Op/Ed: Someone’s Killing Mum in SL
by Alphaville Herald on 29/10/07 at 11:12 pm
by Katrina Eales
IF Second Life was the real world my lifeless body would now be in the possession of the coroner.
On October 28, for the first time, I saw the dark and sinister side of Second Life in a very personal way. I was attacked by a man who wanted to wield power over me and dominate me – to take me and use me for his own perverted ends. I escaped for a time. But later I looked into his avatar’s evil eyes as he pointed his virtual gun at me and squeezed the trigger time and time again.
I heard the gun before I saw him standing in my own lounge room in Stormhold, Caledon. Boom, boom, boom – it was loud. So loud in fact that it brought my three children aged 10, eight, and six running across our real world lounge room to see what was happening on the computer screen.
Just as they arrived I turned and saw my attacker and so did the kids. My first instinct was to protect them so in RL I hugged them close while in SL I stared at him as he shot me again and again. My six year old daughter screamed out “someone’s killing Mum” but my sons said nothing and stood watching with the impotence of young male anger, fists clenched.
Later, as their anger broke forth there was uproar in our RL household even as their Dad and I explained to them that Second Life merely provides a picture of what some people are capable of rather than providing them with the means to do it.
The man behind the avatar who did this is most probably mentally ill or just downright evil. His actions brought home to me in a startlingly graphic way what countless women victims have suffered in the real world. My heart was with them rather than with me and I wondered whether this virtual stalking murderer had committed violent crimes outside his computer screen.
His name is Jerome Nitschke, a resident of SL since June 2006. He was confronted and reported over the attempted rape by a director of the land in which the offense took place – which probably explains my subsequent virtual execution carried out by a newly created alt named nathan (lower case n) Galli who was only born to SL the same day.
As we all know sex and graft and crime is big in Second Life but for me the great tragedy is that the dark side is casting an ever growing shadow of over the screens of peaceful, productive and harmless fun loving residents.
With the benefit of quick thinking and a couple of months of SL experience behind me I was able to escape his rape attempt after being attacked from behind, shoved violently down a mountainside and confronted by an ugly and erect prosthetic penis. It looked incongruous in the absence of testicles and it occurred to me as I teleported out that he had no balls. I found myself hoping that somewhere some day, a man, a real one, not a pathetic geek with a prosthesis would march up to him and shove something real in his face.
When the assault occurred I was touring a rural themed sim with a friend. We were commenting on how lovely it was when she was attacked first in a frenzy of violence I found horrifying to watch. And, of course, being merely an avatar I was helpless to assist. Fortunately she had the presence of mind to escape but while I was trying to contact her to ascertain if she was all right I was myself attacked.
I’ve heard the controversy over virtual rape and assault. It’s not a crime because there isn’t a victim some claim. Wrong! The woman behind the avatar is a victim and the emotional consequences of the attack may be long term.
For some women the consequences of virtual rape may be far reaching. The knowledge that one has encountered a man, who given a real world opportunity, may have committed the same act can be traumatic. The emotional, psychological, and sociological consequences may in some cases correspond to rape in real life.
For myself, a professional journalist in real life who has seen the consequences of real violence many times, being virtually assaulted and murdered will have no lasting impact and I know that with my example my children will be able to separate it from their reality.
Other victims may not be so fortunate and one of these days, perhaps, such virtual crime will extend its consequences into the real world in a way none of us wish to see.
The only steps I have taken as a result of this is to remove Second Life from the desktop computer and install it in my Powerbook. I will no longer venture in-world while my children are in the same room. I used to let them watch the screen when there was something interesting to look at but having witnessed how violence can intrude on the most peaceful and idyllic Second Life scenes that is no longer an option. How sad!
Farsuka Botha
Oct 31st, 2007
IZ DIS SUM RAPE?
Dear Farsuka Botha,
Linden Lab individually investigates the circumstances of every Abuse
Report we receive. Following a careful review of our server records and
logs, we have determined that your recent actions violated the Second Life
Community Standards or Terms of Service. The violation in question occurred
on October 30, 2007 in the region of Caledon Stormhold.
