The Virtual Journalist Who Knew Too Much

Remember the professor a couple years back who began reporting online about the scams and weird pseudo-prostitution in The Sims Online? When EA cancelled his account without warning, the story hit the gaming press but soon crossed over into major world media outlets like The New York Times. The man in question, Peter Ludlow, along with journalist Mark Wallace, who wrote "We The Avatars" which I linked yesterday, has written a book entitled Only A Game: Online Worlds and the Virtual Journalist Who Knew Too Much. The website for the Second Life Community Convention is hosting some pre-release excerpts (direct link to PDF here). At ten pages, it's a bit long on a computer monitor, but it's a fascinating read nonetheless. Ludlow and Wallace chronicle the exploits of Wallace's TSO avatar, the stories he and his staff covered, the reactions by EA, and possible implications of free speech rights in online worlds governed by a publisher.

When Ludlow, a professor of linguistics and philosophy at the University of Michigan, began reporting in his virtual newspaper on the cyber-brothels, real-life crimes and strong-arm tactics that had become rife in The Sims Online, the game's creators, Electronic Arts and Maxis Software, found an excuse to ban him from the game. Their tactics backfired, however, as publications from The New York Times to the BBC to CNN covered the story and the cry of "censorship!" was raised all over the Internet. Only A Game tells Ludlow's tale and follows him as he takes his newspaper to the powerful digital universe of Second Life, where he and Wallace continue to delve into the nature of virtual worlds.