Play’s Republic

I found a story this morning that has nothing to do with either teaching or learning in video games. But I’m going to do everything I can to try and make it connect.

A group of Second Life players who have labelled themselves as the Second Life Liberation Army (SLLA) have set off several “computer-code versions of atomic bombs” in the virtual world. These bombs, according to the article, “explode in hazy white balls, blotting out portions of a screen and battering nearby avatars.” And, although no permanent damage is done to either the game-world or the avatars in it, the SLLA hopes their “virtual terrorism” will help bring democracy to Second Life. The SLLA manifesto states: “As Linden Labs is functioning as an authoritarian government the only appropriate response is to fight.”

The article goes on to state that this is not the first bout of virtual terrorism experienced within Second Life. In response to a Linden Labs tax on all user-created items, “avatars fashioned in the images of American revolutionaries recreated the Boston Tea Party” — and, interestingly enough, the tax was dropped.

Although there is much to say about this form of virtual protest, I think in some sense it does relate to the idea of learning in games. Several of the articles we have read refer to the dialog between game designers and game players — the Kline article, in particular, used Nintendo to illustrate the feedback system between in-house programmers and the 1,200 game testers and 50,000 weekly callers. Other articles have stressed the importance of game developers as mentors, arguing that it is in developers’ best interests to teach players what it is they enjoy about specific games. And with Second Life “mock terrorism” we have the second part of the dialogue - players offering feedback to developers

However, the Second Life example is interesting precisely because it is ordinary. Game players have always offered feedback to game designers, and often in non-formal ways. Huizinga’s “spoil-sport” is often the reason for new patches and updates to online games. But no one writes national news articles about people BxR’ing in Halo or PKs in Ultima Online (this is pure speculation, and probably wrong) (Also, I don’t consider Kline a national news article). Because Second Life operates in that liminal space where the game world and real world seemingly overlap, the news media is at a loss. Is terrorism a story? Is cyber-terrorism a story? Is virtual terrorism a story? Do FPS campers belong on the FBI’s Most Wanted list? (Yes, by the way.)

Second Life Terrorists

Also, here is the SLLA website