Posted by Greg at December 21st, 2006

Second Life real estate tycoon Anshe Chung is alive and well after a vicious online attack by the anarchist communist terrorist group known as Room 101 saw Chung’s digital self pelted by a stream of pink dildos and obscene photos.

Video of the attack is available here.
This kind of hilariously disruptive spectacle will only become more common as real world businesses and public figures move into Second Life space. Hillary Clinton being assailed by a swarm of Lewinsky heads, Rudy Giuliani being surrounded by towers that just won’t quit falling, or American Apparel’s Second Life store filled with underage porn (ok, that last one isn’t so hard).

As much as this sort of attack might prevent the careful management of brand image that is possible in the real world, I hope they are not completely disallowed or criminalized. While griefers as a concept are, as a friend of mine just said, “pretty much the suck,” as long as resource allocation and system stability don’t suffer and personal rights are not infringed, the kind of twisted whimsical humor they can inject into online environments is very entertaining and provides a much-needed outlet for people to talk back to the figures who drive modern capitalism.
As polished a delivery as might be possible by a politician giving a prepared speech in Second Life may be, the improvised reaction to a stream of pink dildos or other unexpectedly weird interruption would add a bit of a personal flavor that has been missing from both politics and corporate capitalism for as long as I can remember.