Is there a trend beginning...?
First, some Dutch kids (15 and 14 years of age) were convicted of forcing a younger kid to transfer some of his Runescape items into their accounts. Apparently they threatened him at knife-point, according to one comment, so there were "real-world" violent actions involved... but over items within a virtual gaming world...? (Wired)
Next, a 43-year-old Japanese woman was arrested after deleting her virtual ex-husband's avatar after the couple's online divorce... (Wired)
Granted, two instances do not make a trend, but does raise the interesting question about the effects of virtual reality on morality. And to reverse the thought, what about the effects of morality in the virtual world? An interesting essay in Adbusters explores this further. (Adbusters)
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