Drum Roll Please...

After examining several different sources on farming, and reading SmartBomb, I have come to an ethical framework that I believe in for this topic. First and foremost, I have determined I am a situational ethicist. What framework I chose today, does not always work for me tomorrow. In the case of farming in MMORPG's, I am a deontologist. If you are in violation of the EULA, whether farming or conducting yourself in a manner outside of the agreement between you and the game company, you are wrong.

Wikipedia defines a deontology as: "an ethical theory holding that decisions should be made solely or primarily by considering one's duties and the rights of others. Deontology posits the existence of a priori moral obligations, further suggesting that people ought to live by a set of permanently defined principles that do not change merely as a result of a change in circumstances. One of the most important implications of deontology is that praiseworthy goals can never justify the immoral actions; ends do not justify the means. Deontology is directly in opposition to consequentialism, an ethical theory in which the ends can justify the means because decisions are judged primarily in terms of their consequences."

Kant was a scholar who is considered one of the founders of the deontological view. He developed 3 rules for the categorical imperative:

* Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it would become a universal law.
* Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end.
* Act as though you were through your maxims a law-making member of a kingdom of ends.


You see the resemblance, right?

EULA

End User License Agreement (EULA):
a license used for most software, including MMORPG’s. An EULA is a legal contract between the manufacturer and/or the author and the end user of an application. The EULA details how the software can and cannot be used and any restrictions that the manufacturer imposes (e.g., most EULA’s of proprietary software prohibit the user from sharing the software with anyone else). World of Warcrafts EULA states: “Note that Blizzard Entertainment either owns, or has exclusively licensed, all of the content which appears in World of Warcraft. Therefore, no one has the right to "sell" Blizzard Entertainment's content, except Blizzard Entertainment! So Blizzard Entertainment does not recognize any property claims outside of World of Warcraft or the purported sale, gift or trade in the "real world" of anything related to World of Warcraft. Accordingly, you may not sell items for "real" money or exchange items outside of World of Warcraft.”

The Question

Previously in my RFTH research, I focused more on the "virtual sweatshops" ethical delimma. In this paper, I am looking more at the economy of the game and how it is "right or wrong" to buy gold. Does it "level the playing field" for those players who can't dedicate as much time as hardcore gamers, or does the EULA leave no room for interpretation?

Books

I have been looking at several books on the gaming industry to tie into gold farming.
After looking at several dealing with gaming in education, I decided on SMARTBOMB: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution

A video view of the "sweatshops"

A video from You Tube looking at a gold farming location in China

"The documentary investigates gaming workshops in China that hire people to play online games like World of Warcraft and lineage. The gaming workers play at least 12 hours a day to produce in-game currency, equipments and whole characters, which are sold to American players."

A few links on Gold Farming

How Wikipedia defines a gold farmer: " A general term for a person who acquires in-game currency in a MMORPG through collecting items and money that can be obtained by continually defeating enemies within the game. Farming is a popular method in which to obtain in-game currency within many MMORPGs. A gold farmer is a person who collects in-game currency for the purpose of selling it to other players for real world currency, such as the US dollar?
Wikipedia: Gold Farming


Interesting read from a person that communicates with farmers: "Secrets of Massively Multiplayer Farming"

'In the past several months, I've become friendly with a number of the professional farmers on my server. I had no special motive in doing so; I certainly didn'’t befriend them so that I could study them. Nonetheless, during the course of our teaming and chatting together, I gained glimpses into their lifestyles and learned things that I've found to be interesting and that I would like to share. The odds are that if you have access to the venue where this document is being published, you'll find them interesting too."

Terra Nova: A blog I frequent for interesting reads on reasearch within gaming: Terra Nova
"Mindy Basi, AKA Kwill of Kwill's Quill and a PhD from University of Illinois (see a summary of her work on race, gender, and MMORPGs in the middle of this page), emailed me about a discussion happening on the EverQuest boards. The thread, here, is invaluable for the openness with which the writers discuss the day to day reality of running a gold farm. A behind-the-scenes look that also clarifies how RMT effects end up imposing costs on all the players. What a tremendous resource . Mindi: /thank /bow."

MMORPG's and me

When looking at a RFTH topic, I wanted to stay within my topic that I have been researching, so I chose gold farming. I wasn't very familiar with this topic, but wanted to learn more.. I know many people find this a very "slippery slope" topic to begin with.

let's dig in!