Point and Shoot: Violent Virtual Protests in Second Life

This is straight up hilarious.

I haven’t spent a significant amount of time on Second Life. It’s a cool idea and I think will be more interesting and important down the road, but right now… well, just a little too funky. I wrote before about U.S. intelligence agencies increasing their presence in virtual worlds like Second Life. So too, it appears, are political campaigns (though for the moment, unofficially).

Indeed, an interesting article in Friday’s Wall Street Journal described how grassroots-organized campaign events in Second Life for the two remaining Democratic contenders are being sabotaged by virtual operatives from rival camps.

It’s not particularly surprising, especially in the largely consequence-free virtual universe, that speeches and marches put on by volunteers would be disrupted by protests. There’s no fear of public embarassment or legal action: Second Life is, after all, more or less a game. Protestors can carry signs, wear custom t-shirts and hats, and even break into unofficial campaign headquarters in order to litter them with opposition propaganda. But I would never have guessed that speakers at virtual grassroots campaign rallies would also draw, well… sniper fire?

I didn’t know this, but apparently avatars in Second Life can shoot each other. Yeah. Like, with bullets. While the virtual slugs don’t kill or even injure another user’s character, they do “push” them around. With enough man- and firepower, a renegade band of insurgents can displace several dozen congregants from their gathering place. Under the right conditions, a well-orchestrated attack can even knock users offline or take down an entire Second Life server.

Organizers do have the option to dismiss and ban disruptors with a point and a click, or they can transport their entire rally to another, undisclosed location. But there is no “official” virtual riot police deployed by Second Life, and it is unclear whether disruptive actions like these violate any sort of terms of use or community guidelines. I doubt either to be the case, since part of the attraction of Second Life is the escapist freedom of action that it provides.

So, really, I just thought this was funny. I won’t wax on with questions about the need for virtual laws or enforcement or freedom of speech in online words. To be honest, right now, all I can think about is Leeroy Jenkins screwing up a raid on a Hillary rally.