What is your own moral take on the ganking in WoW? How do you feel about the normalization of violence in video games? Is there anything that it is just wrong to treat as escapist entertainment?
Before you answer, I suggest that you watch this video clip about another example of morally questionable behaviour in a virtual alternative world.
Trigger warning: Discussions of virtual pedophilia, rape, torture
This is an old news story now, but useful as a touchstone for our virtual morality, I think. Most people when they hear about it seem to be horrified by the discovery of "child" prostitutes within Second Life. But these "child" avatars are more than likely all being controlled by grown-ups - adult men in most cases, presumably. Isn't it "just a game"? Why shouldn't people be able to experiment with forbidden practices in a virtual environment? Aren't they just "playing" or "letting off steam"?
If you definitely think that it should be against the law - perhaps because it will validate or even encourage the same kind of behaviour in the real world (normalization) - why would you condone "ganking" in World of Warcraft, running people over and beating up or killing prostitutes in Grand Theft Auto, or any licensed killing or violence in shooter games? Isn't murder as wicked an act and as serious a crime as having sex with a child?
If you are neither murdering a real person, nor having sex with a real child, why is there any moral difference between the two virtual experiences? Is it okay in our culture to want to kill people, but not okay to want to have sex with minors? Why shouldn't both be wrong and illegal in virtual worlds, as they are in our real world?
Now have your say in the discussion forums! And remember: real people are writing and reading these postings!