Violation: Community Standards: Sexual Harassment
While some areas of Second Life are rated Mature, sexual or
adult activities require the consent of all Residents
involved.
Sexual Harassment occurs when a Resident’s behavior
constitutes unwelcome sexual advances, unwelcome requests
for sexual favors, or other unwelcome verbal or physical
behavior of a sexual nature.
The rules of conduct are interpreted with the broadest meaning possible.
Discipline
As a result of this violation, your Second Life account is
being temporarily suspended for a period of 3 days. It will
return to active status on Friday, Nov 02, 2007.
We will not disclose the identity of Residents who file Abuse Reports.
Sincerely,
Linden Lab
shockwave yareach
Oct 31st, 2007
It seems that most of the replies here are unable to conceive of rape without physical penetration of real vagina by real penis. More’s the pity. — Ricercar
errr… because physical sexual assault is what rape is? You yourself may include driving a Corvette while talkign on a cellphone (or whatever else offends you). But that’s not the legal, moral, or common definition of rape. And since there CAN BE NO PHYSICAL CONTACT between avatars — only graphical representations like a cartoon — then you cannot be raped in SL. You likewise cannot get beaten, punched, anally attacked by Hentai monsters from Japan, decapitated, run through a meatgrinder, or suffer an ingrown toenail.
You CAN suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome however, if you think you can convince hardcore gamers that if they see it then it is real. That’s a ludicrous supposition. Your character didn’t get raped, Santa’s sleigh doesn’t really fly and the Enterprise isn’t waiting to fly you anywhere.
Katrina Eales
Oct 31st, 2007
Darkfoxx, what were you doing on my land? Did you turn up for a griefing exercise or merely to harrass me verbally? Thank goodness I was discussing changes to my house with a neighbour. Please stay away in future.
Anonymous
Oct 31st, 2007
stop trying to grab up attention and drama, I know people who have been raped, forcibly, with a weapon, and beaten severely. this is why I have no pity for you, you damn attention whore. there is no way you can be raped on SL.
Also, those who say rape isnt limited to physical, here are some definitions:
Rape:
-a form of assault involving the non-consensual use of the sexual organs of another person’s body. The assailant can be of either sex, as can their target.
-Eurasian plant cultivated for its seed and as a forage crop
the act of despoiling a country in warfare
-destroy and strip of its possession; “The soldiers raped the beautiful country”
I dont see: “guy shooting you with a gun on a game and asking for sex” in there. plus, you’d have to allow him to do it, but is your vagina fine? good.
stop trying to feel special about a non-event because your life sucks and has nothing interesting going on.
Darkfoxx
Nov 1st, 2007
Exqueeze me?
me, on your land?
Unless your land is on the Silverstone sim, or anywhere on the Caledon sim with the big town square with the clothing stores (forgot it’s exact name: got a huce circle square with freebie carts around it), then I haven’t been anywhere NEAR your land.
Aside from that, I don’t grief or verbally assault, as a club manager I cannot afford being seen griefing. I think you migh have me confused with someone else.
Tymmerie Thorne
Nov 1st, 2007
Someone call Social Services on this idiot woman – she is making her children watch “assault” on an ADULT web site.
Her IDIOTIC “article” does a HUGE disservice to actual victims of assault – who can only wish they had had the ability to TP to a safe place. That the SL Herald decided to publish it completely erodes any credibility they had.
Anon
Nov 1st, 2007
As a woman I find this article disgusting. Everything that can be said has been so I suggest the writer go through a quick review: 1. LOG OFF! LOG OFF, NOW! 2. Unplug. 3. Quit SL- you obviously do not understand the difference between REALITY and SECONDLIFE. 4. Spend some time with your kids and your husband- obviously both are probably neglected. 5. Volunteer at a rape crisis center or a domestic violence shelter- learn that what happened to you doesn’t bother to even COMPARE to what happens to survivors.
Also, if I told my husband I was ‘almost raped’ and ‘omg ponies, griefed’ on SL he would say, “SO?”. If I told my husband I was raped or shot at or beat/mugged whatever in real life he’d want to kill people for hurting me. So a lot of men understand the severity of real life. Don’t think just because a man dismisses what happened to the writer they are going to be dismissive of a real life beating/rape of someone they love. Now who is setting women back 100 years? You people are with that belief.
