…but still admits to some mischief

As our readers know, there has been a recent surge of mafia activities in and around Second Life as gang activities have been more in the foreground of late. Last week, I met with two of the prominent members of Nicholas, Kal Cartier, the current commander in chief of the group, and another member who insisted on being anonymous. The main message that the two wanted to convey was somewhat unexpected: “Nicholas is renouncing the mafia scene and leaving it entirely.” So what was the group, then, before they officially dropped the word “mafia” from their name?  

the Nicholas logo

Although they have been keeping a relatively low profile in SL until recently, the Nicholas group has been around since 2005. While back then the group was what they considered to be a part of that “RP nerdclan scene,” after the original leader left SL in 2006, they never really considered themselves "mafia" so to speak, but kept the name regardless. The two explain that they don’t have these “sit downs in suits and members kiss the Don’s ring and shit.” In their words, they are about as mafia as the Woodbury group was Soviet: they are just a group of friends (some in RL and SL) who basically like to fuck with people they don’t like or who try to fuck with them. (Of course, we’re equally surprised to see that there are a few of our readers who seriously confuse the Woodbury group with the Soviet.)

As a silent force for quite some time, Mr. Cartier explains that their concentration at the moment is on finding and exploiting SL bugs and a constant viewer development, which is always an ongoing project. Because they don’t believe in selling viewers, they crack any other viewer out there that has yet to be cracked and make them available for free via their Web site. So, how did a group with this type of an open-source/hacker mentality got aligned with the likes of the mafia? 

missing image spam can be good clean fun – (photo courtesy of Nicholas)

In fact, the group is sick of other mafia groups trying to align themselves with them, ask for alliances, and other “stupid shit” when they don’t even want anything to do with them. Needless to say, when Nicholas recently saw that in Alphaville Herald they were being associated with what they saw as the “RP mafia douchers,” they decided to take an active stand and drop the “mafia” title even if they were using it in jest since the term grossly mischaracterizes them and their activities. They state in no uncertain terms that their goal is not to keep some subculture alive through RP rules, but to fuck with the mafia scene in general, almost like parodying them. The Alphaville Herald apologizes for this honest mistake and we genuinely thank the correction. Regarding their interaction of late with the Sephoria Mafia, for example, Mr. Cartier says that they do not consider them as “wars.” They don’t consider them anything, because, really, Sephoria did not do much but release a couple of YouTube videos. The only purpose of these ridiculous videos, Mr. Cartier claims, is to use Nicholas’s response to gain publicity and thus name recognition.  

Their disinterest in the mafia groups notwithstanding, they are still keeping an eye on what is going on. Mr. Cartier, for instance, is quiet surprised to see so much credence being given to the 1-8-7 Family in the news media, a group whose leader Nicholas have “pwned” many times over by hacking into his computer and accounts over the years, some of which have been diligently documented with an impressive soundtrack. According to Mr. Cartier, Nicholas gave them no attention after they forced them to surrender and declared the family to be over.

1 8 7 family done

Apparently, as an anonymous source told the Herald, Nicholas has groups other than the Mafia in its sights; in particular, the vigilante group, JLU, whose activities have recently been put under scrutiny by the Wrong Hands (a sub-group of the recently perma-banned group, the Woodbury University). When asked, both Nicholas members were surprised: although quite possible (moreover do-able), they had never considered attacking the JLU Web site because it is merely a tabloid Web site that has questionable information at best. Even the recent Wiki leak has demonstrated that they are completely clueless on how Nicholas operates as an organization. Nicholas’s affinity for the Woodbury group is fairly well-known and Alphaville Herald suspects that the questionable booting of the latter group with remote-but-quite-possible ties to JLU may have caused some unwarranted conjectures about what Nicholas’s next move may be, hence the rumors about the JLU site.

