I think the concept of griefers is insane! I definitely agree with Prokofy Neva who believes that “no amount of humor or creativity can excuse what she sees as terrorism”. I feel like griefing is very similar to terrorism. What people are doing is pushing someone so far that they can’t take it anymore. Terrorism is the same way. Someone does something and continues to do it until someone else reacts to it. I find that very annoying. It’s like your little brother or sister poking you until you get upset and yell at them. In the article by Julian Dibbell called “Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World”, he mentions many different ways that griefers push people to the edge. One example was when a group of Second Life Goons recreated the scene of the burning Twin Towers. That was an act of terrorism and I think that it still should be considered an act of terrorism in Second Life. Causing people to relive an experience that was horrible and scarring is a terrible thing to do. I think that these people are sick in the head. In the case, of Prokofy Neva, she lost hundreds of real US dollars because of the griefers. I agree that she has every right to be upset.
I am not very involved in online communities so I wasn’t entirely sure on what a griefing episode looked like until I read the articles that were included in our syllabus. The one that really stood out for me was “Alien Invasion” from the Something Awful website. It showed all these pictures of aliens coming to the Second Life world and abducting people to use for “experimentation”. It turns out that the experiments where just torture. That was disturbing for me to see. I didn’t like thinking about how there are real people behind those characters that are getting tortured, or raped (such as in the case of Dibbell’s article “A Rape in Cyberspace”). I feel like they are real terrorists because they get enjoyment from watching other people suffer. I realize that some are just trying to be funny or obnoxious like a little brother or sister, but there is also those who push it too far. Griefing is terrorism.
Here is the alien invasion article: http://www.somethingawful.com/d/second-life-safari/alien-invasion.php
2 comments:
Amy.. Great blog. I completely agree with your view on virtual terrorism. I don't think it's something that should be taken lightly. Although, its being done online, I still think that its a form of terrorism especially the twin tower example. Griefing is something I think its a selfish, unnecessary act. Its sad that someone gets pleasure out of making someone else miserable. Good blog and good example!
I agree, good blog. I totally agree with you! I think this is terrible and this shouldn't happen. I don't know why people feel the need to do stuff like this. Terrorism is a huge issue ever since 9/11 and bringing up fears and anxiety people have is awful. There were a lot of people who were killed and many people lost their loved ones. If I would have lost a loved one and then witnessed this form of bullying, I don't know what I would have done. To me, it seems mean. To them, its funny and they're getting the reactions they wanted from us.
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