“What do they mean by virtual?”
I’ve been fielding questions like this ever since my plane landed, finding myself having to define things like “the internet”, “e-mail”, and anything prefixed with “web-”. It hasn’t become tiresome — I figure it’s worth the effort in exchange for being able to talk about my family history and have my palm read. However, when Grandma asked me to define this word for her, I didn’t expect the conversation to go in such an interesting direction.
She reads the newspaper every day, and there was a small blurb from the Associated Press about two Dutch teenagers being convicted of virtual theft. Not knowing anything more than the headline’s vague assertion, I tried to explain the ideas beneath hacking, online transactions, and the lack of physical presence needed to commit such crimes.
“Let’s say that someone wanted to rob a bank. They could either go in there with a gun and walk out with a bag of money, or they could access their computers from their own and use the programs to transfer money into their account. They weren’t physically there, so it’s a virtual crime.”
“The internet doesn’t seem like a very safe place,” she told me, her brow furrowing.
“I guess it’s as unsafe as anything else. You just have to make sure that you’re careful, that’s all.”
We both sat there, contemplating the idea of “virtual theft”. She began to read bits and pieces out loud, mentioning that there weren’t many cases of this kind prosecuted before. My interest was piqued — people hack into things all the time! I’m sure that some TOS violations were so heinous that lawyers got involved. It’s the internet!
As she continued reading, it became clear that it had to do with RuneScape, and then I got to explain to her about the concepts behind MMOs.
“Well, Grandma… depending on the game, people pay a monthly fee in order to play it, and they spend that time earning money. That currency’s only good in the game world, but the amount of time spent to play it… well, if it took you three months to save up for that item, then you could theoretically try to sue those who ’stole’ it from you for the subscription fees.”
At this point, I think she was just happy to hear a halfway-coherent explanation and took my words at face value. I couldn’t help but wonder, though, how much does one ask for in damages? What is the value of an item that you cannot physically own? Do you compare it to the fair market price of (farmed) gold? The amount of time spent farming for it? Can you claim emotional damages for all of the stress caused?
Nick and I talk about this sometimes — when it comes to virtual goods, what is the main motivation for purchasing the item online? If you buy music on iTunes, for example, it’s (initially) only accessible from the computer you originally downloaded it from. Unless the song is so hard to find that you are forced into buying it online, what’s the motivation to download it legally instead of torrenting it?
(Later, I would jump onto GamePolitics and find out that there was a physical aspect to this virtual crime, and the 13-year-old in question was in fact held at knifepoint over these items. It adds a whole new layer to the case that the mainstream news sources are sorely missing.)
In the end, I think that the hardest question to answer was to explain why I know so much about these things. “Is it due to your studies?”
While I could have fudged an answer about it being part of my media/cultural studies pursuits, or gone on for hours about the culture around technology, I just shrugged and let her return to her fourth viewing of Winter Sonata this week.
Originally published at two player co-op. You can comment here or there.
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