Recent 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/