Thought political corruption was limited to reality? Think again. Players of the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) Eve Online were given a little dose of the Real this week after accusations on the part of many players that the government (i.e. the game’s developers in Iceland) had offered unfair advantages to a certain in-game political faction known as Band of Brothers. The game, a space simulator that spans endless, perilous galaxies, has been sent reeling into a deep-seated political turmoil, with accusations of corruption flying left and right, and as a result many players (and payers) have simply threatened to leave the place for good and return to earth. Seeing as the problem can’t be solved from the inside, as often seems to be the case in political matters, the game’s developers and their parent company CCP have taken unprecedented measures in order to deal with the fallout: they are holding real-life, real-time elections.
The New York Times reports:
"Perception is reality, and if a substantial part of our community feels like we are biased, whether it is true or not, it is true to them," Hilmar Petursson, CCP’s chief executive, said in a telephone interview. "Eve Online is not a computer game. It is an emerging nation, and we have to address it like a nation being accused of corruption.
"A goverment can’t just keep saying, ‘We are not corrupt.’ No one will believe them. Instead you have to create transparency and robust institutions and oversight in order to maintain the confidence of the population."
Indeed, CCP’s election is supposed to yield nine players who will emerge as the game’s political arbitrers to be flown out to Iceland to moniter the activities of the designers there. Now all there is to do is wait and see whether the political process actually works as it promises to, and whether the nine players chosen are up to the task of responsibly managing the task. Virtual reality has never been this real.
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