Keyla Martinez

Professor Altman
Eng. 115 M/W 2:00
Nov. 2, 2014
Exercise 1: Argument and Analysis
The essay I read for this exercise is Should Video Gamers Be Prosecuted for Stealing
Virtual Objects? by Alex Weiss. He brought up the subject of how a Dutch supreme court
prosecuted a teenage gamer of stealing something that doesnt exist. He described what it was
the young defendant stole in the game RuneScape and what the attorney of the defendant had
said about the stolen items. He had said that they were not real and had no economic value. The
court disagreed with the statement saying the time the 13 year old victim spent in the game
trying to earn the objects gave them value.
Weiss had a strong disagreement with this case and stated this ruling made no sense to
me. Weiss being a reformed online gaming thief had a particular opinion about this case
because of how closely he could relate to it and how he could have been in the same shoes as the
teenager. He calls the defendant a victim, showing that Weiss believes that the 13 year old gamer
has been wrongly prosecuted. Weiss giving his explanation It places too much value on the time
people spend playing video games. Video games are not work or investments for which people
should be compensated; they are escapism. In other words he is just saying that we shouldnt
make this such a big deal if it has no real value. Video games are a way to get away from the real
world and have some fun not to be taken seriously in any way and to Weiss especially should not
to prosecute a young person for only playing a game.

Alex Weiss speaks of the game he used to play himself called EVE. How in the game the
purpose is to build something up throughout months or even years of playing the game and how
some other gamer could just come up at any moment and destroy everything that first gamer
spent so long to create. A game that brings out the worst of its subscribers humanity. Eve
encouraged players to use real money to buy money to use inside the game called isk. Weiss
made a comment on how he couldve been one of those pirates because of the actions he
would do in the game like, making fake investments, engaging in corporation thievery and just
messing with people. Weiss explain how in EVE they dont have a strict policy against
scamming thievery and harsh language unlike World of Warcraft. RunScape differed from the
both of them but as Weiss put it The developers of RuneScape, however, didn't explicitly state
that the thief couldn't do what he did, nor did they refund the victim his item. He also goes into
saying how the real world is prosecuting someone for something that is allowed in the virtual
one. It seems unfair to penalize the teenager for this he said.
The main thing about virtual gaming is that none of it is real so should someone really be
prosecuted if their actions in the gaming world do not affect reality. This is what Alex Weiss
speaks about in his article "Should Video Gamers Be Prosecuted for Stealing Virtual Objects". I
believe that one should not be punished for their actions online unless it creates real problems in
reality or defies the rule set in the game itself. I believe this because it is not fair for the courts to
ruin someones life over the choices they make in a fake world that do not make any difference
in the real world. Weiss article did persuade me in his view with the way he used his own life
experiences and explained how in that virtual world whatever the gamer had did was permitted
in the game and now is being prosecuted for it in reality is just completely unfair.