Who owns your virtual life?

Final thoughts

The ability to make entertainment from a cardboard box is a skill that gets lost in the transition from toddler to child but a tendency to embellish and imagine more from the things we play with is a fundamental human trait. Flickr has gripped me and it’s gripped me more than any of the games I’ve played recently. I can’t help but think that either a) I’m just really sad, or b) that while a) might be true, it’s the sense of satisfaction that comes from my own contribution, my own content and my own creativity that makes Flickr so addictive.

Flickr built the framework, and its users build the world. MMOs could learn a lot from the parity of this approach – give users some sense of ownership, make the game open (at least a little) and allow people to put their own stuff in the game – Neverwinter Nights and a host of other games let you do it, so why not?

Yet as the World of Warcraft ToS states, "Blizzard Entertainment expressly reserves the exclusive right to create derivative works based on World of Warcraft. This means that you may not create derivative works based on World of Warcraft, without the prior express, written permission of Blizzard Entertainment."

I wonder how many letters they’ve sent out.

Alex Watson is Reviews Editor of CustomPC magazine.