Legal and Juridical Aspects of Virtual Games

Thanks to the Information Technology (IT), the cyberspace has introduced a generation of computer games called Virtual Games. These games, due to their special attributes, have gone beyond a game and besides fun and entertainment, play other roles for people. Since these kinds of games are necessarily played through web and in the online form, they are often known as Virtual Games. This virtual context has given them a popular and global character. The universal features and seriousness of the virtual games have provided opportunities and threats for policy and decision makers in different areas, such as social, economic, cultural and legal ones. Although, computer games, as a part of the entertainment industry, mainly interact with economic and cultural fields, the specific features of these games, including the possibility of buying and selling Virtual Items during the game, have raised new juridical and legal challenges. The most important juridical and legal aspects of the virtual games include, first their legitimacy, and second the legal status of trading online items during the game which is known as “In-Game Transactions”. The present study tries to present a juridical-legal analysis of the above mentioned challenges.