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GDC09: How to avoid new legal pitfalls in virtual world design and policy
At last week's Game Developers Conference 2009, we got the chance to sit in on Mark Methenitis' talk on How to avoid new legal pitfalls in virtual world design and policy. You may have noticed the sheer quantity of legal cases, rulings and issues surrounding virtual environments and MMOGs that have direct impacts on users and players lately. We found the talk to be an engaging and interesting one, which certainly went a long way towards clarifying some of the past, present and future problems and we've got a tasty summary of the highlights for you.
Fortune and failure in real-money trading
Although many western MMO gamers profess a distaste for all things RMT, it's definitely become an aspect of these games and virtual worlds that we're all aware of to some degree. But it wasn't always that way. In fact, it wasn't so long ago that the notion of people working in virtual settings and earning real world wealth was, quite frankly, bizarre. Julian Dibbell was one of the first journalists to expose the idea of RMT and the possible existence of 'virtual sweatshops' to mainstream readers years ago, before such ideas and practices became almost commonplace in virtual worlds and MMOs. Dibbell has continued on with this tradition since the days of writing about Black Snow Interactive, more recently in his book 'Play Money' and with a piece he's written for Wired, titled "The Decline and Fall of an Ultra Rich Online Gaming Empire."
Hernandez v. IGE: Brock Pierce declaration and Hernandez compel developments
Antonio Hernandez filed a lawsuit in 2007 against IGE, the MMOG-currency for real dollars illicit emporium. Hernandez claims IGE diminishes the overall playing experience for legitimate players and filed on the grounds that stem from farming gold, spamming chat, and camping spawns it allegedly prevented players from receiving full benefits Blizzard intended via World of Warcraft's End User License Agreement. Eight weeks remain in the fact discovery phase under the court's calendar and two recent developments have surfaced. First, a declaration on behalf of IGE's CEO Brock Pierce which states IGE merely holds stock in Affinity Media INC. and does not employ anyone nor have anything to do with the alleged activities in the Amended Complaint was filed. Second, Hernandez has moved to compel production of documents and asked the court to force IGE to respond fully to plaintiff's interrogatories.Virtually Blind has been following the lawsuit closely since the outset and has all legal documentation available for download.
MDY and Blizzard continue to cross blades
World of Warcraft seems to be the focus of virtual law, lawsuits, angry gnomes, and all sorts of fun these days. Not only is a player suing IGE due to their gold selling practices, but Blizzard also took MDY, makers of the glider program, to court. Now, MDY and Blizzard are moving closer to getting this battle finished.The arena of choice is the US District Court of Arizona and the two sides put forth their best efforts and finished their replies. Now we just have to wait for the federal justice system to make a decision on summary judgment. As Virtually Blind's Benjamin Duranske points out, that could take some time. Nonetheless, a few people are following such lawsuits closely since this is new territory for the courts and the MMO industry. Some fear the cases bring the federal government onto virtual turf, others think it is time for an end to cheating and want government help, and a few players are indifferent and just want to get their characters to level 70 before Wrath of the Lich King arrives.
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Hernandez v IGE battle continues
Antonio Hernandez is a gamer with a mission. Since 2007, Antonio's lawsuit has been trying to put an end to gold sales from seller IGE and his case has made more than a few headlines. Antonio was mad at IGE for ruining his game and for companies like it for ruining the experience of other players. He decided that it was time for someone to take a stand against gold farmers, gold sellers, and the people behind the gold selling industry. The battle is still raging and, just the other day, his attorney filed for his gold selling case to become a class action lawsuit. A judge will review it, and if approved, millions of World of Warcraft players, and perhaps those in other MMOs, will have a chance to fight back against gold selling. The lawsuit shows no sign of losing steam, so be sure to take a break in the inn and check back for updates.
IGE founders settlement in doubt, Judge asks WTF
District Court Judge Manuel Real has ordered IGE's Debonneville and Pierce to a status conference at 10AM US Pacific time tomorrow morning (Friday, 25 April). As you may recall, Debonneville and Pierce were settling and had until 14 April to finalize that. Well, apparently it hasn't been settled and Judge Real wants to know what the heck is up with that, as nothing has been filed by the due-date, though both parties said that they had agreed on all the essentials.
