Monday, January 26, 2009

Real stealing going on in Runescape

Every time I dip into RWT related content in internet it depresses me. There is so much filth tied to this business, it is hard to comprehend. And I am not talking about the actual RS gold selling sites - these are just facades, polite, stealing, unlawful, business like, poorly English speaking facades to sweatshops somewhere far away. Far away from this country, but also from internet. I don't get to see what's going on behind these facades by browsing. But what I see is the English speaking cheating and hacking community. And it sickens me every time I dive into their virtual slough.

As you can guess, I've been there today... I surfaced with this gem though. The link goes into an ABC15 TV channel site. Watch the video attached to the article (in the top right corner). It says it all. And, yes, I pity the child, but not for his Runescape loss, but for his parents and relatives being so outrageously ignorant.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We've been discussing this over at MechScape world and pretty much agree with you.

Anonymous said...

"It says it all. And, yes, I pity the child, but not for his Runescape loss, but for his parents and relatives being so outrageously ignorant."

This line bothers me. Why do you think the adult's ignorance is "outrageous"? In western commercial culture if you want something, you can buy it, and that is considered to be a honest transaction. These adults are not familiar with Jagex rules against buying in-game items, nor is there any reason they should be --- RS is just some computer game their 11 year old relative plays. It is not the adult's responsibility to learn all the rules of games kids play. Parents try and teach their kids to be honest and then hope for the best.

The shame is that it is so easy for kids to be conned and have their accounts hacked. The recommended defense is for kids to become defensive, skeptical, and cynical -- this advice could lead to a dark future for our culture.

It didn't have to be this way. The internet could have been created with more safeguards in place so that new users would be safe. But the internet was not created for novice users. It was created by tech enthusiast for tech enthusiasts . . . who considered any ignorance of their specialized domain of knowledge to be "outrageous".

Vaskor said...

Knifestorm, thank you for the comment! I'd like to defend my view a bit more though.

Internet is not a technical phenomena anymore and parents should not and cannon allow themselves to remain ignorant about it. If they let their children to spend time online, they should make an effort, learn about internet usage and security and help kids to understand it better. It is mostly good old common sense type of rules anyway. Especially when money are involved. Like in this case - $140 transaction should have raised a red flag right away. 11 years old kid being encouraged to spend this kind of money (online or in RL) - simply begs for a closer look.

G said...

"These adults are not familiar with Jagex rules against buying in-game items, nor is there any reason they should be --- RS is just some computer game their 11 year old relative plays."

I have to beg to differ on this one. Parents should know the rules of the game. If your 11 year old is spending hours and hours on the internet, listening to music, watching tv or movies, it's the parent's responsibility of the content they're exposed to.

Vaskor - some comments about the article and the story:

1) That camera work is terrible.
2) Out of all the things to show, the kid chooses... fishing?
3) Is it me or does it seem pretty rude to ask for cash as a gift for your kid?

 
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