Pedo Bear in gangland – (photo courtesy of Nicholas)

While the upper management of both groups share similar likes, habits, and goals, the lower ranks do not really get along; a fact which makes the “guilty by association” presumptions all the more ridiculous in their view. Mr. Cartier’s associate claimed that such logical errors in judgments sounded very much like “Nazi Germany” to him. All Nicholas did, right after the sudden mass-ban of the Woodbury group, is what they considered to be the right thing: because they believed the action against the Woodbury group to be unwarranted, they offered the afflicted temporary shelter until they figured what was going on. Mr. Cartier’s associate points out the irony that the groups that are often considered to be “OMG grifforz” don’t even use or need SL to communicate and coordinate their griefing acts. As to whether Nicholas may follow the Woodbury to Blue Mars? Not likely, says Mr. Cartier and his associate. BM is quite difficult if one doesn’t already have developing skills and the ability to create content makes it important that it be a good platform for the members who cannot develop or build as well as others. 

will cube spam help Philip Linden fix SL? (photo courtesy of Nicholas)

Philip’s return, however, has unquestionably thrilled the Nicholas group. As far as Mr. Cartier’s associate can remember, Philip considered griefing in SL to be a good thing because it helped him fix his product: “He used to invite people to grief him so he could try to upgrade the server code and make fixes for it.” This, of course, is not the first time Philip’s name got mentioned with griefing. What can we say? Philip is heck of a guy with his own style and we hope that his return will liven up the already anguishing economy a bit. I emoti-kissed Don’s ring as I said my goodbye to both gentlemen.

Tizzers Foxchase

The sins of the bad boys and girls in the Woodbury group seem to be a little bit more serious than the grid crashing goons of Something Awful – not because they harbored griefers extraordinaire amongst themselves (which unfortunately they did) but perhaps because they ruffled some feathers in the ranks of the Linden game gods.

First the Justice League Unlimited faction and several Linden staff colluding with the JLU were embarrassed by the Brainiac wiki leak masterminded by the WU subgroup, the Wrong Hands. This was followed by the Wrong Hands exposure of the Emerald viewer developers, Jcool410 a.k.a. Fractured Crystal, et. al., and more revelations of questionable involvement of Linden game gods with players acting as vigilante groups, compiling secret databases, and spying on others in the community.

Let’s put it this way: the information revealed as a result of the Brainiac Wiki leak suggested that some of the folks in the G-team had been getting rather cozy with some of the people who like to wear tight spandex. The questioning of Fractured Crystal (Jcool) as to his motives (and his iffy background) by the Wrong Hands and the disclosure of the secret datamining taking place by developers of the Emerald viewer severely undermined the credibility of Linden Lab who gave its blessing to the tainted viewer and  developers. The most likely conclusion, in the absence of any other explanation is that these two incidents led to the mass ban of WU.

When asked, Tizzers Foxchase strategically says “At this point we have no proof of what actually sparked that final ban decision.”

Tizzers recollection of the events is a bit more revealing, however: “Between January and April of this year, Woodbury University (represented by our solutions provider Loki Clifton) and Jack Linden had been in extremely amiable discussions about Woodbury’s future in Second Life. The company was VERY willing to work with us and met with us on a regular basis. On the 16th of April, we had a short meeting with George Linden who told us. ‘Everything is fine, we’re looking forward to meeting with you again next week.’ (This is a week after they sold us 2 more sims). On the afternoon of the 20th during that meeting, they were banning our members and destroying our sims.” Woodbury was even approved for the educational discount. The only thing that could have happened between the 16th and the 20th is Hazim Gazov’s e-mail to Soft and Joe Linden about the questionable practices that had been taking place with some Emerald viewer developers.

For those who are used to brushing off WU as a de-facto griefing group, Ms. Foxchase reminds people that the mission of Wrong Hands was to enlighten the Second Life community about some of the more scandalous behind-the-scenes happenings on the grid. While the group was originally formed to infiltrate the JLU, and the Emerald revelations were never part of the original plan, eventually the Wrong Hands thought it was only right to expose who exactly was developing the Emerald client clients, as it was being used by so many people.

It turned out that several permanently banned griefers with questionable pasts were developing the viewer that had received the Lab’s royal blessing – Emerald. The shocker was that LL was very well aware of who these individuals were, and continued to do business with them regardless. All the clues that have been disclosed thus far seem to suggest that the ban hammer may have struck to WU group for something other than several grid crashes and some tasteless chan humor. The recent purge in the ranks of the G-Team not only confirms this suspicion, but also may be indicative of some kind of a change in direction for SL’s not-so-distant future.

