Trouble on Second Life
Last night I had a first hand experience on the uppleasant side of Second Life. I was wandering around EduIsland II, just trying to become better at using the Avatar and looking to see if there was anyone with whom I could chat. I walked into one house. I think it might have belonged to KJ. Anyhow, after practicing walking up the spiral staircase, which is harder than it sounds, somebody appeared at the door. I immediately said that I hoped I was not trespassing. He told me not to worry. I asked him if he was an educator. He said no and I said that this is EduIsland II. (Isn't it odd that I'm using words like "said." We were typing.) He asked me to teach him something and I said, "LOL." I then said that I had to get going because it was late in RL (real life). He told me that I'd better not leave and demanded that I sit down. At that point he quickly moved in front of the door. He then told me to "get out." I guess I could have teleported out of there but I wanted to leave through the door. He told me that I had to leave immediately and that he was going to report me to the Lindens, the owners of Second Life. I said that would be great since I assumed that they would be able to read the history of our conversation.
Soon thereafter he moved and I went outside. He followed me. I'm not sure what motivated me to stay in the area, but I've never been one to back down from an argument. Interestingly, somebody else showed up who asked if things were OK. I assumed that he had actually reported me. The other avatar explained that they were just wandering by and noticed the trouble. The paranoid part of me couldn't help but wondering if somehow I'd been set up for them to do something to my computer? I'm assuming that there's no way that they could have done this from within SL.
Regardless, I"m sort of happy that I had this experience. It showed me another aspect to this interesting program.
Technorati Tags: Andrew Pass education Second Life Classroom20
posted by Andrew Pass @ 9:39 AM
3 Comments
Links to this post
3 Comments:
Wow...what a story.
I had a scary experience myself a while back:
http://www.storyofmysecondlife.com/?p=72
Isn't it amazing how scared a virtual encounter makes you ... in REAL life?
I am glad we had a chance to talk and hope you feel better about what happened. Bottom line, when in doubt, teleport. Fastest way is just to click the Map button and tap on a square for another sim. You'll be gone in an instant.
Still, though, people are rude in RL, they are rude in SL too! Sometimes, more so! All we can do is what you did - defuse the situation and move on ... reporting the offender(s) if possible!
-kj-
This will happen from time to time with nasty people, in RL as in SL. Your best bet is to just teleport home and stay out of trouble. Let the land owners know of the problem from afar, but don't get drawn into these sorts of things.
I hear you. Some people take Second Life a bit TOO seriously. For example, I was exploring some area, checking out the buildings, and I had stopped my avatar basically to let the server catch up so I could continue on. Suddenly someone "shouted" at me to get the hell away. Turns out I had parked myself - without realizing it - outside a home with a big window into the bedroom where two avatars were romancing (to use a polite term which to be honest sounds just as ridiculous in this context as any other word I could use). Nothing happened, of course. I just ignored the guy and moved on, but I've come to the conclusion that some people really do take Second Life too seriously and need to step away from their computers for a bit.
But the effect this sort of behaviour has on me as a SL resident is I really find myself enjoying areas where virtually no Second Lifers congregate ... like most of the PG-rated and artistic areas.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home