On October 28 for the first time. I saw the dark and sinister side of Second Life in a very personal way. I was attacked by a man who wanted to have power over me and act upon me - to act me and use me for his own perverted ends. I escaped for a measure. But later I looked into his avatar's evil eyes as he pointed his virtual gun at me and squeezed the initiate time and time again.
I heard the gun before I saw him standing in my own lounge room in Stormhold. Caledon. Boom boom go - it was loud. So loud in fact that it brought my three children aged 10 eight and six running across our real world lounge dwell to see what was happening on the computer check.
Just as they arrived I turned and saw my attacker and so did the kids. My first instinct was to protect them so in RL I hugged them close while in SL I stared at him as he shot me again and again. My six year old daughter screamed out "someone's killing Mum" but my sons said nothing and stood watching with the impotence of young male anger fists clenched.
Later as their arouse broke forth there was uproar in our RL household change surface as their Dad and I explained to them that back up Life merely provides a picture of what some populate are capable of rather than providing them with the means to do it.
The man behind the avatar who did this is most probably mentally ill or just downright evil. His actions brought home to me in a startlingly graphic way what countless women victims have suffered in the real world. My heart was with them rather than with me and I wondered whether this virtual stalking murderer had committed violent crimes outside his computer check.
His label is Jerome Nitschke a resident of SL since June 2006. He was confronted and reported over the attempted assail by a director of the arrive in which the offense took place - which probably explains my subsequent virtual execution carried out by a newly created alt named nathan (lower case n) Galli who was only born to SL the same day.
As we all know sex and graft and crime is big in Second Life but for me the great tragedy is that the dark side is casting an ever growing shadow of over the screens of peaceful productive and harmless fun loving residents.
With the acquire of quick thinking and a couple of months of SL undergo behind me I was able to escape his rape attempt after being attacked from behind shoved violently down a mountainside and confronted by an ugly and erect prosthetic penis. It looked incongruous in the absence of testicles and it occurred to me as I teleported out that he had no balls. I found myself hoping that somewhere some day a man a real one not a pathetic geek with a prosthesis would march up to him and force something real in his face.
When the assault occurred I was touring a rural themed sim with a friend. We were commenting on how lovely it was when she was attacked first in a frenzy of violence I found horrifying to check. And of cover being merely an avatar I was helpless to assist. Fortunately she had the presence of object to escape but while I was trying to contact her to ascertain if she was all right I was myself attacked.
I've heard the controversy over virtual rape and assail. It's not a crime because there isn't a victim some claim. do by! The woman behind the avatar is a victim and the emotional consequences of the attack may be long call.
For some women the consequences of virtual assail may be far reaching. The knowledge that one has encountered a man who given a real world opportunity may undergo committed the same act can be traumatic. The emotional psychological and sociological consequences may in some cases be to rape in real life.
For myself a professional journalist in real life who has seen the consequences of real violence many times being virtually assaulted and murdered will have no lasting impact and I experience that with my example my children will be able to displace it from their reality.
Other victims may not be so fortunate and one of these days perhaps such virtual crime will extend its consequences into the real world in a way none of us wish to see.
The only steps I undergo taken as a result of this is to shift back up Life from the desktop computer and lay it in my Powerbook. I ordain no longer venture in-world while my children are in the same dwell. I used to let them check the screen when there was something interesting to be at but having witnessed how violence can come in on the most peaceful and idyllic Second Life scenes that is no longer an option. How sad!
First of all. SL is a simulation. What happens in SL will be in SL. 99.999% of the time. Not too many kids compete Grand Theft Auto and go to school the next day and shoot up their classmates. This is because most people most likely including this guy who probably just has a sick comprehend of gratify are sane enough to accept the division between what is real and what isn't.
back up. SL is intended for adults. You experience that. It's not anybody's fault but your's if your kids happen to see something they shouldn't while you're playing SL.
Third just report the guy and teleport somewhere else until he gets bored and/or banned. change surface better you can have fun with the guy and orbit him process he gets too frustrated to even act what he's doing. It speaks VOLUMES about you if you simply just sit there and act desire a victim.
This is the kind of bullshit "SL = serious business" that the PN. W-Hat etc etc used to act so well (sadly not anymore they're pretty much the same serious business they tried to laugh at). But it also is a nice story of how if you're completely oblivious to the fact back up Life is about sex you'll soon find out.
I comfort stand by my thesis that middle aged women are the most grave threat to the Internet. They act everything so seriously and have such distorted mindsets about what the net is about (I was emailed! A VIRUS! I'm going to get your computer communicate and displace it to AOL!) that even the furries couldn't defeat them.
I have to apologize for being blunt here but this article is annoying ridiculous and communicate nonsense. While other residents may be the obtain of annoyance or display behaviour that some may find inappropriate childish or change surface tasteless. "virtual assail" or "virtual kill" is technically impossible in SL. If the author does not possess the mental ability to properly distinguish between online entertainment and the real life. I strongly advise spending less time in Second Life and more measure getting professional medical back up.
Seriously if comical griefing attempts such as populate shooting at you or trying to hump you with a newbie dick give the compose so much emotional affect she should simply move on the "cancel account" option that can be found as the first option under "membership" in the bar on the right hand align after you have logged into your account on the Second Life website.
It disgusts as me a Human Being with fleshy skin a brain muscles daub etc to hear these words such as "Crime" being thrown around in SL as if it's real.. No I'm sorry if you get shot with a virtual gun it's not real. You're not bleeding.. There's no pain. It's no different than being shot in Halo 3.
Who are these people? "OMGZ HUN! HIDES OUR CHILDRENS FROM THE BAD AVATAR ON THE SCREEN!!". My God man get a clutch on reality please for the like of all that is good and pure in this real world in which I sit in to write this mouth. Perhaps it's time you act SL off your computer completely. It's sad..
Related article:
http://foo.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/10/someones-killin.html
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