Column: Keep the Courts Away From My RPG

By Scott Jeffrey

I Read about a story last week where the Dutch Supreme Court convicted a teen for stealing a sword and shield, in game item from another player in the free MMORPG Runescape.

The Attorney in the case argued that the items stolen were not tangible or material items and expressed no real monetary value in the real world, therefore the theft did not occur. The courts however sided with the victim of the theft ruling that because there had been so much time invested into earning the in game items, they did have a monetary value and a theft did occur. A charge of 144 hours of community service was laid to make up for the apparent theft. 

I do understand that these pixels have a monetary value to some. Many games like World of Warcraft have changed their gameplay rules with bound items and strict codes of conduct which ensure anyone caught stealing items or hacking/spamming will be banned quite swiftly.

Runescape on the other hand does not have explicit policy terms to prevent players from stealing and resulting in bans and retaliation on the part of the game creators.

I think it’s a little bit ridiculous this had to be taken up in a court of law and would side on the fact that these items are simply part of a virtual reality experience. These are pixels that these teens are fighting over, and it should be something easily solved by a GM (Game Master). Not having to bring in real world politics to the situation. Games are games, although we spend a ton of time on RPG’s such as Runescape and World of Warcraft it’s a bit silly to try and attach a monetary value to something you are supposedly doing for recreation.

Games such as Skyrim which can engage players for 40+ hours have no monetary value attached to their saved games so why should any other game be different? 

Granted there is an online competitiveness among the big MMORPG’s but why should someone be able to buy gold/items in order to get ahead in the game? In most cases this too violates the terms laid out by many MMO developers. 

Therefore no monetary value should be placed on any in game content unless it’s released by the developer and does not offer an advantage to the player.

I am hoping that this does not start a train of cases for people demanding money from hacking cases and in game thefts. Games are games if you are dissatisfied with the service or feel wronged by the terms outlined by the developer to prevent you from theft, there are a plethora of different options for security as well as alternatives to the game you are playing.

Keep gamers out of the courts and glued to their screens as they should be.