With the rise of massive multiplayer online games (MMOs for short), players went off in search of gold, slaying monsters or waging war in virtual universes. Of course, their real world sins followed with them and soon you started to hear about players killing players in cold blood (spawn killing), making money through shady means (gold farming) or even throwing away their real-life marriages in favor of a new relationship they made online.

The world of “Second Life” is an MMO where people don’t quest for treasure or slay orcs but instead create an avatar and make items to sell or trade with other players. Now one of those players (who goes by the name Stroker Serpentine) has launched a real lawsuit against another player who he claims is copying and selling a virtual item that Stroker originally made – a “SexGen” bed that allows for intimate moments between Second Life avatars.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, seeks for the court to order the owners of the Second Life game to stop the copied merchandise from being sold and to recover lost monies. If the court rules that Stroker Serpentine (real name Kevin Alderman) has a case they could order the owners of Second Life to give up the real name and contact information of the player that is selling the copied SexGen beds. According to one lawyer versed in cyber law, this is the first lawsuit of its kind to be filed and as such could set a precedent for future cases.

Suppose that a player gets killed in “World of Warcraft” and it costs him lost items and gold pieces…could that player launch a claim in court to recover the monetary item of their lost goods? What about players that blackmail or con other gamers out of their credits (which happened recently in the MMO game “EVE Online”.) It may sound crazy but the days of PvP killing anonymously and getting away with it could soon be numbered.