lend it to his fellow player Zhu Caoyuan.

The row flared when Caoyuan sold the virtual weapon to anther gamer for £500 without its owner's consent.

Chengwei's pleas to local police fell on deaf ears as it was decided that no theft had legally been committed because the sword did not exist in the physical world.

After hearing this ruling Chengwei broke into Caoyuan's home and stabbed him in the chest.

Chengwei was found guilty of murder and given a suspended death sentence. Subject to two years' good conduct, he will not be executed but will spend the rest of his life in prison.

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2137705/online-game-ends-murder

I play World of Warcraft,

Mopatop on Mon, 2005-08-22 06:54.

I play World of Warcraft, and in that all the items are property of the game makers, Blizzard. Under their terms, the buying and selling of game items for money will result in an immediate cancellation of your account and a ban, and in the more extreme cases (this would be an example), they will prosecute. I think they could prosecute under IP or breach of contract.

I played "americas army" a

twadmin on Mon, 2005-08-22 06:59.

I played "americas army" a lot last year - not really an RPG - but kinda...

And accounts are regularly sold on eBay with high points, and all the harder training done for you - seems a waste to me, half the fun is becoming skilled at a game...

Some online games

TallTroll on Mon, 2005-08-22 07:19.

are open to multiple account abuse. For instance the online Star Wars game allows you to "earn" Jedi abilities through experience. If your normal account Jedi has a bad rep for being a shade murderous, you can start a fresh account.

Get someone else to "grind" through the 40-ish hours required to achieve Jedi status, then pick it up yourself, and stay Light-side this time. Once you've achieved a good Light rep, you can lure someone into a kill zone with your "clean" account, and jump them with your Dark Jedi.

you lot need help :-)

ukgimp on Mon, 2005-08-22 07:24.

:-)

although i am curious about this virtual knocking shop lol

>> curious about this virtual knocking shop

TallTroll on Mon, 2005-08-22 07:36.

Yeah, I heard that about you.

There are trojans developed

Brian_Turner on Mon, 2005-08-22 10:03.

There are trojans developed entirely to steal passwords from other players for online games. Quite a niche.

Jesus Talltroll I hope that

richardb on Mon, 2005-08-22 13:07.

Jesus Talltroll I hope that Craig is ok!

...into a kill zone with your "clean" account, and jump them with your Dark Jedi...

If this is what you guys get up to! And I thought that UKgimp was a pervert after spending an evening with him, whilst pissed at (er what was the hotel called) trying to reset the hotels homepage to some very seriously sleazy porn site at pubcon6!

harsh

ukgimp on Mon, 2005-08-22 15:06.

Quote:

And I thought that UKgimp was a pervert after spending an evening with him

As i remember I only jested about doing the old homepage switch. It was not a porn site, just text that leaded to some signup pages. But I thought twice about it....1 - out of order, 2 - no one would fall for it and most important 3 - it had my friggin whois info on it.

Sony Station Exchange

willohara on Thu, 2005-08-25 03:15.

Sony is the first major publisher of MMO games to enter into the lucrative world of gaming's so-called secondary markets. For years, however, a vast number of MMO players have bought and sold their virtual battle axes, high-level wizards and platinum for real money through online exchanges such as eBay and IGE. By some estimates, the traffic in virtual goods is worth as much as $880 million in real cash every year

Sony Station Exchange a big hit with online gamers