World of Warcraft is currently the largest massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG). This game allows players to immerse themselves in a fantasy world while at the same time interacting with characters created by other real people. Starting in 2007 and up until about a year ago, I used to play World of Warcraft, also known to the gaming community as WOW. I really enjoyed the game, many of my friends from back home played it so when I went off to UVic, the game allowed me to continue interact with them on a regular basis, albeit in a more limited way. As is the nature with any MMORPG, I interacted with many different people and created a rather large in game social network. Some of the people I played with on a regular basis were from as far away as Australia. However as time went on, friends stopped playing and I lost interest in the game, finally stopping my subscription about a year ago. Nevertheless, a few days ago I was thinking back on the game and remembered a certain event which had occurred in-game and caused quite a bit of controversy about a year before I started playing.
The event to which I am referring was a player versus player (PVP) raid on an in-game funeral being held. First of all, the fact that a funeral was being held in-game is significant in itself. In a game where ones character cannot die, funerals have no real meaning. However, this funeral was being held by close friends of a girl who had passed away suddenly of a stroke. Since the game had been such a major part of her life and since people who had known here were spread across the world it seemed like a logical way for them to pay their respects to her. The event was publicized on the games website with a distinct request that no one from the opposing faction come and break it up as it would be held in a neutral zone. This is where the problem occurred. Despite this blatant plea for no disruptions, as the funeral progressed, a large party from the opposing faction appeared at the site and proceeded to attack the characters involved in the procession. This attack essentially ended the ceremony and forced those people there to pay their respects to leave the area.
This attack broke no in-game rules as it occurred on a PVP server where open world combat is encouraged. What bothered (and still bothers) me about this is that is breaks some very substantial moral rules. One can argue "Yes but its just a game," and I would be forced to agree. If this funeral was being held for someone who had decided to stop playing that would be one thing but this was being held for someone who had actually DIED. Friends met in game, while maybe not necessarily as close as friends met in person are still friends and obviously they cared quite a bit about this girl. Interestingly enough I found an article published about the morality of ganking, a word commonly associated with being ganged up on in WOW. It deals directly with the event that I have outlined here and goes into great detail about the break from human morality experienced in games such as WOW. An action such as breaking up a funeral would never happen in real life, I hope. The author of this paper however, suggests that actions such as those taken by the opposing faction during the in game funeral, may indicate underlying morality issues in the real lives of those who took part (Goguen 2009, pg 4).
With games becoming more and more detailed, providing gamers with a world that directly immitates our real world, it is interesting and a little disturbing to wonder how issues related to real world death will play out in-game. How will common decency and immorality surrounding these issues be policed or mitigated by the games administrators? I guess the only way I can find out is to start playing again.........no....no I think not.
Reference:
Goguen, S., (2009), 'Dual Wielding Moraliy: World of Warcraft and the Ethics of Ganking,' Philosophy of Computer Games Conference, Oslo.
Heres a link to the paper regarding the event:
http://bu.academia.edu/StaceyGoguen/Papers/123215/Dual_Wielding_Morality_World_of_Warcraft_and_the_Ethics_of_Ganking
Also here is a video of the event in question:
I've never heard of this... is bizarre and rather disturbing.
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