19: Feudal Law and MMOs: “I'm afraid he's AFK my liege”

19: Feudal Law and MMOs: “I'm afraid he's AFK my liege”

Alec Thompson, @AlecThomspon, University of Cambridge A simple question: does law require physical space? Apparently not – in 2006 a fully functioning legal system grew out of the medieval MMO Darkfall Online. At its peak, the system regulated over 5000 citizens. The ‘Duchy of Wessex’ was modelled on feudal England, created by dedicated roleplayers. It had judiciary, courts, feudal pyramid, and King; further, precedent, statutes and a constitution. With Law the Duchy coordinated the most powerful guild on the server. The entire system was socially constructed, using time, forums, and spreadsheets, with no assistance from game features. The court used a self-informing jury and judge combo. Jurors were summoned and challenged; they then interrogated evidence such as screenshots and witness testimony. In a video game, crime works differently. Throwing fireballs brings a 50 gold fine (for the annoyance). Duelling to the death is naturally acceptable for consenting individuals in private. Murder was considered a form of aggravated battery. After all, what is murder without death and assault without pain? The answer, something entirely different. There must have been another wrong making it criminal... Because health regenerates, a fireball hit won’t make the game unplayable; however, being repeatedly murdered will. Hence, murder as aggravated battery: it’s just another annoyance, albeit more severe.

But how to punish criminals without death or pain? For murder the punishment was execution and exile. For petty crimes: walking in circles for hours, another, fines to pay off, another forced work. What was the punishment? Boredom. Going beyond boredom? Stocks. For a roleplayer, allies pretending to throw rotten fruit at their character is insulting and hurts. For that modern Dr Jekyll, the dual account user: IP tracking could be used to hunt them down. But the dual account user raises a puzzle: what is the crime of account theft? The real life version would be someone stealing your body and walking about with it. Is this property theft or identity theft? Or perhaps even kidnapping? And who is suing? Obviously not the character, who has been ‘stolen.’ Could it be some kind of new legal entity, an intelligence controlling various avatars from afar? For the first time in history, the legal body is detached from the acting physical body. Wacky, bizarre, but incredibly fun, Darkfall shows Law can crop up wherever humans abound, regardless of the laws of physics, bodies, death, pain, eating, sleeping or identity. For more, try at808@cam.ac.uk and this longer blog post: https://t.co/48evCCpHok?amp=1

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