On crimes and punishments in virtual worlds: bots, the failure of punishment and players as moral entrepreneurs

Abstract

This paper focuses on the role of punishment as a critical social mechanism for cheating prevention in MMORPGs. The role of punishment is empirically investigated in a case study of the MMORPG Tibia (http://www.tibia.com) and by focusing on the use of bots to cheat. We describe the failure of punishment in Tibia, which is perceived by players as one of the elements facilitating the proliferation of bots. In this process some players act as a moral enterprising group contributing to the reform of the game rules and in particular to the reform of the Tibia punishment system by the game company. In the conclusion we consider the ethical issues raised by our findings and we propose some general reflections on the role of punishment and social mechanisms for the governance of online worlds more generally

Not All the Bots Are Created Equal: The Ordering Turing Test for the Labeling of Bots in MMORPGs

“…Thus, in most MMORPGs the use of bots is forbidden by legal documents such as Terms of Service (ToS) (De Paoli & Kerr, 2010). Companies therefore need to tell apart bots from human players in order to apply punishing measures such as bans or deletion of cheating accounts (De Paoli & Kerr, 2012). MMORPGs constitute an excellent empirical field to study OTTs.…”

“…Players are thus encouraged to become moral entrepreneurs (De Paoli & Kerr, 2012). Most games include among reportable rule violations also the use of bots.…”

“…Most of the data has been collected through the online archives of the game official forums 3 and other player produced paratexts, like wiki-pages. Using game forums data is an approach to data collection and research which I used successfully in previous research on MMORPGs and bots (see De Paoli, 2013; De Paoli & Kerr, 2012). In forums and other paratexts players may account for and justify their OTTs.…”

Is a Technological Singularity Near Also for Bots in MMOGs?

“…In studies conducted by the author, it has been possible to observe players complaining about the effects of bots, such as unbalancing the economy due to increased illegal productivity, or the transformation of MMOGs to a mere accumulation process (see De Paoli, 2012;De Paoli & Kerr, 2012). Something that these processes trigger is a sense of annihilation of the game.…”

“…play-time) than human players (De Paoli, 2012). Due to the difficulties arising from the competition with bots, players often advocate for strong measures against their diffusion, such as harsh punishments (De Paoli and Kerr, 2012) or use of monitoring software (De Paoli and Kerr, 2010;Kerr, De Paoli, & Keatinge, 2014 In summary, bots in MMOGs are "illegal and cheating helpers" of humans who can boost their game productivity with automation. Bots are also rudimentary forms of AIs that seek to pass as humans, avoiding detection from monitoring software often used by game companies.…”