Kezza
Nov 1st, 2007
We’re not talking about rape per se you sad intellectually deprived people. Virtual rape is not physical rape. It is an attempt to do to an avatar in a virtual world what some men do to women in the real world.
Words and terms are constantly being redefined. Marriage, for example, describes the union of a man and a woman yet there are people of the same sex getting “married in SL and RL.” Anyone here care to say that same sex marriages are not marriage at all?
You people think you can pick and choose the effect situations and occurrences have on people in Second Life. It would be a vastly more worthwhile exercise to consider why some people behave in Second Life in such an anti-social fashion.
Artemis Fate
Nov 2nd, 2007
If this is a joke, and so much of it seems so hilariously satirical, like the image of the family all huddled up in terror in front of the computer, as their virtual avatar is harmlessly assaulted by virtual bullets, then it’s brilliant.
If it’s serious, then christ, I have to agree with the PN, /b/tards, etc. on this. It’s not real, recognize the separation and stop being so goddamn butthurt. I’ve been griefed, assaulted, insulted, shot, stabbed, exploded, poisoned, and otherwise maimed in SL, and not once did I take it seriously to the point of one long sobbing article about how my life is ruined and the scars are forever.
And Penance, don’t even validate this bullshit by inviting her to whatever rape center you set up, getting shot in Second Life is not even worthy of a virtual incarnation of an institution like that, at best, anyone scarred and worried about it, needs to be slapped back into reality, not bemoaningly asked to relay their feelings on the subject.
For my own withering sense of tolerance for the human race, I hope this is a joke.
Genna
Nov 2nd, 2007
“IF Second Life was the real world my lifeless body would now be in the possession of the coroner.
On October 28, for the first time, I saw the dark and sinister side of Second Life in a very personal way. I was attacked by a man who wanted to wield power over me and dominate me – to take me and use me for his own perverted ends. I escaped for a time. But later I looked into his avatar’s evil eyes as he pointed his virtual gun at me and squeezed the trigger time and time again.”
“With the benefit of quick thinking and a couple of months of SL experience behind me I was able to escape his rape attempt after being attacked from behind, shoved violently down a mountainside and confronted by an ugly and erect prosthetic penis.”
1. This woman strikes me as a wannabe novelist instead of the journalist she claims to be. With the dramatic prose and creative context she puts her ‘story’ in, it is very much meant to elicit strong feelings of fear and sympathy, and not an ounce of objectivity to be found.
2. I see the word rape being thrown around loosely several times, but never indicated if he actually said something specific. All I can surmise is he used his avatar to walk forward into her avatar and push her forward until it dropped down the side of an edge of land. I’ve been pushed before by another avatar both unwanted and playfully. When I didn’t want it, I was annoyed, but I combated that by first flying up and then TPing to another location if they followed. And how can something go from walking one avatar into another to “shoving violently down a mountainside”. How many mountains are in SL anyway? Was she actually on top of a mountain or added that for effect? And what constitutes ‘violently’?
I just don’t get it and resent the author’s puff piece being treated as real, hardcore journalism. BTW, I’ve been griefed by female avatars as well as male, so let’s not demonize all men on here as the only ones to cause trouble in SL.
firey
Nov 2nd, 2007
Genna, according to SECOND LIFE THE OFFICIAL GUIDE, 14.45% of males who use Second Life wear a female avatar.
(3.55% of females use male avatars.)
cheekypetmonkey
Nov 2nd, 2007
“I just don’t get it and resent the author’s puff piece being treated as real, hardcore journalism.”
LOL! Brilliantly said…out of all the replies to this post…this quote sums the article up the best! Enough said.
Ana
Nov 2nd, 2007
How dare you equate what happened to you to rape or murder? Not only doesthat trivialize victims of real violent atacks, it shows your insensitivity to those victims by even comparing what happened to you to what happened to them and continues to happen to people everyday. What happened to you was at best mildly annoying so stop being a damn drama queen and grow up.
Vortex
Nov 2nd, 2007
Hmm comparing SL to RL rape, I bet every girl would have killed for the option to just teleport away in RL before anything happened.
