At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers

From CNN, a taste of things to come:

A Chinese court has ordered an online video game company to return hard-won virtual property, including a make-believe stockpile of bio-chemical weapons, to a player whose game account was looted by a hacker.

We’ve (probably) all heard of various virtual castles, equipment, and whatnot that have been auctioned for real dollars on E-bay. This, however, is the first time that I’ve heard of a Court awarding recompense for stolen virtual property. The line between the real and the virtual is getting cloudier. So is the line between the real and the imaginary.

Blogs are part of it. I’m convinced that I know Tacitus, Andrew Sullivan, David Neiwert, Kevin Drum, The Commissar, Charles Johnson, Glenn Reynolds, Paul Cella, Josh Marshall, the folks at Talk Left, the conspirators at Volokh, Misha and his imperial lackies, Jeanne D’Arc, Mr. DuToit, Lt. Smash, Kos, Matt Yglesias, Fafnir (and cohorts The Medium Lobster and Giblets), Ubaid, et al. I have opinions about them. I think that some of them are sharp, witty, and incisive. And I think that some are stupid, dull, and dangerous — and wonder how a few can sleep at night. (You may be surprised who I put into which category.)

At base, though, I’m reacting to a virtual persona that’s being put forth. People are different — more accommodating and friendlier, usually — in person. Words can’t convey the whole. They convey only a part, and only a chosen part at that, and only that chosen part poorly.

But we already know all that, right? Postmodernism, the confluence among technology, life, and the law — it’s all soooo Kool & the Gang (I hear you saying).

A Chinese Court case awarding virtual WMDs to an online gamer, however, is something new. What, I just don’t know. But, in the quiet of my office right now — with the door closed — I remember the conclusion of Salman Rushdie’s short story, “At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers.” All manner of real and imaginary persons, creatures, and things are bidding on the very Ruby Slippers of yore in a Byzantian double-blind auction. Huge sums of money are being exchanged, but no one is sure if the slippers are real, or if they’ll perform as advertised.

Everyone, however, knows the slippers’ promise: They’ll take you home.

von

p.s. Note the gamer’s decision to hoard a “make-believe stockpile of bio-chemical weapons,” and insert your anti-war joke here. (As a warmonger, I have to refrain from making jokes that undermine my position. That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate them, though.)

p.p.s. I’m also kinda waiting for a modern version of “Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons” (“BADD”) to emerge, and to claim that the online world is the product of Satan.

“At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers” is from the East, West collection of short stories.