“Should Gamers Be Prosecuted For Virtual Stealing?” by Alex Weiss is an argumentative essay in which he calls out the criminal system for allegedly putting on trial a teenager for committing theft in a virtual game. Even though it was a very straightforward trial, it quickly turned heated when questioning whether or not it was correct to trial him. Also, more important, it makes us ask ourselves, are actions in a game a proof of a person’s ethical values and beliefs? Weiss states that putting someone on trial for virtual theft is not only incorrect but also dangerous. Just because someone committed a lot of crimes in a game, it means he will commit these crimes in the real life. Weiss states his opinion in the article by saying: “As
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Any piece of software can get you what you’re looking for and make life hell for your fellow teammates. In most video games, there is something called “campaigns” which is like a path for you to follow, however, it’s near impossible to know if you’re allowed to do something or not unless something big happens, like a major character dies, or your character dies, etc. Just because you do something bad in these games it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person and should be punished. Most of the games are a relief to people, a window to be what they want to do, in certain games, these activities are the whole point of the game, lie, kill and win. If courts were to punish you for virtual crimes, it should be their responsibility to say what you can and what you can’t do in the game yet people are charged for crimes in the virtual world as if they were committing them in the real world.
Punishment for virtual crimes should not be allowed, however, it must help us reconsider the need for the creation of new laws. Video games serve as an escape from reality, that’s why they’re called virtual reality. If we allow ourselves to apply punishments from the real world into this reality, you will see an increasing number of people who will do these things in real life, since it would pretty much be the same
Any piece of software can get you what you’re looking for and make life hell for your fellow teammates. In most video games, there is something called “campaigns” which is like a path for you to follow, however, it’s near impossible to know if you’re allowed to do something or not unless something big happens, like a major character dies, or your character dies, etc. Just because you do something bad in these games it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person and should be punished. Most of the games are a relief to people, a window to be what they want to do, in certain games, these activities are the whole point of the game, lie, kill and win. If courts were to punish you for virtual crimes, it should be their responsibility to say what you can and what you can’t do in the game yet people are charged for crimes in the virtual world as if they were committing them in the real world.
Punishment for virtual crimes should not be allowed, however, it must help us reconsider the need for the creation of new laws. Video games serve as an escape from reality, that’s why they’re called virtual reality. If we allow ourselves to apply punishments from the real world into this reality, you will see an increasing number of people who will do these things in real life, since it would pretty much be the same