MNC Honey
Nov 2nd, 2007
So if I understand correctly, it’s like…..OMG! VIRTUAL PORN! QUICK…HUDDLE IN FRONT OF THE PC WITH THE KIDS! Windows can be closed or minimized…just saying.
MNC Honey…SL resident with a thong
Rape-Ape
Nov 2nd, 2007
Rape only hurts if you fight it.
Most people today would claim that rape is a terrible crime almost akin to murder but I strongly disagree. Far from a vile act, rape is a magical experience that benefits society as a whole. I realize many of you will disagree with this thesis but lend me your ears and I’m sure I’ll sway you towards a darkened alley.
ColeMarie Soleil
Nov 3rd, 2007
“IF Second Life was the real world my lifeless body would now be in the possession of the coroner.”
M’aam… I couldn’t have pointed out everyone’s point any more eloquently.
You posted this whole article with “IF” in bold… and caps lock.
Lady this ISN’T the real world. It’s “virtual” reality… as in a simulation.
Log off your computer now and spend some time with your children and not your computer.
Thank you.
Astonished
Nov 3rd, 2007
Katrina, I understand that you were upset by the SL experience you described, but I am appalled that you would then say: “I found myself hoping that somewhere some day, a man, a real one, not a pathetic geek with a prosthesis would march up to him and shove something real in his face”. You found your virtual experience horrifying, yet you would wish for someone else to be raped, in the real world, by a real person?
Michael Seraph
Nov 3rd, 2007
Wow, what a load of nonsense. What a role model for women this lady is. She is so completely helpless she can’t even teleport away. She can’t even boot some creep off her own land. She can’t even quit the game she’s playing. She’s soooo helpless!!!!! And so are her supporters in this thread. The poor woman who had her sex attachments set to be used by anybody thinks it’s assault when some creep does so. She’s so helpless she can’t turn off her own attachments. She’s so helpless she can’t unattach them.
Crimeny. There are creeps in SL. If you aren’t going to stand up for yourself they’re going to get away with being creeps. Is it really the men’s job to fight the creeps and the women’s job to cry virtual “rape”? This article is one of the stupidest pieces of drama escalation I’ve seen in the Herald. And that’s really saying something.
dude
Nov 3rd, 2007
I certainly hope you are not serious in writing this. What is happening to the Herald?
Vaelissa Cortes
Nov 6th, 2007
I really hope you aren’t serious about this article. If you aren’t, it’s in very bad taste.
It sounds to me like some griefer disturbed you for a few minutes and now you want to put their name out for all to see what a “bad man” he is. He probably just wanted to annoy somebody for a bit, but you took it extremely personally and made up little scenarios in your head.
If it was so traumatic for you and scared your kids, why did you not just turn the volume down or teleport right away? You could have even even orbited him or shot back if you really wanted. Nobody would really be harmed either way. Also, are you really so immersed in a virtual world that you try to protect your real children from bullets on a computer screen? Seriously.
Do NOT compare a events that happen in a virtual world, a world where you are in full control and everything is consensual to real life events. Actual rape is a horrible traumatic event, there is no comparison. Some of us have been unfortunate enough to have had to experience it ourselves. I will not elaborate on that more as apparently you are not intelligent enough to understand how utterly offensive and absurd your article is.
Katrina, please, do as others have suggested and just log off and don’t come back.
wakawaka snook
Nov 6th, 2007
Children do not belong in SL. Period.
You might want to grow up a bit too.
Artemis Fate
Nov 6th, 2007
I think i’m going to go back to my original thought that the writer of this is a troll, since she hasn’t commented at all to any of her now two stories.
bozza
Nov 7th, 2007
‘she hasn’t commented at all to any of her now two stories.’
hopefully she decided to make the better place and swallowed a pint of cancer
Morgan Underwood
Nov 7th, 2007
We’re missing the one thing that can forever stop this from
EVER happening to you in SL and it can be summed up in a few words: Log Off and Delete Second Life from your computer.
Don’t walk away mad- just walk away.
If you can’t separate RL from SL, you shouldn’t be on it in the first place- and certainly not dragging your husband and children into your delusions along the way.
