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I really didn't understand that one can buy and sell their characters on eBay. Well, that changes it then entirely. That means that gaming could become a form of self-employment if the gamer builds up characters and then sells them on eBay. I can understand that concept but I really don't understand why anyone would want to buy a game character on eBay.
If this is the wave of the future, then I understand our great grandparents who were horrified when the car replaced the horse and buggy.

Great, looking forward to seeing them in your upcoming articles. :)K

Enjoy, glad to be of help :)K

Arlene, Great to be of help, I'm watching movies this Sunday. I'm watching Johnny Dep, big fan :)

I've long since thought the justice for sex related crimes and abuses are far to easy. It should be more of a crime with intent to bodily harm and possibly intent to kill in some cases, It is such a travesty of justice for any such crimes to be punished so lightly with little to no consequences. Great article, thanks for being a voice for those to possessed of fear to merely consider their own voice. :)K

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So if a court of law decides that those parallels really do constitute real world wealth, then the implications become immense. Say that I put eight years into building up my game avatar, then the game company locked me out of my account. I could sue the company.

Or a court decides that yes, if the time and effort has been put in, then that avatar and its game bank has to belong to the player. Suddenly you have a real world source of wealth. You can sell that character on eBay.

The dominoes start falling big-time then. Highly desirable characters could fetch a high price (because the buyer doesn't have to put years of work into it). You're getting the gaming equivalent of selling diamonds. People get beaten up or bumped off for less.

Sweat shops have already been established to produce materials and currency in-game, now you're going to have the same for building up characters. That already happens, but underground and on the black market. Those caught are immediately banned. This would allow it to happen wholesale and those purchasing characters would be covered by consumer rights. Watch the sweat shop explosion happen in the next breath.

It's a real minefield, which isn't just about gamers trying to impose confusion onto simple bullying. But it's also looking increasingly like this is where the future is heading.

You are describing the situation as it currently is; and every gaming company in the world is fervently praying that it says that way.

Treat the assault as a separate issue. That is against the law and long should that remain the case. The assailants were prosecuted for it and justice was done. The young boy should never have been threatened with a knife for whatever reason. That behavior is unacceptable.

Now for the thorny issue. Say that you do an hour's work and you earn £10. That £10 goes into your bank. You have the right to spend your £10 on whatever you wish.

In Runescape, much of the wealth comes from working. It might be an hour of clicking a mouse, but us writers earn from an hour of clicking a keyboard and it's only a few inches away.

After that hour, the player has earned 10gp (it would be more, but I'm keeping it simple). It goes into his or her Runescape bank. The player has the right to spend that 10gp on whatever they wish.

The only difference so far is pixels. You could go and buy a loaf of bread to keep yourself alive in real life. The RS player can go and buy a loaf of bread to keep themselves alive in a boss fight.

While no-one is ever going to argue that RS money is more important than real life money, when it comes to human survival, the parallels are there. If someone robbed you of your £10, you would feel understandably upset. You worked for it and you earned it. If someone robbed the player of his/her 10gp, then it's the same emotions, same time-scales involved.

1 of 2 comments (I waffled too much!)

This sounds like a kinder gentler reading experience on the ole eyes. Thanks for the Kindle product update. :)K

Sheri, Well, you are not alone many people have a real and serious fondness for these types of Christmas sweaters. Like i mentioned in the article, I feel it's a generational gap, the youth of today having fun making fun of those of us older folks who wear or have ever worn such holiday sweaters. :) :)

Thamisgith, You should try to dig that one up for the up coming holidays. :)

Good luck with it all. :) And let us know the URL of your Paper.li newspaper.

I set mine up in September 2011. It's now October 2012, but I don't know when it went to PR1. I really ought to check these things.

Pretty cool stuff. I think I'll need to give that a try.

Your weekly looks great - and I see that it's a PR1 already. How long did that take if you don't mind me asking?

Sorry for being such a dunce, but I don't see the connection with theft here. The only place the "goods" stolen have value is within the computer game. I still don't see any need in this case to go to "virtual theft". The crime was assault in real life.
Now, if someone stole money from a bank account - assaulting someone in London who has a bank account in NYC and forces that person to transfer money "virtually" and therefore "in fact" (because real money has value outside the computer) to their account in Paris, then international laws become complex. Still the assault would be charged in the country in which it happened and the theft - well?
The game issue seems bullying and assault pure and simple. Is that not enough? By adding the "virtual theft", are we not reifying something that is not real and blurring the boundaries between real and not-real for kids who are already confused? What am I missing?

I have green eyes and that was very accurate!

It's only a matter of time before gaming laws become the new legal frontier. There's already a lot of interest and several precedent court cases on the verge of happening.