Ms. Foxchase explains that WU exists as a commentary for SL that said “HEY! Stop taking this seriously” - as have many other groups who made it to the Halls of Notoriety before her. So, what next, one would ask…

Comparing Second Life to a ten-year-old car, Ms. Foxchase explains that Woodbury’s primary focus over the next year will be to branch out of this aging platform onto other worlds such as Blue Mars and MyCosm. While admiting that “[SL] was undoubtedly a necessary step for virtual worlds,” Ms. Foxchase hopes that “next generation worlds will begin to materialize as polished platforms that learned from Second Life’s mistakes.” Clearly, according to Foxchase, Blue Mars is one such platform. Yet others, citing clunky interface and steep learning curve, beg to differ.

Explaining that Woodbury currently has 20 developers working on several different projects in Blue Mars, Ms. Foxchase admits that they are extremely excited about their involvement in this promising platform and that they look forward to hosting the first annual Metaverse Community Convention this July in Long Beach, California.

But branching out does not mean that Woodbury is going to leave the grid, at least not right now.

Insisting that that Woodbury has not left the Linden grid, Ms. Foxchase boldy states, “Linden Lab can destroy our buildings and sprawling landscapes but they cannot destroy the resolve of our members to maintain freedom in the metaverse.” Woodbury University is working on an OpenSim grid for which they will be releasing a custom-tailored client that will allow users to seamlessly jump between the AGNI server and theirs. For now, the OpenSim Project is essential for Woodbury because it’s an environment that their members are familiar with and whose tools they are comfortable in using.

When asked if Woodbury – or anyone in Woodbury – held any grudges against LL or anyone else in light of the recent events and whether the OpenSim was going to be used for any retaliatory purposes, Ms. Fozchase retorted that “Linden Lab is Linden Lab’s worst enemy. We could not even begin to rival the damage they are doing to their own company. We have hired a lawyer, which is the extent of our ‘retaliation.’”

Whatever the plan may be (and Ms. Foxchase assures me that it will be clear as day soon), it appears that WU may not be responding to the ban hammer by crawling back to the IRC dens or flushing the SL forums like the Voted 5 faction did several years ago.
 

Reichstag being torched during Second Jessie war

The Second Jessie War, which went down as one of the prominent chapters in SL history, broke out in August 2004 when Tank Levy started buying land in Stanford, a sim located between the Jessie combat sim and the Federal sim, to open a giant mega-mall in SL. As there were already residents in the sim, some more reluctant than others to sell their land to Levy, he sought the help of One Song and the Associates who, in turn, resorted to bullying and harassment tactics to push people out.

This strategy worked for most except for a group of residents who had migrated from the World War II Online game (the WWIIOL’ers) and had taken Jessie as their new home. Not surprisingly, One Song’s erotic dance club/cyberbrothel and the influx of newbies in the sim did not amuse them one bit. What ensued within the next several days was, as Urizenus Sklar had noted in his coverage of the Second Jessie War  “a genuine clash of real world values fought out on a virtual battlefield by virtual tools, and, perhaps, even a glimpse into our own future.”

OneSong’s Associates calling card

This past may have come back to haunt all of us. Last week, the Alphaville Herald was notified by one of the few WWIIOL’ers left from the glory days, Karl Fredericks, that OneSong Solo left his group’s logo on top of their reichstag. After a brief “wtf” moment, Karl Fredericks’ only response was “seriously? Have you had nothing better to do for the last five years?” Fredericks adds that if this is for real, One Song is going to be very disappointed because there are only but four or five WWIIOL’ers left in Jessie.

While no one is sure what the old gangster’s plans may be, it may be a safe bet that he is returning to cause more mishief. His profile confims this suspicion: “I am not here to impress you with how I look, I just want all your money, and your land. I call to arms all the Old brothers of the Real Jessie!”