If you think you were ‘virtually raped’- generally a very weak charge at best, since you almost always have to allow ‘animate avatar’ for the virtual action to take place- why don’t you take your poor, ravaged virtual self to the nearest virtual police station and file a virtual report? (Note the operative part of all that being- you guessed it- VIRTUAL.)
Better yet- IM me and we can talk. My time is worth L$400 per 15 minutes for the Girlfriend Experience (and no sex involved- forced or voluntary) unless you ugrade to the slightly more expensive Porn Star Experince!
Eggberta Echegaray
Nov 8th, 2007
[6:38] dylano Kohime: bonjour mlle
[6:38] You: Bonjour
[6:38] dylano Kohime: vous travaillez?
[6:38] You: non
[6:38] dylano Kohime: c est combien?
[6:39] You: I knew what the first word said but not the last…I speak English and understand only a petite amount of Francois
[6:40] dylano Kohime: how much it is?
[6:40] You: how much for what
[6:40] dylano Kohime: for you
[6:40] You: you said something about working?
[6:40] You: oh you think I’m a hooker?
[6:40] dylano Kohime: HOW MUCH IS IT TO FUCK YOU???(you understadn??lol)
[6:41] You: just a sec…and I will tell you
[6:41] Ordinal Pepperbox v0.344 (custom Bow St 02 Eggberta Echegary): Currently holstered and loaded with 1 rounds of .40 Ball ammunition.
Good O’l Ordinal Pepperbox sure does come in handy! That’s how you deal with a so called “SL rapist” Katrina. Just blow them to kingdom come. No pun intended.
Oh and btw, Ordinal is a female resident of Caledon, and you can purchase her wonderful weapons in your own sim. 
KK
Nov 24th, 2007
Oh please.
I think Katrina is full of shit. Or this is a parody. But still, nobody should pretend to be this stupid!
I don’t know…she lost me right up top with trying to pawn off a horror story of some terrifying event with “avatar’s evil eyes” and then from there it just degenerated into fits of hysterical laughter. If she’s sincere, she should have her kids removed permanently and she needs to be institutionalized because she’s a fucking screwball.
But this part here was the kicker…
>>>
The only steps I have taken as a result of this is to remove Second Life from the desktop computer and install it in my Powerbook.
< <<
LMFAO. Get real. The ONLY steps she - who apparently has zero capacity to distinguish between real life and a computer simulation but also has zero capacity to distinguish between a griefer running into her and "actual" rape - it wasn't even a rape simulation, the ONLY steps she takes though, amusingly enough, is that she uninstalled it from the computer.
Then she turns around and puts it on her private laptop...riiiight. What, can't we finish the sentence? I was so horrified I had to uninstall it off the computer!!! And put it on my laptop....so I could find him in world at CARP, whilst wearing my baughty whore leather teddy that I bought at Necrotica Isle!
Then again, Katrina Eales might really be....her!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCh2FXzD6R4&feature=related
KK
Nov 24th, 2007
PS Morgan Underwood added:
Good O’l Ordinal Pepperbox sure does come in handy! That’s how you deal with a so called “SL rapist” Katrina
AWESOME! That would rock come the next CSI Does SL! Female Avis beware! The SL Rapist is on the loose! Excellent RPG in the making. ;-p
PS to mods – yes I know I’m late, I’m late for everything…but come on. Please pop these two on here…you can’t post this article and then not let people wig on it.
PPPS: Um, was this article a joke? C’mon…it was satire, right?
Katrina Eales
Oct 10th, 2010
Sure, the article was satirical, but pointedly so. Of course one can’t be actually raped in a virtual world but one can be taken by surprise and virtually assaulted which is far from a pleasant emotional experience. Of course one can tp out, log off or even fight back. But that’s hardly the point. One shouldn’t have to. The point of the article was to provoke discussion and that’s why it was framed dramatically and provocatively.
Lou
Oct 10th, 2010
Frankly Second Life is just an excuse for a majority of RL weak pissant males to behave badly and the reaction to Katrina’s story is that of a bunch of whacked out geeks just waiting to be offended so they can savage someone. Anyone will do. Virtual hyenas.