Previous Politech message: http://www.politechbot.com/p-04929.html --- From: Barclay McInnes <barcat_private> Received: from 64.114.88.35 (SquirrelMail authenticated user barc) by mail.netdud.com with HTTP; Mon, 7 Jul 2003 10:55:36 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <61842.64.114.88.35.1057600536.squirrelat_private> Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 10:55:36 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: FC: Virtual game disputes leak into meatspace To: <declanat_private> In-Reply-To: <5.2.1.1.0.20030705123616.039bac08at_private> References: <5.2.1.1.0.20030705123616.039bac08at_private> X-Priority: 3 X-UIDL: 2e7e84ee33cf8f56f424e2e41dcd2f3a Hi Declan; I'm not sure this is all that big of an issue. Basically, this type of thing has been going on since the beginning of online games. This is no different, really, than someone dropping into a Tribes server and joining your team, then proceeding to run around and wreck your own base. Even back in the '80s when I ran a BBS with online multiplayer (turn based) games, you had people being twits to each other for the pure fun of it. The solutions to these types of isses are also largely unchanged since those days of yore. Obviously, if the player involved is doing something against the rules, then their account gets turfed. Back in the BBS days when we didn't just hand out accounts to everyone, but actually called everybody's number back to confirm their existance (easy enough to do when there's only a few hundred people in the city with modems at all), getting an account kicked was an effective solution, and sent a strong message as well, since everyone in the community heard about it. Cancelling a Sims Online account with the associated reg key would be the equivelant. Do that, and in order for the harrasser to get back online, they need to buy another copy with a new reg key. Part of the issue here though, is that the players are not breaking any game rules specifically. Instead they're exploiting weaknesses in the game's design itself. That's harder to police, since they're doing "wrong", but it's not technically *wrong*. Most other online games handle this by changing the way the game works. In some cases, the smallest change can have the desired effect. For example, I used to play an online Sony game named Tanarus. It was a squad-based tank game. One of the tanks in there was called a "chameleon" tank and had the ability to be cloaked. As a downside, it had no shields unlike the rest of the tanks, but the cloak partly made up for this. One of the configs that people started to use was to load out with a missile launcher and 2 hellfire missiles. This, coupled with the built in weapon called a Lancer on the Chameleon, was an absolutely deadly combination. Used correctly, the Lancer was just strong enough to take down one of an enemy's shields, and the two Hellfire missiles fired immediately afterward were enough to finish them off completely. It was very common for people to pick this combo, and then go around "assassinating" people from behind. Sony's response was both subtle, and ingenious. All they did was increase the delay by about a half second between each weapon firing on the Chameleon. What this allowed the attacked party to do was shift just enough power to the downed shield to put it up at minimum strength by the time the second missile came. That way, just enough damage was absorbed by the barely-there shield to stop the kill. This turned a 1-2-3 kill into a situation where the Chameleon had emptied its weapons, and had an angry (and still armed) opponent actively hunting them instead. EA could do some similar tweaking to the Sims, such as logic for detecting a large number of "red links" being applied in a short time period to one person, and only allowing the first 3 or 4 links in a 24 hour period to stick, for the unwanted lawn urinators/ransackers, have a "sim Restraining order" or a "sim Jail" for sim thieves. At the end of the day, it's just a game and everyone should just treat it like that. Even EA/Maxis invites to you "be somebody... else!". Someone wants to take them up on it by acting like a mob boss, so be it! Meatspace legislation of any kind would just ruin the game. At least we aren't having problems like these: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=7027 And in Asia I've heard of more than one shooting based on a game at the cafe gone wrong, so this looks pretty tame by comparison... Barclay McInnes ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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