Militaries in SL.. Why do we need them? is this griefing?

Something that's getting me a little ticked lately is the intrusion of all these new Militaries popping up in SL recently. I know some of them are here to stop the griefers, but some of them are getting WAY out of hand coming into other peoples sims and using the excuse of tracking down an enemy to let them shoot people... Under no circumstances will i tolerate this behavior in sim i administrate. You want to have war? Take it to a combat sandbox or get your own sim. Leave other people out of it.

I have a lot of evidence stacking up against a unnamed individual who uses alts to grief using a self made military. This person also admins one of the sims i also admin. I am attempting to get him fired by presenting this evidence to the sim owner. So far this owner hasn't done anything about it since the unnamed individual also rents land there. The owner doesn't wish to lose a customer of course. But i feel this sim is in jeopardy to a griefer. Like i said i will not release any names to anyone to protect the inocent.

I have been in SL 2 years and have been a admin most that time. I have lived through times where people abused power right in front of me. Militaries are not the way to go. You wana stop the griefers? Ban them!!! I and a lot of people like me look poorly upon Militaries do to those like i mentioned above. We don't all come to SL to play it like a FPS or PvP game ya know. Role players try not to intrude their role play on others, i think you should do the same. that's just my little rant. I had to say something about it. Good day.

Another thought would be.. i come to SL for peace. To get away from the warlike world i have to live in IRL. making me have to look down the barrel of your gun doesn't help thank you.

Why are there guns on SL?

Why are there mob families on SL?

Why are there toilets on SL?

Why are there pregnancies on SL?

Why are there weddings but no divorces on SL?

Why are there water slides but no ski slopes on SL?

Why are there zones where someone else can tell me I can't fly on SL?

Why are there muppets on SL?

Why are there bloody fangs and sexy coffins on SL?

Why are there flowers that grow, but out of control like possessed flower beds on SL?

Why does it never get cloudy or rain on SL?

Why are there no seasonal changes on SL?

Why are there four or five days and nights in any given 24 hour clock period on SL?

Why are giants more tolerated than short people on SL?

Why is bald handsome on SL?

...

jes

Invent permanent death, starvation, and blocked arteries in SL, and then we'll talk.

I have no problem whatsoever with people making militaries and roleplaying it amongst themselves in their own areas (although I must admit having grown out of "playing army" when I was about 5).

The problem is, like with all 'roleplaying', when people come out of their own particular areas and force others to be involved by their presence. Of course, there is and isn't offensiveness involved depending on the player and the circumstances; I have several friends who have furry avatars who come over and talk to me wherever I happen to be - but that's very different from telling me that, on my land, I have to wear a furry avatar because they are offended by my human form. It's the same thing as a military group taking their battle across your land; you didn't ask to be involved, you don't want to be involved, and just wish they'd get the hell outta there.

I believe it comes under the blanket umbrella of 'non consentual roleplay'.

Incidently, I used to frequently use a Linden sandbox that wasn't officially listed as such, to work out some large building projects. In latter weeks, this island was overrun with these 'military groups' playing with their weapons... now it's gone. Thanks a lot guys.

Lewis

Part of the fun of war comes from the collateral damage that is dealt.

To consenting participants, yes.

Unlike a real life war, in SL you can't just go and drop a bomb on innocent civilians.

It's griefing, if you're including people who have no interest whatsoever in your 'combat' roleplay. There are places set up for it (Carnage Island being just one that springs to mind), so keep it there or you will be AR'd.

A couple of weeks ago, I was out building in a sandbox and some eejit in a helicopter gunship decided it would be fun to start firing rockets at me. This went on for 3 or 4 minutes whilst I repeatedly politely asked him to stop. I then pulled out the most powerful weapon I own - the freebie paintball popgun from YadNi's - and fired back a few well aimed "splats". He shouted "stop it! leave me alone!" and flew off into the distance because he didn't like me returning fire - even if our weapons were no match whatsoever.

Gotta love unverified signups.

Lewis

Now that's one way to go. Muahahah, but still... that's something we don't need everyday, stupid noobs that doesn't have manners to listen or understand.



Right on! Myself as a Sex Sandbox Director, I do the same as well.
(Sex Sandbox isn't what you think it is, it's only for serious builders)

Yiffy, sadly I don't see that there's going to be any reduction in the numbers of 'combat' players coming into SL now that Linden Labs has opened the floodgates. However I don't lay the blame so much at Linden Labs' door as that of the major games publishers for their utter spinelessness to do anything other than to chase after the maximum short-term return. When I first bought computer games for my kids 10 years ago there was a far greater proportion adventure / quest / mystery / RP games than 'shooter' games. That has changed so radically that today you're hard-pressed to find a title that isn't a combat / FPS / driving game.

So..... in come the new generation of kiddiz raised on FPS / combat / driving games and what do they see? Targets! SL must be like shooting fish in a barrel for them. Not that it makes anything better for us, but at least it helps to understand their perspective. Fortunately the lousy physics of SL saves us from being Carmageddon-style target fodder for n00bs whizzing around in their shoddy Dominus Shadow-clones.

Following this line of reasoning, I can see how Linden Labs' proclamation that residents should not fight back against griefers inadvertently reduces many of the resident population to the level of the hapless dragons in GuildWars that just stand around while incomptent n00bs attempt to butcher them. I mean, seriously..... there's no way I'd play GW unless it was possible for us dragons to chase, hunt and kill humans!

LOVED that series!!! Made GTA look like kids stuff. Also gave me a nice venting for the frustrations of everyday driving.