IGE founders settle their legal dispute
Those of you who enjoyed watching IGE founders Alan Debonneville and Brock Pierce battle each other in the legal arena will be a little upset to learn that the show is nearly over. The embattled co-founders of infamous gold selling agency IGE have decided to settle their differences. The court has approved the decision and it appears that the legal wrangling and mudslinging campaign has drawn to a close.The two had filed suit against each other claiming disputes surrounding the distribution of bribes (both in real and virtual gifts), unethical business practices, and other various acts that would make your average gold seller look like a shining star in the corporate sky. Due to all of the legal trouble their company faces, it is not particularly surprising that the two would settle their differences. Unfortunately, we are not being told what the two have agreed to since the settlement is a closed affair. However, in order to make amends the two men have until the 14th of April to come to a decision in a settlement that could see a large chunk of cash changing hands.
Lawsuit claims IGE dug too greedily and too deep
Out of sunny Florida comes a storm ready to rain on the parade of gold sellers everywhere. Gold seller IGE has found itself sinking deeper into a stack of complaints thanks to one concerned gamer. Antonio Hernandez is fed up with the spam, inflation, and annoyance that stems from gold selling and has decided to do something about it. He has filed for a class action lawsuit that claims inflation in the virtual economy, thanks to gold sellers, forces players to spend more time behind their keyboard in an attempt to makes virtual ends meet, thus costing them more money. "This loss of time, conservatively, amounts to hundreds of thousands of hours of subscriber time and causes the irreparable harm of driving subscribers away from World of Warcraft." Since the announcement was made, Antonio has already been flooded with letters of support from the WoW community. The reason for the support is not only because Antonio is trying to end gold selling, but because he is an active member of the virtual community he feels has been wronged. "The lawsuit," says case consultant and professor Greg Lastowka, "has more of a feel of a community trying to enforce its rules rather than a game company trying to enforce its power over the participants." The community is a strong one, and to add to the power players wield, the game companies are taking a stand with them. Blizzard has announced that they support the lawsuit and stated that gold selling is a very serious concern of theirs.The case dives headfirst into a world with no clearly defined boundaries. The Florida justice system, having issued a subpoena to IGE demanding their transaction details, accepts that the subject of virtual law is real enough for concern. This is a good sign for players since their rights are also what are at stake. As Hernandez's lawyer, C. Richard Newsome, asks, "what are the rights of the [virtual world] community members when they go online?" The community members supporting Antonio have made one thing crystal clear concerning that question. They desire a fair game and hope to collapse IGE's virtual gold mine right on top of IGE's head.
Ask Massively: All that glitters is not gold (farming)...
It's that time of the week once again and Ask Massively is here to answer your every inquiry on all things MMO. Lately, we've been delving into some of the lighter issues in MMO gaming. "Is Second Life really an MMO?", "What defines success in the MMO industry?", and "What makes a really good guild name?" This time around, we're going to head down a darker road, a road that involves viruses, Trojans, keyloggers, low paying Asian jobs, and more spam than a trailer park luau. I'm talking, of course, about Gold Farming, also known as Real Money Trading (RMT). The very industry that has turned failed child actors into multi-millionaires while managing to annoy the living hell out of the vast majority of MMORPG fans. Since this isn't Ask Massively without a question from our fans, I may as well show you this week's inspiration. Heeeeeey Mr. Massively! Since you claim to be the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful wise guy of the MMORPG world, I was hoping to ask for your intercession on a minor matter of concern. Is it possible to get rid of all of the gold farmers out there? Can a gaming company do anything to prevent this? Or are we all sentenced to a virtual lifetime of broken-English speaking Asian laborers making 50 cents per day hawking their virtual wares so that they can make enough gold to sell to complete and total Noobs who have to pay people to play their game for them? --I'm not bitter! Oh brother...
