The Alphaville Herald

Defending the Beachheads of Second Life–or Just Griefing the Griefers?

by Alphaville Herald on 21/07/05 at 4:33 pm

by Clarence Calliope

Jim Herbst, defender of SL’s sandboxes, snaps a salute

Sandboxes have always been an important part of Second Life culture. Free for all to use and with practically no restrictions on prims or content, sandboxes are the preferred stomping grounds of landless newcomers and experienced builders alike. These unsettled simulators are scattered all throughout Second Life, but three of the most popular sandboxes are centered on the western coast of the main continent: Goguen, Cordova and Newcomb.

Lately, however, the tranquility of these sandy beaches has been shattered by a problem all too common; griefing. The problem won’t last, however, if The Alliance has anything to do with it.

None of the three coastal sandboxes are damage simulators, but as any experienced player knows, you don’t need to damage other players in order to wreak havoc. Unfortunately for helpless builders, countless griefers have learned this lesson as well, and many undesirable characters have overrun the sandboxes. It is not uncommon to see (or hear) the antics of griefers, who use scripts, guns, and foul language to disrupt other players.

Things are about to shape up in prim-land, though–at least, that’s what Jim Herbst and Mazer Ludd of The Alliance are saying. The Alliance, formed in January of 2005, is intent on maintaining order within the coastal sandboxes, and is even hoping to expand into the private sector as they continue to grow. Anyone visiting the sandboxes–particularly Goguen and Cordova–will have a hard time missing The Alliance’s behemoth ships, some of which reach lengths of over 500 meters. Each ship is designed, built and textured by individual captains within The Alliance Navy. If nothing else, the Alliance counts some talented designers in its ranks. The Alliance has all kinds of different ships, ranging from the monstrous carrier ANS Tartarus to the sleek yet imposing ANS Damocles. There are a variety of smaller ships in the fleet as well, some of which are actually used for boarding enemy vessels when in combat against rival groups.

The ANS Damocles

The Alliance is a fairly well organized group–they claim to have defeated the now scarce and appropriately named Mandalorians, a former sandbox rival, as well as a now dissipated group of rebels led by former Alliance troopers. With around 40 members, only about half of whom are active on a regular basis (many of which also apparently have real-life military experience), The Alliance still manages to give off a very professional aura when conducting businesses. Members of the The Alliance Marines, the branch of the group that does most of the dirty work on the ground, always salute their superiors and never speak out of turn. Alliance Marines also follow a strict set of rules when dealing with troublemakers. The Alliance Navy claims that there are no other groups within the sandboxes with coordination to match their own.

Despite all of the protocol and restraints involved in service with The Alliance, there is no payment for soldiers: The Alliance is a volunteer operation. The group doesn’t even hold any land to its name. Its leaders says it once managed an Academy, but that it was forced to take it down due to tier and prim constraints. Since the sandboxes have extremely high prim limits, building and maintaining a fleet is simply a matter of keeping them in inventory and replacing them every time the sandboxes are wiped.

The bridge of an Alliance vessel

After weighing the pros and cons of serving with The Alliance, the question begs to be asked: why bother? Why do the sandboxes need a player-run group to keep things from falling apart? For most members of The Alliance, the answer is simple: inadequate response from Linden Lab. When asked about LL’s reaction to problems within the sandboxes, Jim Herbst says, “They take over 20 minutes to respond, sometimes an hour. We’re there in minutes.” Eric Groshomme, a member of The Alliance Navy as well as a number of Star Trek groups that The Alliance provides security for, concurs. “When we eliminate threats, [the Lindens] come in and prevent us from dealing with situations.” Eric views the efforts of The Alliance as only partially successful, and blames Linden Lab for holding them back.

The Alliance may have good intentions, but are they really doing any good? Or are they only another of the many mafia-like organizations that the Grid has seen in the past (just one that can’t afford its own island). Many sandbox users have never heard of The Alliance, or simply dismiss them as one of the dozens of military groups parading around looking to recruit new members. Others, like Robin Peel, a regular sandbox user who prefers the “kill or be killed” atmosphere of Rausch, see the presence of The Alliance as being totally inappropriate. “The Alliance is not the police,” says Robin. “That’s the Lindens’ job.”

Interestingly enough, when asked if he would consider moving into Rausch–a damage simulator where enforcement would probably be much easier–Jim Herbst declines: “They don’t want us there.” Since none of the coastal sandboxes are damage simulators, Alliance members are very limited in their power over other users. Gunfire may intimidate some players, but for those times when shooting simply isn’t enough, Alliance members often resort to push scripts to remove uncooperative players. Mazer Ludd admits that these instances are relatively uncommon, saying that users rarely call on The Alliance for help unless it’s a particularly wild day, such as Second Life’s second birthday in June. In fact, many sandbox users opt to deal with griefers on their own. Most known instances of Alliance intervention involved large, allied groups of players rather than individual users.

It’s clear that The Alliance is fighting an uphill battle against in-game troublemakers. With limited fiscal, human, and technical resources, there’s only so much that they can do to follow through on their stated mission. It is of course the responsibility of the Lindens to keep order within the sandboxes, but with more and more users around all of Second Life rezzing a wooden cube to sit on just in case (or wear on their head, as the case may be), one has to wonder if the authorities are really doing their job. What are average users supposed to do when the authorities aren’t around to call the shots? Do they take matters into their own hands? Do players have the right to defend themselves, even if it means being proactive? Questions like these extend much further than the borders of the sandboxes.