Griefers

Our Second Life property is a work in progress as we practice building waterfalls, flowing streams and rock formations. We've been working on scripting the prims to do some cool stuff, too. Each time we're there, we play with the prims and create different items for our inventory. My favorite prim is the torus. It seems that you can do so many cool things with it. I discovered that I could make these really neat objects and then attach the whole thing to my avatar. Dancing with the "thing" looks so cool when you're at the festival or at another dance site.

I was there one day engrossed with the playing of prims. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, another avatar was standing on the property next to ours. She (you never really know the gender, as role playing is rampant) was building some neat stuff, too. I sent a chat over and said, "Hi." She didn't respond so I just went about my building. She might not have seen the chat because I know I've missed greetings before while taking a break in the bathroom or just being so involved in whatever project I was attempting. So there was no offense taken.

I kept working when she dragged a very large item right to the property line in front of my bridge. The property next door has nothing on it except for a couple of scripted small items that the owner is storing there. Many people purchase properties just to gain more numbers of prims for their main estates. I wasn't sure if the avatar was the property owner or maybe a friend of theirs.

Then she disappeared, leaving this huge thing looming right on the property line and blocking my bridge. It was kind of weird. So, I felt a little bit of sorrow as I realized that it was done on purpose. Solution? I placed a transparent wall there to soften the obstruction and proceeded to change the configuration of my property. You got to live with your neighbors. Just like in real life.

The item disappeared soon after. Each time, we keep refining and changing stuff on the land. It's become an obsession as we keep practicing what we've learned. Yesterday, someone left three giant neon green pulsating items looming over our site again. Geesh. I clicked on to it and sure enough, it was for sale.

Okey, I get it now. Someone was trying to force me to purchase their stuff so that I could delete it. It was just some ugly thing that someone left just to annoy me. Sigh, just like in real life, when a neighbor puts up an ugly fence or wall. Perceptions are everything. Sometimes, you just have to live with the neighbor or the people who hang there.

In Second Life there are islands and properties that have covenants where this type of behavior is restricted. It's like living in a gated community with a neighborhood association. Ick. That's the last place I want to hang. At least this interaction has been annoying, amusing and actually kind of interesting. The blandness of a gated community leads me to want to hang where I am and maybe make a new friend.

Griefers in Second Life can be looked at as just another annoying source on the internet. At least here, it's just a game.