[Air-l] Shades of "A Rape in Cyberspace"

[Kelly Garrett]

While I agree with Bonnie that the Washington Post should be embarrassed by
its fact checking failure, I think the article does manage to draw public
attention to an interesting tension concerning the significance of actions
in virtual worlds.  As of Friday morning, when I first read the article (I'm
a bit behind on my email...), there were five screens of comments on the
article (http://tinyurl.com/365w3y).  Although many simply made the same
point that Bonnie did, there were also a number of posts concerning the
significance of simulated acts of violence.  

There seem to be two camps.  On one hand, there are those who argue that
these are only games.  For example, some argue that the actions people
perform in these environments are "play", with no real consequences, and
therefore harmless.  Others suggest that players of these games need to
respond more rationally to the clearly fictional world.  For many, the
solution is as simple as walking away.  The distinction between "real" and
"virtual", which has become increasingly blurred in academic circles, seems
quite prominent in many of these arguments.  

On the other hand, some posters took issue with the assertion that actions
taken in virtual worlds don't matter.  A common argument here was that
people develop habits, norms and expectations through regular interactions
wherever they take place.  

The debate certainly isn't new to academics who study virtual worlds and the
like, but seeing it in the Washington Post makes me think about the public
response to this debate.  What metaphors will be most helpful to a large and
diverse audience as they try to grapple with the issues raised by these
technologies?  I think that finding these metaphors and getting them out
into the world is an important contribution well suited to this intellectual
community.

For example, thinking of virtual worlds (or social network sites or
collaboratories, etc) as public spaces, as danah boyd has recently been
arguing, suggests a different set of consequences and responses than
thinking about them as just games.  At the same time, treating actions
online and offline as equivalent also seems to be a mistake.  Perhaps these
are usefully thought of as games played in public.  This metaphor seems to
work for the first few examples that come to my mind.  E.g., if a group of
adults were to pretend to be engaging in pedophilia in a secluded part of a
public park only inhabited by other adults, how should society respond?
What if the adults were acting a lynching?  And what metaphors make sense
when more real-world transactions take place in these virtual worlds.  If
these are places where people go to work, to shop, to learn, etc. -- all of
which appear to be happening in Second Life -- then how should we
characterize the space?  Should the rules of behavior be different?  

To my thinking, the key is not to provide the answer to how to respond to
these actions, but to provide people with tools that might help them to
think through the relevant issues.

If you're still reading, thanks for taking a moment to think about these
issues.

-Kelly 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org 
> [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Bonnie Nardi
> Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 1:13 PM
> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: Re: [Air-l] Shades of "A Rape in Cyberspace"
> 
> 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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