Karl Fredericks is doubtful that One Song will have any success because if he tries to take over Jessie, the new residents of the sim will not take it sitting down. Still there is something enticing even about the prospect of his return. Karl Fredericks reminisces about those glory days and admits that “the ToS was written because of the shit [they] did.” For him, there’s no point in being in SL if there’s no ravaging combat and that he’d “really like to start some shit up here again but [they] don’t have the manpower.” Not to mention that, clearly, the grid has come a long way since the beta days.

Long-time residents are not even sure that he would be able to buy land in the mainland because he burnt so many bridges. Likely he will remain an “army of one” as his profile claims to be. Could OneSong prove to be a worthy opponent yet again? Or are the days of the good-ol’-fashion war over? Recent news in the Herald’s signals that after the open-sourcing of SL, the real war now has moved onto Second Life viewers – a much more complex world than OneSong knew.

As we go to press there has been no response when the Alphaville Herald contacted OneSong Solo, or the person who claims to be him.
 

Explaining that he misses Second Life sometimes, he openly admits that whenever he starts back up again he “really always end[s] up clashing with the wrong people and then going on some sort of stupid griefer rampage.” That doesn’t mean he stopped messing around in the digital playgrounds of the Interwebs. Apparently, Avatars United, with its questionable infrastructure, became one such playground for D3adly.

Avatars United has seen plenty of feedback from d3adlyc0d3c

Back in February, Alphaville Herald had reported on the security holes of this newfangled social networking site for avatars. Some residents even questioned the necessity of such a social networking site, suggesting that since Second Life itself is defined (by the Lindens) to be a community site, this sloppy attempt at improving the experience (not to mention attempt at a likely competition with Facebook) via an insecure and immature AU site is a questionable move at best. Problems? Set aside the fact that we are officially social-networked out (yet another site to log onto!), the anonymity of the site lends itself to impersonation and deception. For instance, there appears to be more Linden employees on the site than in real life. Not your problem? Surely you have heard about the security holes.

After having read our coverage on AU, D3adly, curious to discover some of these vulnerabilities, opened an account and started testing the site to figure out the extent to which the site was insecure. His results are mind-blowing. He confirmed what some of us had suspected for awhile now: the site was seriously insecure.

Having figured out how that the AU system generated security tokens for its users and what these tokens meant, D3adly was able to “forge” requests being sent to the server to generate these tokens and, in doing so, accessed other people’s accounts and applications. While acknowledging that his motivations were merely based on curiosity and a genuine desire to help the Lindens in finding bugs, he says that anyone with questionable intentions could have used the compromised site for malicious purposes.

In addition to injecting HTML IMG tags into a number of AU profiles using the aforementioned bug and forcing a group of users (such as Soft Linden) to send him friend requests, he was able to spoof messages that appeared to come from anyone he wanted, including from FBjork, the AU developer and the founder of Enemy Unknown, and inject messages into other people’s message threads and read private messages between users. I must say, glancing at the samples of private communication between users did not surprise me one bit. But receiving them from someone who made his career out of griefing and crashing sims left me a bit uneasy.

For those who are wondering what D3adly will do with this, rest assured: his malicious days are long gone. He can barely remember his days in the PN or even in Dissention, a three-week griefing group where he and several other folks crashed sims and hacked their way into the Linden network in Facebook to gather information about the LL employees from their profiles for nothing more than maybe sending them flowers — OK, maybe there was a little more intention involved. Instead, he reported several dozen security issues to Soft Linden with the understanding that they will be fixed soon – but not before teasing Plastic Duck.

Responding to an argument that the two had in Facebook, D3adly hacked into Plastic’s profile (who allegedly hates Chans) and modified his AU profile to an image of the Anonymous, and made him shout in his status, “I think I liked the Chans now.” We feel for Plastic. But our concerns are somewhat different. Will the security holes be fixed sooner rather than later? Remains to be seen. As Plastic Duck once said in an interview: “I’ve noticed with Linden Lab telling them to fix something isn’t enough. You need to exploit it to hell and cause half of the SL population to freak out before anything is done.” True, but other relevant questions are: Do we need yet another social networking site? Will AU make the experience of SL better? My guess is, no & not likely. All avatars are already on Facebook anyway.