) The Real as the Virtual (and Vice Versa

Virtual worlds have their own communities and their own laws. Some things that are depicted in virtual worlds are legal in the context of that world, but would not be legal when practiced in the real world. For example, a virtual world set in the time of the British Raj may implement the Hindu custom of suttee, whereby widows threw themselves onto the funeral pyres of their recently deceased husbands. This would be allowed in the virtual world, but it’s been all but stamped out in the real world ¹.

Other examples abound. Virtual worlds routinely allow murder and the libeling of one character by another; some permit cruelty to animals, some promote the use of narcotics. It’s one thing to portray real-world crime as a virtual crime, as would be the case in a virtual world set in prohibition-era Chicago. It’s another thing, though, to make real-world crimes legal in their virtual-world implementation. Nevertheless, this is quite possible; in combat-oriented worlds, it’s even quite probable.

On the one hand, this distinctness from reality can be seen as a freedom from oppressive real-world laws: You may need to have your identity papers with you at all times in the real world, but you don’t in a virtual one. On the other hand, it could be seen as

the dangerous encouragement of antisocial behavior: Whom does it harm when an adult PC has virtual sex with a child NPC?

Although virtual worlds are generally more freedom-oriented than the real world, there are a few occasions where the situation is reversed. This is mainly because of restrictions that the real world places on the virtual world. For example, what two adults do in the privacy of their own bedroom is generally no one’s business but theirs, yet the graphical depiction of this behavior in a virtual world could well qualify as hard-core pornography. Virtual worlds that show things that would be illegal to broadcast to any television can rationally expect to be closed down. Nevertheless, people doing those things in real life are not breaking any laws ².

Another issue is the manner in which real-life objects are shown. Basically, you have more freedom to mess about with a name-branded object in the real world than you do in a virtual one. It used to be that if you wanted to show a brand in a computer game, you had to pay the brand-owner; nowadays, it’s more likely to be the other way around. These are mostly legal issues, of course, and therefore not of direct relevance here. Ethics become involved when things that can be recognized in real life make an appearance in a virtual world against the wishes of the people who own them.

For example, chase/combat game The Getaway incorporates a 3D model of central London built up from tens of thousands of photographs. People who own the properties shown have no right to object to this, under the same laws that apply to movie shoots in streets. A virtual world could use similar real-world data to produce an accurate visual model of some identifiable portion of the real world. Property owners can’t complain (well, they can, but the developers don’t have to listen). So what would happen if a player took over a virtual building that in the real world was a fast food franchise, then turned it into a brothel or a drug den? Could the owners object after that? To whom? What if shop-fronts displayed advertising logos for major corporations that players then defaced. Would that be right (because players are making a political statement in a virtual world) or wrong (because logos are free speech even in virtual worlds and defacing them is censorship)? Can designers deface these, as they might if they were creating a post-apocalyptic virtual world?

Supposing brands do appear with permission, players may still use them immorally. If you buy enough cups of virtual cola, you can lay them out in a pattern to look like any part of the human anatomy you like. You can write words with them. You can put them in demeaning contexts, such as public lavatories. Is it ethical to do so? It’s ethical enough in the real world, as long as you send the cans for recycling after you’ve made your point. In a virtual world, though, you may be paying a smaller subscription than you would be if the cola company hadn’t paid for product placement. Doesn’t accepting the reduction in price impose on you an obligation not to interfere with the message?

Virtual world designers handle these issues by self-censorship. Except in certain key areas where public expectation is on their side (for example, killing monsters), they avoid anything that could raise major ethical issues. It’s understandable why they would do this, of course, but it stifles debate. It’s left to the

designers of small-scale worlds to push the boundaries, but all too often they use off-the-shelf codebases that have already made the decisions for them.

If you’re a virtual world designer looking for an area in which to make your artistic mark, this could therefore be quite a fruitful area.