Virtual Worlds: Blog Four-EULAs

            In his article, Virtual Liberty: Freedom to Design and Freedom to Play in Virtual Worlds, Jack Balkin claims that, “virtual worlds are fast becoming important parts of people’s lives”, but  “because they are likely to be used for more and more purposes in the future, legal regulation of virtual worlds is inevitable.” So as we become more dependent on the Internet and virtual worlds, our perception of reality and virtual worlds becomes blurred. Often times in our new virtual worlds, “things that happen to people in the game space can have real-world effects both on them and on other people who are not in the game space.” Things like trading (for example) gold for real world currency or using your real world currency to buy things (like power ups or equipment) in world. Because of the blurring of real vs. virtual world lines laws will be put in place in order to make sure players do not mess with the system in place (or cheat the system). Therefore many games create EULAs that a player must agree to in order to actually play the game.

During this week of class we looked closely at EULAs. We discussed the reason why they exist, their use and why they are the way we are. Then we were split into three groups, each with a different MMO EULA to research and present to the class. The three MMOs to choose from included EVE Online, Second Life and Minecraft.

I was paired with Gabe and Erik. Together we researched the Second Life EULA. Now this EULA was probably affected the most by the blurring of virtual and real world. Many real world businesses have used Second Life for multiple purposes. Whether it be holding meetings or trying our products, the line of reality is blurred. You also can make real world profit off of Second Life by exchanging your Linden dollars into real world currency. This is part of the reason why the Second Life EULA is so much longer than the other EULAs because when real world money is involved, the law needs to be more involved.

Next comes EVE Online. It is another MMO that is based in space. Players use ships and attack each other. Unlike most MMOs, EVE has only one server. For a EULA, EVE Onlines EULA is pretty standard. As far as gaining real world money, you cannot freely convert the in game currency to physical money. But you can spend real world money to buy in game items that may be available.

And finally, the last MMO Minecraft. Now this was the shortest of the EULAs that we looked at in class. It was short for a good reason. There was not much to the EULA because Minecraft is more of a player creation based game (aka a sandbox creation game). So there is not actually much stuff to buy that has real world worth. Actually there is hardly anything that has real world value in Minecraft. Unlike Second Life, you can create mods and use them but not sell them for real profit. So compared to the other two EULAs, Minecraft has the least to do with Balkin’s claim about real-world commodification. Because you cannot actually gain real world money from Minecraft it does not need rules to restrict players from selling things for profit online. Really the only thing you purchase with real world money is just purchasing the game.