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@utulsa.edu or holly.kruse@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/