Mystere incident
Encyclopedia
The Mystere incident was an EverQuest
controversy revolving around a virtual player named "Mystere", banned from the game by Verant, (EverQuest's developer) over a controversial role-playing story. Mystere, a male player on the Brell Serilis server who roleplayed and posted both as the female dark elf "Mystere" and, less frequently, a male Iksar character "Vhasst", wrote a fan fiction story which depicted the rape
of a dark elf girl of "barely 14 seasons". This story was posted under the name "Vhasst" on July 11, 2000 to third-party Brell Serilis server boards not affiliated with Verant or Sony.
At some point afterwards, an anonymous party contacted Verant complaining about Mystere's story. On October 4, 2000, Mystere was abruptly kicked out of EverQuest, and the story was soon after removed from the IGN
message board where it was originally posted. Upon contacting Verant, George Scotto, head of customer service, informed him that he had been banned. According to Mystere:
The incident also led to the removal of a quest in the game which requires the player to murder
a pregnant halfling (due to criticism that the quest was as violent as anything in Mystere's story), became the subject of academic papers, and inspired a Penny Arcade
cartoon as well as a week-long story arc in the PvP
webcomic.
Some years later, on February 16, 2006, John Smedley
brought up the incident again on his blog. In his post, he claims that Verant took the heat silently over the debacle because the full story could not be disclosed to the public, and involved allegations of criminal behavior:
EverQuest
EverQuest, often shortened to EQ, is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game that was released on the 16th of March, 1999. The original design is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost...
controversy revolving around a virtual player named "Mystere", banned from the game by Verant, (EverQuest's developer) over a controversial role-playing story. Mystere, a male player on the Brell Serilis server who roleplayed and posted both as the female dark elf "Mystere" and, less frequently, a male Iksar character "Vhasst", wrote a fan fiction story which depicted the rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
of a dark elf girl of "barely 14 seasons". This story was posted under the name "Vhasst" on July 11, 2000 to third-party Brell Serilis server boards not affiliated with Verant or Sony.
At some point afterwards, an anonymous party contacted Verant complaining about Mystere's story. On October 4, 2000, Mystere was abruptly kicked out of EverQuest, and the story was soon after removed from the IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
message board where it was originally posted. Upon contacting Verant, George Scotto, head of customer service, informed him that he had been banned. According to Mystere:
The incident also led to the removal of a quest in the game which requires the player to murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
a pregnant halfling (due to criticism that the quest was as violent as anything in Mystere's story), became the subject of academic papers, and inspired a Penny Arcade
Penny Arcade (webcomic)
Penny Arcade is a webcomic focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. The comic debuted in 1998 on the website loonygames.com. Since then, Holkins and Krahulik have established their own site, which is typically updated with a new comic...
cartoon as well as a week-long story arc in the PvP
PvP
PvP, also known as Player vs Player, is a webcomic, written and drawn by Scott Kurtz, with around 100,000 unique visitors per day . On February 1, 2007, it became the subject of its own animated series.-Themes:...
webcomic.
Some years later, on February 16, 2006, John Smedley
John Smedley (developer)
John Smedley was a computer game programmer, Product Development Director and is now President of Sony Online Entertainment since 2002.Smedley was involved with the creation and development of the original EverQuest and was co-founder of Verant Interactive, Inc., which became Sony Online...
brought up the incident again on his blog. In his post, he claims that Verant took the heat silently over the debacle because the full story could not be disclosed to the public, and involved allegations of criminal behavior:
External links
- Taylor, T.L. (2002). Whose game is this anyway? Negotiating corporate ownership in a virtual world. Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings, Ed. Frans Mayra, Tampere University Press (2002), pp. 227-242.
- planetcrap.com, "EverQuest player banned over 'child porn' claim", October 5, 2000 (The original story which caused the controversy is reproduced at this link, in post #64 by "IlIIllllI1")
- Smart Computing, "Living in a Fantasy World", May 2001, p.196-199
- John Smedley's blog, Feb. 16, 2006