The film 'Inception' and SL: We Are All Artists

For anyone reading this blog, if you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend the movie Inception, starring Leonardo Decaprio. It's a film where the creators assume the audience is intelligent and requires the audience take a few points as givens--that high-powered business leaders have secrets that others are willing to do anything to get, that these corporations are willing to hire individuals, called 'extractors', who can invade your dreams and steal your secrets, and that these same high-powered business leaders will spend serious amounts of money to be trained in how to spot extractors and defend themselves in the dream world. For those of us who are Residents of Second Life, it also has some deeper meanings than I think it would for those who've never heard of our little garden spot in the Metaverse.

In the story, Decaprio is an extractor, but instead of being hired to steal an idea, he has actually been hired to plant one, and to do it so deeply in the mind of the person he must think of it as his own idea. To achieve this goal, extractors have to have a world created that is mutually shared in the dream world between the extractor, the extraction team, and their target. This creator is called an 'architect', and Leo's architect is a young college student named Ariadne. While she exceeds expectations in her initial tryout, she refuses to take part at first. But then she reconsiders and decides to join the team, because, as she says, "It's pure creation."

(as a quick note, I don't feel it's necessary to place a SPOILER ALERT!! warning, because this decision happens so early in the movie that if Ariadne had actually refused, Christopher Nolan would be looking at a sure-fire Oscar nominee for Best Live Action Short Film instead of a sure-fire Oscar nominee for Best Picture, not to mention Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor, etc., etc. etc. But I digress.)

Ariadne's statement to me is the very core of the reason I know I love Second Life. It is the very idea that anything is possible in our own minds, and we are limited only by our imagination. Never mind the very pesky and bothersome limits such as lag, prims, and tier fees, not to mention possessing the actual talent and ability to terraform and script and build. If you can dream it, you can make it.

Frankly, I'm in complete awe of any Resident in Second Life who can build and create places. I am not one of them. I may be the only SL Resident to flunk the basic building class. I couldn't even grasp the basic concept of building a snowman. So I am left to simply admire the creativity of others in that area. However, SL is full of other forms of creators--from musicians to sculptors to clothing designers, and it takes every bit the creativity to make a skirt using a water texture print as it is to create a waterfall using the same water texture. Some of us see a tree and make it, while some of us see the same tree and write a song about it. Some see the leaves on the tree and think the pattern would look good on a pair of shoes. Some of us buy the tree, and/or the shoes, and place it in our skybox, or tell our friends where they can buy such a cool pair of shoes to wear themselves.

Maybe that is what is the most mind-blowing concept to Second Life--that creation of a Metaverse comes through the very act of existence within it. Pure Creation, as Ariadne would say.

Of Griefing & Abuse Reports

Normally when someone writes their first blog entry it's an introduction--who they are, why they want to start a blog in the first place. In the case of Second Life, it's the question of 'how I found myself in a virtual world' that is the usual first entry.  Or even why I wanted to call the blog Nightingale.


I will get around to all that eventually. I know for some this first entry will be a buzzkill, but I think it's big enough in my Second Life, um, life to share the following as my first entry. And if this becomes a regular thing it may be a signpost for some of what to expect in the future.


I was a witness to a griefing incident last night against a performer, their manager, and a close friend of that performer. I'm well aware as this performer becomes more popular in Second Life there will be those attracted to them that in the Real World would be called hecklers or even raving psychotic fans, but this is a personal attack. The griefer(s) in question have been stalking this performer and those close to them for for weeks, attempting to disrupt performances, ruin this performer's reputation, alienate the fans, and making things a living hell for everyone.


According to the protocol established by Linden Labs, griefing incidents should be filed as an Abuse Report. But the rules on how to file an AR and which ARs are given priority (and which ones are simply put into the Circular File) are letting the griefers get away with it. For instance, in order for the Lindens to investigate or take action against a griefer, you have to provide information the griefers know will doom your AR if they successfully hide it from you, such as the name of the griefer. Most of them are smart enough to either use alts to perform the deed--and if that alt gets caught and banned, they simply make another alt to continue their reign of terror. This is assuming the griefer doesn't simply let bots or scripts do the work for them, hiding their ownership details, and if somehow you manage to count how many beans make five and figure out who planted the bot or the script, they can simply say to the Lindens, 'Not me, I was nowhere near at the time'.  Another piece of info the Lindens demand in an AR is a picture of the incident. Exactly how is someone supposed to take a picture of a script ejecting you from your own land or from a club, much less crashing you out of Second Life? And of course if you don't provide this, the chances of the Lindens even bothering to look at your complaint go to zero.


Another problem comes when a griefer attacks a public area or an entire sim. To me, the Residents inside the sim or in the nightclub or whatever are just as much the victims of the griefer as the owner of the land or the owner of the nightclub--after all, we're affected when a sim crashes or spam invades the local chat, or our overall enjoyment of Second Life is affected. Yet...Lindens don't give an AR from someone inside a public area that is attacked the same weight as if the land or business owner files an AR. So what happens if the sim owner isn't on at the time of the attack? There can be several hours between the time of the attack and the time an AR is filed, then the owner has to gather details of the incident, now several hours old and not as fresh in details. And this also has the perverse outcome of the next complaint--the fact a single AR is not given the same weight as if several ARs are posted, even if the AR comes from the land owner or business owner. So it could mean weeks or even months of repeated attacks before a Linden decides something needs to be done.


Something I find even more disturbing is the impression among Residents that Linden Labs has them on permanent ignore of late. When official forums and local chats and IMs and club chats are full of comments like 'I filed a ticket on this and nothing's been done' or 'I filed this AR and I haven't even received a reply and the problem is still continuing', it simply looks bad. Even if it's not true, the stories are everywhere. And when you see someone who is facing a daily barrage of harassment in IM by one Resident with an ax to grind against them, the stalker creates new alts daily to counter banning by the Lindens, knowing the Lindens should take the step of blocking this person's IP address for repeated violations, and yet nothing has been done? You have to wonder if the Lindens are sitting around all day with their thumbs up their kazoos and blowing bubbles instead of actually working on the various problems of late in Second Life--not just problems such as griefing, but serious issues like crashes, inventory that won't load, servers that don't respond, etc. And it is this lack of action that leads to Residents giving up on Second Life and going elsewhere, because their quality of enjoyment or even their income has been removed. Which means the griefers win, and it simply encourages these losers to go do it to someone else.


So, I am now going to do something that Linden Labs actually does not encourage Residents do--I am going to take some matters into my own hands. The people who were directly griefed last night are friends of mine, the crowd at this particular club last night were fans and people simply looking for a good time, the management of the club were simply trying to do their jobs and had to face an uproar when the incident happened, and at least in the beginning were blamed for the incident even though those of us in the know are aware they had nothing to do with it. And from all of that I am going to do something about it because the Lindens will not.


To the griefer, I give this message, in the hopes someone who knows them will direct them to it, assuming they're not reading themselves: I know who you are (and that's not bluffing--I do know who is responsible), and I'm aware you have joined up with some others to continue your game. It stops now. I am giving you the courtesy of not naming you--yet. But if there is one more incident that occurs, I will name you in this blog. You may think you're safe, but this blog isn't an official Second Life blog and I have no problem in saying who you are in Second Life. And if there's a picture available I'll post it too. I will name you as a griefer and a stalker and then you can see just how much more enjoyment you'll get in the Grid. You're dismissed.


Let's see if my friends are going to be left alone now.