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Virtual Worlds And Digital Rights
Today's virtual worlds — sometimes also called digital or synthetic — evolved from text-based role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons. The predecessors of the “Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games” (MMPORGs) of today began for the most part in the late 70s and early 80s when various individuals first engaged in the role-playing game behavior online. The online text-based commands and prompts allowed the players to act out various fantasies without the close proximity requirement that is inherent in the earlier written and oral gaming forms. As the online technology grew, so did the nature and complexity of the interactive games, including the addition of videogame graphics to the text-based game elements. In the '90s, the current state of online MMPORGs began offering a real-time socially interactive component that was not available on traditional offline console gaming. While the physical space and landscape is simulated in the virtual environment of today, the social interactions are real since virtual characters, or “avatars,” in the digital world are controlled and operated by a real person and not just by strict computer code. While these games are currently used mostly as an avenue for play and social interaction, if the proliferation of online entrepreneurship continues, the games will likely be more focused on commerce, research and work or work-related activities.
The original virtual worlds were built by private gaming companies for their subscriber base, and were fully controlled by the designers (the so-called “game gods”) and their all-encompassing End-User Licensing Agreements (EULA). These agreements detailed the rights and obligations that the players were subject to if they wished to play in that particular virtual world. As discussed herein, as new MMPORGs emerge, these licensing agreements have become less encompassing and the individual players are gaining more and more rights — which will lead to some very interesting intellectual property issues.
In the last few years, MMPORGs have exploded in usership -some reports state that 100 million people worldwide are logging on to play in one of the various digital worlds. Examples of some of these worlds include: The Sims, Second Life, City of Heroes, There.com, World of Warcraft and Everquest. These and other digital worlds can run the gamut from pseudo-Tolkein, Medieval-Arthurian, sex fetish or to more realistic depictions of the modern everyday existence. What they all have in common is that they were designed and programmed to promote social interaction among the various players.
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