We’ve seen a perceived lack of resources cause MMORPG players to steal and mug “virtual” things. And now, in the equivalent bigger-nerd (”bigger dick” even) contest over an online chat, and being egged on by their peers, two Koreans met at the playground and kicked each others’ ass. This behavior of virtual chat bleeding into reality with fists is called Hyonsil-P, a combo for “Reality” and “Player-Killing” or PKing.

As an observer of behavior, humans are physically fighting over anonymous audience prestige for virtual resources. Reality-locked sentiences will not understand the need for either, and see the fights as ridiculous. Humans like excuses to fight and prove their dominance. What I am expecting next is that a group of Horde members (or a future equivalent) will meet one or more Alliance members and slay them.

And I believe it will happen within 5 years. Once this starts, we will have MMORPG publishers using this behavior as a back-handed way to promote their game, much like Rockstar games tries to bait parent groups to ban their games (Bully, GTA). In fact, this is very similar to the way alcohol manufacturers and drug dealers name their products: invoking death to incite interest.
Maybe we need a Mortal Kombat MMO that really knits players together under law and chaos, so they can bond together? How about events that record the movements with MoCap functionality to create a real battle on 3d frames?