Lawyers representing gold farmers threaten Lum the Mad
Late last month Scott "Lum the Mad" Jennings put up a post on his well-known MMOG blog site about an ongoing legal battle. It involves former IGE (yeah, the gold farmers) CEO Brock Pierce and co-founder of the company Alan Debonneville. Lum's excellent post, which quotes heavily from the lawsuit documents unearthed by the site Virtually Blind, does little more than sum up the case in one location. Not only have we been following the case along with the VB site, but numerous others have as well.And yet, in a post on the Broken Toys site today, Lum notes that somehow he's the one that has received legal threats from Brock Pierce's legal team. They've basically asked him to take down the post by the close of business today (February 15th). Mr. Jennings, being a practical person and with no interest in going toe-to-toe with lawyers, is planning to do just that. He does get off a nice shot back at them in his response, saying "I welcome your client's renewed dedication to legal documentation and remind him that there are several outstanding end user licensing agreements attached to games I have assisted in operating in the past, regarding the explicitly forbidden trade of virtual items and characters in said games that he and his company have performed and expedited, that would benefit from his and his company's attention."Of course, their harshly worded note has prompted responses from other MMOGbloggers, such as these posts from Ryan Shwayder and Matt Mihaly. Perhaps Pierce's team should have considered the impact before they asked Lum to take down his post about the lawsuit. This one, over here on his site. His post concerning Brock Pierce and Alan Debonneville. This post right here.
IGE founders in legal battle
Well, it seems like everyone else has had a chance to say bad things about RMT company IGE. Well, now co-founder Alan Debonneville has plenty of bad things to say himself, in his lawsuit for "among other things, numerous breaches of fiduciary duty, breaches of contract, and fraud" against IGE founder Brock Pierce. "Pierce has broken every fiduciary duty known to jurisprudence and stolen millions of dollars of shares of IGE US, LLC" the complaint asserts - and then it gets mean.
Hernandez drops HK IGE - Florida Economic Crimes Office investigates
If you've been following Hernandez vs IGE, you'll probably be a bit surprised to find that the Plaintiff (Hernandez) has dropped Hong Kong Internet Gaming Entertainment Limited (IGE) from the Defendants. USA IGE US LLC (the other IGE) remains on the docket. The Plaintiff alleges that IGE is gold-farming, spawn-camping, devaluing gold, spamming chat, and generally screwing up the experience for everyone else.
Legal files reveal IGE and Affinity connection once and for all
You may remember that earlier this summer, when Affinity Media purchased Wowhead (to add to their acquisitions of Thottbot and Allakhazam), we were able to interview Affinity Media CEO John Maffei, and he told us, in a very roundabout way, that Affinity and IGE had supposedly parted ways-- Affinity and its content sites were, he said, no longer associated with the company that sold gold in World of Warcraft. However, if you read the comments on that interview, you may have doubted what Maffei told us, and now, thanks to legal documents surfacing because of a legal action against IGE, it appears you were exactly right: Affinity and IGE are (or were, according to Affinity Media) still two peas in the same pod (see Update).I know for certain right now that some of you commenters are preparing the "aww geez, not this again" (NSFW) macro to post, and I don't blame you. You're exactly right; this is boring business stuff, not new news about the Sunwell, and anyone paying attention back during the Wowhead acquisition knew that the two companies were still connected anyway. If this isn't news you to, fine-- I don't mean to reopen Pandora's Box, we just want to make sure we do due diligence in covering this issue.
Florida Attorney General issues subpoena to IGE
While it's not a part of the ongoing case of Hernandez v IGE, a newly announced legal action by the AG for the state of Florida will probably be of interest to you. The Attorney General issued an investigative subpoena against the notorious gold-selling outfit today, seeking information on possible illegal activities carried out within the state (and across the country). The Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act was invoked, and the 'investigative' nature of the subpoena means that company records relating to everything from marketing to organizational elements are now to be included in the state's inquiry.The subpoena seeks financial and sales information, the identity of specific World of Warcraft accounts owned or controlled by IGE, the identity of World of Warcraft accounts that IGE has power leveled, and the IP addresses IGE used to log into World of Warcraft to distribute products sold by IGE. The subpoena also seeks documents which show all websites owned or controlled by IGE or its affiliates at any time.
Herndandez vs IGE - IGE withdraws motion to stay/dismiss
There has been a new development with the uncertified class action Herndandez vs IGE. The Plaintiff alleges that IGE is gold-farming, spawn-camping, devaluing gold, spamming chat, and generally screwing up the experience for everyone else. Defendant IGE filed a motion to stay/dismiss in favor of arbitration on 26 October. IGE has now changed it's stance and withdrawn that motion, and gives the impression that it will answer the complaint in court. That could only be an impression, however.
