![References
Brown v. EMA - Before the Court: The Justices Weigh in During Oral Arguments.
Supreme Court Debates [serial online]. December 2010;13(9):49-52. Available from:
Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed February 18, 2014.
Irrational Games- SERWER A. BLAST FROM THE PAST. Mother Jones [serial online].
July 2013;38(4):55-57. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA.
Accessed February 18, 2014.
The EVE War- Lough, Chris. Last Saturday, Over 2800 Spaceships Clashed in a Battle
Costing Thousands of Dollars. TOR.com. Jan 28 2013. Accessed 2/20/2014
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/01/eve-online-2800-spaceships-clash-costing-over-
thousands-of-dollars
Corrupted Blood- Blue, Laura. World of Warcraft: A Pandemic Lab? Time.
http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1655109,00.html August 22, 2007.
Accessed 2/20/2014
The Assassination of Lord British- Lord British was assassinated in Ultima Online
Beta. Bird In Forst’ Blog. April, 2009. Accessed 2/18/2014.
http://www.birdinforest.com/blog/2009/04/12/lord-british-was-assassinated-in-ultima-
online-beta/](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/sabredavidgeit0214-150329135758-conversion-gate01/85/Events-in-Gaming-12-320.jpg)
Events in Gaming
- 2. Brown v. EMA June 27, 2011 A Supreme Court case between the governor of California and the Electronic Merchants Association, where Schwarzenegger, et al. tried to put into effect a law that would prevent sales of certain games to anyone under eighteen. The U.S. Supreme Court sat down in 2010 to discuss the standing California District ruling. Before the case, it seemed that the course was going to be all about whether or not videogames are a form of free speech and how that will affect parents’ decision towards violent games. They ended up removing the ban, treating video games with equal free speech protection as movies or novels.
- 3. Brown v. EMA The impact of this event is more about what would’ve happened had it failed. Software developers would have to constantly monitor the amount and type of violence in games and millions of dollars would hang every ESRB rating. The ruling also finally set some sort of precedent for video games as free speech. Hopefully, if any more sensationalist groups try to label videogames or whatever the next medium is as the new evil, this court case will help to protect free speech in art. • Were I a designer working today, this court case would ensure that I could publish pretty much whatever level of realism on any sort of subject I want in any game as easily as I could write a novel, produce a play, or film a movie about it.
- 4. Irrational Games Opens (1997) Closes (2014) The creators of the Bioshock franchise, Irrational Games has long been a leader in the industry for mixing genres and adding incredible depth to the story and social commentary behind its games. This event is two-pronged in a way. I will be discussing not only the formation of Irrational, but its upcoming dissolution. In 1997 Irrational was founded by a close knit of developers trying to make outstanding games for a diehard fans, without a care for the casual gaming crowd.
- 5. Irrational Games Irrational’s formation and subsequent games have gone in directly the opposite direction of general trends; while Zynga and similar companies crank out cutesy simple retellings of the same games with different user interfaces, Irrational Games made games that push further into what a designer can do with a story. I think that the Irrational Games marked a return to writing games where stories matter, and that their close will lead to an end of an era. • If I were a developer, Irrational’s founding would’ve given me cause to give my two weeks notice and head for Boston. The closing of Irrational games would make me, as a developer, try to keep up the slack in the current gaming community and try to put even more story and immersive worlds into the game.
- 6. The EVE War January 6, 2013 A player in the MMORPG EVE accidentally started a small war. The player, Dabigredboat, accidentally sent his Battlestar-esque Titan, the space equivalent of an aircraft carrier, right into the middle of a swarm of enemies. The resulting battle was the biggest in the MMORPG’s history. EVE is a space themed MMORPG with numerous opportunity for PvP (player against player) showdowns. Players can group themselves into guilds and have ended up becoming, in essence, two main factions. Dabigredboat, a player from one of the factions, ended up teleporting his Titan into the middle of an enemy fleet and dragged twenty-eight thousand ships from both factions into an impromptu war.
- 7. The EVE War In terms of the effect of this event to the gaming industry on the whole, Dabigredboat’s actions were just the latest in any number of events in which one player ended up turning the whole game world on its head. I think it marks an evolution in games where games with freeform PvP, like Eve, will begin to take advantage of that fact and market whole MMO games more on combat and team deathmatch style showdowns, than lore and character-driven plot. • As a designer working last year, I would have taken this as a sign of how much un- tapped gameplay value there is in massive online battles. Games like Call of Duty and Battlefield show that players will spend a lot of money to take part in virtual wars. This event might even inspire me to invent a new genre, the MMOTBS: The Massive Multiplayer Online Team Based Shooter.
- 8. The Corrupted Blood Epidemic September 13, 2005 In 2005, Blizzard put out an expansion that allowed players to raid the dungeon Zul’Gurub. However, part of the trials of the dungeon was that players contract a terrible illness, Corrupted Blood, that has the ability to spread from one character to another. Typically, players were supposed to either die deep in the jungles around the dungeon, or find a cure long before returning to civilization. Blizzard designed their latest dungeon with an ingenious trap at the end: a spell that not only kills the players’ character, but also all their friends. What Blizzard, the creator of the game, didn’t count on was players’ reactions to the virus. Players found a loophole around the limitations of the disease by teleporting their infected characters right into the most populous areas of the map. Eventually the “infection” became so serious that Blizzard had to reset all the servers to rid the game world of the deadly plague.
- 9. The Corrupted Blood Epidemic September 13, 2005 To developers of MMORPGs of the time, this was something almost unheard of. Players aren’t supposed to be able to use simple spells and abilities to turn entire servers on their heads. This incident showed game designers to be extremely careful in what they put into their games, to balance extreme powers, good or bad, and to never underestimate that one gamer who just wants to burn the game to the ground. • With every game I made after this incident, I would make absolute certain that there are no loopholes that give players the ability to use scripted actions to kill low level characters within seconds. I cannot stress enough the importance of never underestimating players who want to watch the world burn.
- 10. The Assassination of Lord British August 8, 1997 In one of the biggest examples of interactivity between players and the world in an MMORPG, Lord Britain, one of the NPC rulers in Ultima Online, was assassinated by an unruly player. Under normal circumstances, Lord Britain was completely invincible to any player attacks, so players usually don’t even try. However, earlier in the day, an error caused the Ultima servers to reset and left Lord British vulnerable. It was a typical night on Ultima Online. The renowned Lord British made an appearance alongside his jesters, surrounded by adoring subjects. Suddenly, flames engulfed the magistrate and with a single, “Ugh!” he fell to the ground. Suddenly the castle was engulfed in madness as the castle guards tried to find and kill everyone responsible for their master’s demise. Or, in other words, one of the people responsible for ensuring the game runs smoothly forget to flag Lord British as invincible. A player then, whether role-playing or on a whim, cast a spell that would usually just make the guards angry. Without meaning to, he ended up committing the biggest crime in Ultima Online history.
- 11. The Assassination of Lord British August 8, 1997 To developers at the time, I think this was just one example of a company, Origin, trying to pioneer a style of gaming. Ultima Online wasn’t the first online game, but it was definitely one of the first MMORPGs that can be resemble the genre as we know it today. Games where the mechanics and rules were always changing, being used, and completely interdependent on the players hadn’t existed before. I think that, overall this showed that, while developers of traditional single player games could get away with glitches because they would only affect one players experience, developers of online games had to be doubly certain to prevent issues because they can result in a political leader being murdered before a crowd of onlookers and completely throw a game of its story. • As a designer, this is another incident that would drive me to put safeguards on my game. It also shows that any designer needs to remember that players will do anything they want, even if they don’t expect to get away with it.
- 12. References Brown v. EMA - Before the Court: The Justices Weigh in During Oral Arguments. Supreme Court Debates [serial online]. December 2010;13(9):49-52. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed February 18, 2014. Irrational Games- SERWER A. BLAST FROM THE PAST. Mother Jones [serial online]. July 2013;38(4):55-57. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed February 18, 2014. The EVE War- Lough, Chris. Last Saturday, Over 2800 Spaceships Clashed in a Battle Costing Thousands of Dollars. TOR.com. Jan 28 2013. Accessed 2/20/2014 http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/01/eve-online-2800-spaceships-clash-costing-over- thousands-of-dollars Corrupted Blood- Blue, Laura. World of Warcraft: A Pandemic Lab? Time. http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1655109,00.html August 22, 2007. Accessed 2/20/2014 The Assassination of Lord British- Lord British was assassinated in Ultima Online Beta. Bird In Forst’ Blog. April, 2009. Accessed 2/18/2014. http://www.birdinforest.com/blog/2009/04/12/lord-british-was-assassinated-in-ultima- online-beta/
- 13. Links Brown v. EMA-http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-06- 27-supreme-court-violent-video-games_n.htm Irrational Games- http://irrationalgames.com/new-featured/a-message- from-ken-levine-2/ EVE War- http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/01/eve-online-2800-spaceships- clash-costing-over-thousands-of-dollars Corrupted Blood- www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/76182- Scientists-Using-World-of-Warcraft-to-Study-Real-World-Pandemics The Assassination of Lord British- http://www.birdinforest.com/blog/2009/04/12/lord-british-was- assassinated-in-ultima-online-beta/