The Issue Of Griefing And Unverified Accounts in Second Life

One of the persistent issues within Second Life is the addled idea that people who do not have payment information on file are the cause of problems - known as 'griefing', which is generally 'being a pain in the neck or other body part for other users'. A 'Grid Attack', which brings the entire SecondLife server grid down is also griefing, but not quite as bad as an errant newbie flying around with an attachment hanging out. And that's what was happening yesterday, apparently, as the Official SecondLife Blog points out in 'Mass spam issue inworld being investigated'.

As the entry should indicate to anyone with 3 brain cells, this wasn't the work of some newbies. Such attacks require a lot of experience and perhaps even coordination.

And yet, the majority of the world do not have credit cards, and PayPal doesn't serve the majority of the world, so we should expect more people with unverified accounts logging into Second Life; in the same token the 'throw away alt' is also a prominent issue. Sure, we can sit around with the griefers, have a group therapy session and get touchie feelie with them but there's really no point in that. They knew the risk of getting caught and took steps to avoid detection. But if we say that most people who crack websites and games are adolescent or post-adolescent yet pre-mature white males, then maybe people should be pushing to have white males removed from Second Life as much as they are pushing to have unverified accounts.

In the real world, there are tougher measures for immigrants in place - even as far as the Mexican wall¹. Is this mentality entering Second Life? Is this a reflection on what the present majority of Second Life Americans see? I don't know, that would require a poll - but if you consider SecondLifeInsider's article, 'Elitism And Security' and apply it at the higher level of verified and unverified accounts, you should get the same result.

It's not really rocket science - but it does require people to pull their brain cells out of stealth mode. Griefing isn't about account status. Griefing is about taking advantage of situations for one's own amusement at the cost of others, and that motivation is independent of account information.

¹Which Lou Dobbs discussed with Bill Mahrer last night - it is only 700 miles of wall for 2,000 miles of border, and it's only being funded for half a year...