Class action versus IGE
Benjamin Duranske at Virtually Blind kicks off coverage of another virtual worlds lawsuit. In this case, it's a third-party beneficiary contract class action claim (Whew. Try saying that three times fast) against IGE and their alleged actions in World of Warcraft. The plaintiffs allege, basically, that IGE is gold-farming, spawn-camping, devaluing gold, spamming chat, and generally screwing up the experience for everyone else.
A look back at the sale of Wowhead.com
Now that we've had a few days to think about it, I think it's worth taking a bigger look at the Wowhead acqusition news that broke over the weekend. On Friday evening, a blogger named Ahmed Farooq posted that as a person who'd previously worked to acquire websites for goldseller IGE, he'd heard from "three different sources," all unnamed, that Wowhead had sold to Affinity Media for $1 million. That's when we reported on it, and more than a few other sites also picked up the story. We also were one of the first sites to report in conjunction that Affinity Media had supposedly sold IGE, and claimed they were no longer in the business of goldselling.On Saturday, Wowhead posted a confirmation on their site, and then this Q&A with their CEO and the head of Affinity Media, John Maffei. They claim to be "100% sure" that since Affinity reportedly sold IGE, Wowhead will never carry gold ads. Farooq, the original tipster, posted an update on his site that says Affinity was "still very much involved with IGE," but Wowhead's Q&A says "the individual who leaked the story about the Wowhead sale" (apparently Farooq) also "owns competitive content properties," including a real-money trading (goldselling) site, and calls the act of that person spreading rumors about Wowhead "the height of hypocrisy." By all appearances, Affinity Media is no longer associated with IGE at all, and at the moment, the proof is in the pudding: there are currently no gold ads on Wowhead or Thottbot.As for IGE, this report about the CEO at the Virtual Goods Summit makes it seem as though there are stormy waters ahead for their company and the entire gold selling market.
Class-action lawsuit filed against IGE
Speaking of lawsuits, Terra Nova is reporting that there's been class-action lawsuit filed in Florida against IGE for... well, I'll let you read for yourself:The case involves IGE's calculated decision to reap substantial profits by knowingly interfering with and substantially impairing the intended use and enjoyment associated with consumer agreements between Blizzard Entertainment and subscribers to its virtual world called World of Warcraft.The lawsuit seeks both monetary damages and a stop IGE's gold farming activities. (If you just can't get enough legalspeak, you can take a look at the entire text of the lawsuit here, via Terra Nova.) Now, I have to admit that I am not a lawyer and cannot tell you whether this lawsuit has any substance to it. However, I can assure you that over here at WoW Insider we'll be looking for any updates on this -- so we can pass them right on to you.
The truth about gold farming
MTV has posted a brief, but revealing look at life within China's gold farming "workshops." Sales of virtual goods will reportedly reach $9 billion by 2009, overtaking sales of actual games, but at the expense of hundreds of thousands of exploited workers, who may earn as little as 500 Yuan per month (roughly $65). The featurette, taken from a documentary in-progress, turns a critical eye toward brokers like Interactive Game Entertainment (IGE), which allegedly support China's so-called sweatshops.MTV also has an interview with filmmaker Ge Jin, which provides further insight into the range of conditions one might experience working as a gold farmer. As it turns out, many of these "factories" are not as perilous as we imagine.
Missing in Action: Bot Farmers
Complaints on the forums suggest that they aren't really gone, but I've noticed an astonishing lack of them on my own server in recent weeks. All of the obvious bots - the ones who followed a specific pattern through the same area day after day - seem to be missing lately, making farming Timbermaw reputation a nearly pleasant affair, having only to compete with the human reflexes of other players.While I'm thrilled to see this lack of farmers on my own server, I have to wonder if any of it will last. At the end of last week, I pointed my web browser in the direction of a major gold-selling site to see to see what I could find out. I checked the stock on gold for US servers, and for nearly all servers saw the text "NOT IN STOCK! PRE-ORDER THIS ITEM NOW AND RECEIVE CURRENCY AS SOON AS WE RESTOCK." Another check today yielded much the same results. The servers that do have gold available for order only had it in smaller quantities (if you can consider 200 gold a small quantity). Does this imply that Blizzard's continued efforts to weed out gold-sellers starting to have a notable impact, or is this just a temporary setback on the part of the gold-farming professionals?
