(editing update)
The blog Virtually Blind/Virtual Law is getting even better. I am not sure whether it is smart to say this about another blog, but anyway, Virtually Blind and its author, the lawyer Benjamin Duranske, already is very well known, at least among those with a serious interest in virtual worlds.
Now, why is it getting even better? First of all, Duranske is launching a Reading Room, where exclusive papers about virtual law will be available.
Now, the first paper presented in this Reading Room, is the second reason for my enthusiasm. “Leave Those Orcs alone: Property Rights in Virtual Worlds” by law student Kevin Deenihan (UCLA) is a provocative document with some very interesting thoughts.
It is argued that virtual worlds and games should be free from outside or real world legal intervention. Deenihan rejects commodification, so Duranske (who does not agree) explains. Deenihan remarks that often those players who litigate are characters not appreciated at all by other players.
Why do people want to earn virtual goods and money? Deenihan says it is most often for the fun of it, for socializing, for status, it is not intended to be an investment strategy. The point that games have to be first of all fun is something also noticed by professor Edward Castronova, explaining the problems with his game Arden in Technology Review. Julian Dibbell also highlights the issue of ‘fun’ in his book Play Money.
I will be honest here – I still have to read the paper in the Reading Room of Virtually Blind. A very first reaction, based on the brief remarks Duranske makes, is this: it is not certain there is a clear and total opposition between ‘investment’ and ‘fun’, and even not between the possibility of external legal intervention (or the possibility of such intervention) and fun. It is not certain either there is such an antagonistic relation between some ‘outside’ and an uncontaminated ‘inside’ of the gaming world. Maybe this opposition asks for a deconstruction. I will read this stuff, and keep you posted.
Roland Legrand
