The State of Play II conference on social issues in online gaming is underway, and Wired News has a report on a fascinating debate regarding free speech in gamespace:
Recently, in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game A Tale in the Desert, an uproar erupted after an in-game trader declared that he would not sell to women and then inquired whether one female character was for sale…
Often though, such in-world tension is the result of member behavior many see as antisocial, and player communities frequently get into highly charged discussions — both on official game forums and on unofficial blogs — about what to do. In some cases, players threaten legal action against other players or even against the developers.
