Virtual Worlds, Real Problems: Digital Law and Cybersecurity in the Gaming Industry
Legal issues, covered by the umbrella term "digital law," are widely discussed in a variety of different and extremely serious contexts. At the same time, the gaming industry has already firmly gained a place in the market and in the hearts of users. Time and again it demonstrated that games are no longer a subculture, but an important part of the modern media environment. As for the law, games have long been an interesting subject: they represent a fundamentally new sociocultural practice, combine all the "cross-cutting" problems of digital law, and become a space for social experimentation. Gaming is one of the first industries (if not the first) to put new technological phenomena to the test: from "simple" negotiable digital objects, which in multiplayer games appeared in the mid-1990s, to artificial intelligence, which has accompanied the game industry since its inception, to virtual and augmented reality technologies to blockchain and NFT. In addition, as a form of media, games are also a space where different narratives and soft power collide, which brings the discussions about the limits of free speech, credibility of information, and child protection. By the way, games themselves are in some ways fundamentally similar to law in general: both phenomena are based on formally defined rules and their action in relation to the subjects. The legal dimension of computer games is a kind of a playground for normative regulation, and the study of these problems is necessary to develop a balanced approach to the regulation of the domestic gaming industry. Most people encounter digital law in everyday life, but the interaction with legal relations in this area is usually unconscious, although it concerns many actions performed online and related to digital services. Cybercrime, privacy offenses, and other events are increasingly occurring with the transition of many services and opportunities to the digital environment. Thus, the education and promotion of digital law, the digital transformation of legal work, and the training of lawyers in the field of information technology becomes a pressing practical challenge.