rules of the MMO world

In class yesterday we talked a lot about MMO games and the types of behavior people display while playing. We talked about what penalties, if any at all, should be taken for certain behaviors and actions during gameplay. I did a little bit of research after class to find out what the rules are for some of these MMO video games and found out some things about what people are and aren't allowed to do while playing some of these games. So it turns out that there is nothing to be done about killing in some games, such as the video we saw of world of warcraft. That actually is all part of the game and many people engage in attacking one another. Some things that are not allowed are in these games are harassment of other players, excessive use of vulgar language, use of offensive language such as racial slurs, and the use of outside programs to manipulate the game. Some of these offenses, including the ones involving language, can result in a temporary suspension of someone's account, while major offenses such as using outside programs (hacking), can result in an permanent suspension of someone's account. It seems that although it is a game, people cannot go around doing and saying whatever it is they want to and that there are punishments for people who commit these offenses in the MMO games.