[MUD-Dev] BIZ: Who owns my sword?

[Marian Griffith]

In <URL:/archives/meow?group+local.muddev> on Sat 20 Sep, Matt Mihaly wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Sep 2003, Marian Griffith wrote:
>> In <URL:/archives/meow?group+local.muddev> on Tue 16 Sep, Matt Mihaly wrote:

>>> Well, what happens in the fictional universe is largely
>>> irrelevant. It's the real-world implications we're discussing
>>> and in the real world, avatars don't own things as they are not
>>> persons under the law.

>> It is not a fictional universe but a game, and the principle does
>> make a lot of sense actually, if you think about it.  Suppose you
>> are playing monopoly and you buy 'main street'.  Do you own that
>> street? Yes and no. You own it only within the context of the
>> game only. You could even argue that your 'avatar' owns the
>> street.  You most assuredly are not allowed to cut the street out
>> of the game board and take it with you.

> No, it does not make sense. We're talking about whether or not an
> avatar can own something under the law. It cannot because it is
> not given personhood by the courts and as has been said about 5
> times on this thread so far, only entities with personhood can own
> things.

Actually, what I was saying is that game characters 'own' things
*ONLY* within the context (laws) of the game itself.  Outside of it
the character does not even exist, seeing that it is nothing more
than a token you use to play a game with.

>> Or, consider games like quake or counterstrike.  If you would not
>> accept that the laws of the game apply to the avatars only, you
>> would, in effect, proclaim the players murderers, since they have
>> killed hundreds if not thousands of other 'players'.  Within the
>> laws of those games murder is not a crime. It is even encouraged.

> Murder involves killing someone. We call it "killing" when certain
> changes to a database are made in a game but nothing is being
> killed and no murder is taking place.

Again, my point was that trying to push *real* laws into that of a
game opens you up to such claims. By separating the two you do
prevent this kind of silly claims. I was, in other words, trying to
show the absurdity of any other position than saying 'within a game
*only* the game laws apply. outside it only the real ones do'.


marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev