Goodbye LOTRO, Hello EULA

            After grinding in LOTRO for nearly 30 hours, it is now time to look at the beefy contract I signed my name to without reading its contents. However, reading a EULA of a game that you have played can be a waste of time. With that being said, the EULA of Minecraft, Second Life and Eve are the next on our list of readings. After reading Virtual Liberty by Jack M. Balkin who breaks down this generation of gaming and its End-User License Agreements, we see a few problems that can haunt us not only in a virtual world, but also on planet Earth. “One of the most important recent developments in virtual worlds has been people purchasing and selling elements of virtual worlds in the real world” (Balkin, 2059). With people posing the problem of determining the unknown equivalence of items between worlds, we look at multiple EULAs that do their best to control this persistent issue.

            Minecraft, a sandbox building game created by Mojang, that leaves us with a one-paged, mustard, ketchup and coffee-stained EULA with more grammatical errors than a dyslexic sixth grader’s paper; but gives the most freedom to the players of any EULA I have read. The EULA gives the player the liberty to modify the game and sell any plugins that belong to the player. Any ideas given to the developers are deemed as free suggestions unless previously notified by the company. In addition, the EULA enforces that art theft is unacceptable and those participating in such law breaking will be punished.

            With Second Life on deck, this slugger of a EULA may, or should, take hours to read. Regarding our concern of currency, Second Life pinpoints the platter of illegal loopholes that dishonest gamers salivate over. In-game items are banned from being sold over eBay. Players may donate, barter or purchase in-game goods by using Linden Dollars (L$) however, these L$s cannot be redeemed for real-life currency. With this 13-page EULA, Second Life takes the fine line of currency between virtual life and real life very seriously. The iron fist of the almighty Linden Labs, will slam those who try to take advantage of such a strict system.

Finally, we have Eve Online. The EULA makes it very clear how important currency is to the world of Eve. The player “may not transfer, sell or auction, or buy or accept any offer to transfer, sell or auction (or offer to do any of the foregoing), any content appearing within the Game environment, including without limitation characters, character attributes, items, currency, and objects, other than via a permitted.” Also, encouraging or inducing any other person to participate in such a prohibited transaction will result in a hefty penalty. The buying, selling or auctioning of characters, character attributes, items, currency, or objects, whether through online auctions (such as eBay), newsgroups, postings on message boards or any other means is also prohibited. As one can see, the value of in-game currency is necessary to maintain a playable and enjoyable experience for gamers to get the most bang out of their real-life buck, no matter what world they may be conquering.

LOTRO: Recipe for Teenage Hair Loss

            Good afternoon world. I hope you have all been sleeping well to make up for my LOTRO infused insomnia. Trying to keep up with the other warriors in my Virtual Worlds family, I’ve been catching up on my quests and got from level 2 to 12 on Sunday. This took me about 8 hours to do so. I am currently at level 14 meaning 1 level-up per day, 5 days a week, is my motivation to shred my eyes’ bags. OK enough with the complaining…

            As far as video games go, LOTRO is definitely not my style but I do find it relaxing running around talking to virtual (female) farmers and hunting down special flowers or carrying buckets of water for them. But don’t let the world of Firefoot throw you off; manlier missions can also be found. Slaying hordes of bears, taking on flocks of blue goblins, and protecting characters in combat is definitely fun… until a gamer comes in and steals your kill then runs off with your experience. Got selfishness? I guess yes.

            T.L. Taylor says that video games promote social activity and teamwork but I have yet to see this in LOTRO. I have helped a few random gamers finish difficult quests, and then they run off as if I held my dagger to their jugular. Those gamers are now on my hit list. Another thing I would like to point out about this game is travel time. I was totally unaware of how vast of an environment I was dealing with. Spending 10 minutes running from point A to B can be very time consuming. It may be safe to say that 14-level-old Dwarf has taken more footsteps than I have in my 19-year-young life. I won’t bet on it, but if I ever run into anyone on my hit list, they are going to pay for taking advantage of my good intentions.

LOTRO Toon Creature Creation

            Wadup playas? I'm Alec and would like to start off by saying I have been playing video games since the age of 12 and have played almost every Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Super Smash Bros, Pokèmon, Pikmin, Call of Duty, Battlefield, Gears of War, BioShock, Grand Theft Auto, Donkey Kong, Madden, NHL, Guitar Hero to name a few… but have never played an RPG. I have heard of many RPGs such as WoW and Diablo, but was never really interested. After a long history of gaming, taking a Virtual Worlds class at Lawrence University seemed to be an awesome use of my time to delve into a different (yet somewhat similar) video game world that I am used to. We start off the term with the world of Lord of the Rings Online…

            I never thought I would be playing the Lord of the Rings Online before watching any of the movies. With character creation underway, I needed to make a character to fit my username: LoRdBaCaN. I didn’t find that the elves, men, or even the hobbits could live up to the hype of such a beefy name. Then once I glimpsed in the way of the dwarfs, I found my creature of choice that would be able to beast past any barricade, slay any dragon for acres, and hurdle any deathly obstacle… even at level one. With a fellow playa already claiming the dwarf champion, I was left with no other option but the Minstrel Dwarf saying “Alec, we will survive. Nothing (except maybe a severe bacterial infection) will take me down.” I answered, “While both of my hands are intact with body, I will lead you in the right direction. Where are you from mighty Minstrel?” With that said, he told me of his dark past in The Lonely Mountains and was granted the nickname, BaCanBra, and was finally ready to jump into the world of Firefoot to further aid my guild of not-as-intimidating warriors…

            As everyone knows, every class isn’t all fun and games. With hands-on interaction with a new virtual world come readings of articles from gamers of the past. Discarding my previous views on the lameness of RPGs and remaining open-minded, I read writings from MUD expert, Richard Bartle. What I took to heart were the four things Bartle says a player can anticipate to like about a MUD: achievement with the game, exploration of the game, socializing with others, and imposition upon other players. What I look for games is usually the replay value through in-game achievements earned by completing tasks, some easy and some extremely difficult time consuming. With a positive mindset about my new virtual world, I don’t think fulfilling Bartle’s expectations will be much of a challenge.