Ludologist Jesper Juul has opined that MMORPGs are not "classic games" in contradistinction to Greg Costikyan. Is deciding whether MMORPGs are games a game? I should confess that most lawyers enjoy moving objects of study inside or outside certain word-boxes. In fact, playing with definitions is one of the common tasks of law. Sometimes 3.2 billion dollars can be at stake in word games (defining "occurence"). I wonder what is at stake this time around?
Relatedly, one of my favorite moments at the State of Play conference was when Tracy Spaight presented his "Who Killed Miss Norway" slides and concluded, somewhat paradoxically, that the death of the imaginary "Karyn" proved that virtual worlds actually are true communities. Difficult to puzzle out what that means. Borderline games, borderline communities -- I wonder what other borderlines we're dealing with.
Raph and Tracy have referenced the Velveteen Rabbit as a text to help us think through the questions posed by Karyn. But the Velveteen Rabbit wasn't trying to deceive anyone, as I recall. It wasn't playing a game. Was Miss Norway playing a game? If she was, did she break the rules?
