The Alphaville Herald

Skywriting Something Awful — Satyr Sim Prim Hacks World Map

by Pixeleen Mistral on 04/09/06 at 3:20 pm

W-Hat associates take to the skies to air grievances

by Pixeleen Mistral, Herald National Affairs desk

The skies over Satyr

When I stopped by Satyr sim Saturday afternoon, SL resident Gene Replacement told me, “It is kind of dumb that it’s totally cool for people to sell chat spies but we’re not allowed to have a mature parcel name or gore in this mature sim.” I visited Satyr after I noticed that the SL world map showed 8 black sims surrounding a pink Satyr sim with what appeared to be the image of cartoon character Bobby Hill inside. I was presented with a high resolution image of the texture the Satyr residents planned to put in the map. What they actually managed to get on the map was cropped. Trust me, if you are a fan of Hank and Bobby Hill from the “King of the Hill” series you might not want to see the high resolution image, which is definitely Not Safe For Work (and is, of course, reproduced in slightly censored form at the end of this story). On the other hand, could this mean that the W-Hat crowd is developing a more refined sense of theater rhetoric griefing?

[UPDATE: Monday morning the sky hack is still visible on the map, and the official Linden blog suggests that the world map is only updated weekly.]

As I spoke with the residents in Satyr I discovered that they apparently have found a new use for the megaprims mentioned in the 3pointD.com site on Friday. Megaprims allow very large areas to be covered with a single prim, and so get around the 10 meter limit on size that most residents contend with. If some alienated group wanted to use the SL world map to get attention, megaprims would be ideal — and the people I met in Satyr certainly seem to desire some attention.

Satyr residents are notorious for an in-your-face outlook on SL and the foibles of both the SL culture and Linden Labs. The avatars I spoke with seemed a bit defensive and upset that the officers of their land group keep getting banned. Odd that this would happen, but life in SL can be hard. Especially for those that don’t fit in with the current Linden mythology. Gene’s concerns were raised in the Second Life forums, but since Linden staffers seem to have retreated to a walled garden of blogs, these concerns mostly likely fell on deaf ears. Gene Replacement told me that associate Isometric Bedlam was apparently perma-banned for a trademark violation on some “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” gear. While Gene claims that the trademarks had expired, there is some question about the Lindens’ ability (or willingness) to carefully investigate these sorts of abuse reports.

Gene Replacment (in wristwatch necklace) with charity case from that other virtual world (left)

A further problem for the group is a member being banned for a “crude and offensive parcel name”. However, Gene Replacement claims that other groups have similar names without getting in trouble. For instance, he cites the example “Cheaters House of Uninhibited Sex — Don’t get loved, GET FUCKED Free SexHornyHousewivesecretlovershardcorefuckingslutsorgyswingersgangbangfetishbdsmwhoreaffairsRPswappingsharecyber sexroughsex”. I’m pretty sure that last word is one of those multisyllabic german compound words, and if the Lindens are a bit weak on the new High German, perhaps they accidentally let this one slip though. On the other hand, it may be that the Satyr group’s particular artistry with familiar anglo-saxon words was what pushed the limits too far. Perhaps this is a case of tortured artists if not tortured prims?

The campfire this time

As we sat around the campfire, my hosts in Satyr claimed that the Lindens are practicing selective enforcement and harassing them. Given their alleged association with the Something Awful/W-Hat crowd, it is likely that some residents are applauding whatever rough justice is being dispensed by Linden Labs. This gets at the core of the problem. Lacking any clear system for showing how they reach decisions on which specific phallic symbol is offensive, Linden Lab appears to wallow in a sort of opaque gray goo of jurisprudence, judgement, and justice.

With a small small number of Linden staffers available to police the metaverse, any sort of TOS enforcement is bound to feel selective to those on the receiving end of the ban stick. While the W-Hat crowd in Satyr is intentionally pushing the limits and then complaining about uneven enforcement of the TOS, it is clear they are also more than a little interested in attention. This points out the fundamental contradiction in their rhetoric — if Gene Replacement really just wants to make mature images for his group’s amusement, perhaps a private island with a strictly controlled access list would be a better venue than a sim on the mainland? I asked the group in Satyr if they had any message for the SL Herald readers and they told me to suggest you “don’t fucking come to Satyr.” I assume this is due to ongoing problems with visitors who look around, are offended, and then abuse report these conceptual artists.

I left Satyr wondering if a group that feels compelled to skywrite images over 9 sims should really be upset when interested parties visit with a view to a kill abuse report? While the Satyr residents play the victim card, Linden Labs’ opaque justice system also raises a few questions. Perhaps both of these groups deserve each other? In the meantime, megaprims and slow map updates would seem to be an open invitation to more user-created content, so I suspect the arts scene in SL will get more interesting soon.

.

NOT…

SAFE…

FOR…

WORK…

(but censored just the same)…

AND…

NOT…

VERY…

PRETTY…

EITHER…

Okay, don’t say we didn’t warn you:

eeeeeeeeuuuw…