[Air-l] Shades of "A Rape in Cyberspace"
Bonnie Nardi
nardi at ics.uci.edu
Mon Jun 4 13:13:10 PDT 2007
I have been studying World of Warcraft for eighteen months, and it is
not possible to "make off with the virtual belongings" of a character
in-game. There are no "lawless regions" of the game. It is possible to
hack people's accounts and steal their stuff (which is quickly be
transformed into unrecognizable generic items), but not to be accosted
in-game as this article says, referring to the perils of "lone
travelers."
This kind of journalistic story telling seems to perenially recycle the
theme of cybercrime without being informed about the social settings in
which it is allegedly taking place. Talk about fantasy -- the
assertions about World of Warcraft are just that.
--
Bonnie
On Jun 2, 2007, at 2:02 PM, Holly Kruse wrote:
> ...but with national law enforcement involved:
>
> "Does Virtual Reality Need a Sheriff? Reach of Law Enforcement Is
> Tested
> When Online Fantasy Games Turn Sordid", in today's Washington Post.
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/01/
> AR2007060102
> 671.html
>
> Holly
>
> --
> Holly Kruse
> Faculty of Communication
> The University of Tulsa
> 600 S. College Ave.
> Tulsa, OK 74104
> 918-631-3845
> holly-kruse at utulsa.edu or holly.kruse at gmail.com
> http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~holly-kruse
>
>
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Bonnie A. Nardi
Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697-3440
(949) 824-6534
www.artifex.org/~bonnie/
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