And yes- SL is a piss-poor FPS shooter. Thats why I prefer games for such things. SL is my lil' world away from the carnage.

Whether or not you like combat groups, they're here, as are cyber and on the hour bikini-events.

In the same way the difference between PG and Mature, the damage option can be set on any sim, which in a way warns people what to expect there.

The somewhat longer-around, better known combat groups in SL, such as the Alliance Navy or the Meczateers, use a strict code for engaging combat. It's only to be done on unsafe (damagable) land, only directed towards individuals who are a member of another combat group and wearing that group-tag and only 'normal' weapons can be used. That rules out the use of any griefing tools like orbiters, nukes, missiles, etc. This code of conduct is written down in the Second Life Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SLSALT).

To ensure this behaviour, these combat groups use - the one more than the other - a chain of command, which not all individuals wish to abide. Most known griefers, who create their own groups, have left (or been ejected from) one or another combat group where they were forbidden to grief.

Therefore, and I understand many won't understand, engaging in combat groups does not imply you 'ask for it' to be griefed. There is a clear difference between combaters and griefers. Griefers may think they are combaters, call their group 'army' or whatever, but they're just scum. Combaters get griefed as well, maybe more then others for they try to return fire using 'conventional' weapons, which sorts no effect mostly for griefers have a habit firing from safe land onto unsafe land.

I think we will all agree on the fact that griefers rank amongst the lowest SL has to offer us and hope that in some way LL will find something to be done about this. However, let's keep it clear that a conventional combat group in no way endorses griefing; they are here for some combat and RP. You can have an opinion about that behaviour, just like I do have one on furries or Gor, but that's not the issue here.


Kind regards,
Jordan Witherspoon

Militaries never bothered me until my city came under the protection of Disney characters in armor. The guy that owns the sim is part of it, so it's not like they're intruding. Until they come in my house.

They don't so much anymore, but it used to be a few times a day I'd be at home and Goofy would come in and ask me what I'm doing. It got very annoying. I think now they get that I'd rather not socialize with the Mickey Mouse Club, which is good, but I'd still rather not have them around.

I was out visiting a lovely little park in the neighborhood, just prior to which I had been out helping out some noobs get their SL legs and directing them to resources. A griefer popped in dropped a bunch of bombs and then started trying to orbit everyone there. I snapped on my shileds, sat down and had the three noobs sit as well - I told them to just relax and enjoy the pyrotechnics. The griefer, thwarted laid down a chat flame of obscene drivel and popped out again. We all stood up and they went on their merry way and I went mine.

In the park it was idyllic, with birds singing, wind blowing, little bird prims flying around, little bugs whizzing by and the usual muted background noise from adjoining property. I was so engrossed in the park design that it took some time to realize that the bugs were triggering my shield, and then to realize the bugs weren't bugs but bullets being fired (inaccurately) at me from adjoining property! Some guy was standing at his fence with two handguns shooting at me and lolling his ass off. So I wandered over to where he was, shield flaring more and more as I got closer and his aim got better. I stood a meter or two away as he kept firing, until all of a suddenly his bullets stopped dead at his property line! I laughed at him in return while he swore and cussed about bad animation and faulty guns. I then explained that he had filled up the prim limit on the park and that his guns wouldn't work again over his property line until the owner cleaned up the objects in the park and returned his bullets.

He was so pissed! And I stood and laughed at him for several minutes while he fumed. It was precious.

Please tell me you are joking, because the idea of Disney characters in uniform stormtropping into my home to interrogate me with regularity is just so..... acid trip. Even for SL.

mickey's on the production line
i'm a super mouse in time
everybody's doing the goose step out in anaheim
mastermouse gonna feel no fear
mickey's gonna lead us to the new frontier
everybody wants to be the perfect mouseketeer
and there's stukas over disneyland
stukas over disneyland
stukas over disneyland
stukas over disneyland
jiminy cricket wrote a victory speech
with knottsberry farm right in reach
our liebestraum has been extended to huntington beach
turn on the gas and you're gonna see
how to achieve racial harmony
we need a perfect order that's our genetic destiny
got an ss ticket i'm feeling fine
spent five long hours just standing in line
passed inspection got my ears on straight
gonna fire up my engines 'fore it gets too late
i just can't wait

Now I'm having flashbacks, thanks a lot!

The Dickies, lol....

I'd like sl to have a good physics engine and some nice combat sims. Ghost recon is fun.

I am not at all interested in combat and consider all weapons discharges griefing outside of a combat sim.

In response to the two questions posed by the title of the post:

We don't, especially.

And ...

It depends on what they do.

Yiffy, has anyone ever told you how cute it is when you fly off the handle for the umpteenth time?

You get more points if you hit grannies against the wall.

I have no problem at all with militaries in SL because I figure they are needed for the ones who couldn't become SEALS in first life and still drag out their plastic soldiers when nobody is looking.

By the way has anyone but me noticed all of the Navy SEALS, CIA agents and even some KGB agents in Second Life? They seem to like the Welcome Areas the most.

Perhaps Second Life needs a military in case it is attacked by the United States DODVRD (Department of Defense Virtual Reality Division) in its quest to impose American style democracy throughout all of virtuality.

Perhaps not.

the good point of war in RL is demographic reductions. ^_^
the problem is that in SL birth is a spontaneous event...

I'd classify these folks s "militia" and not Military.. "Vigilantes" might be an even better term.

IMO, anyone on your land w/o permission acting violently is Griefing.

Now - I'm former RL military, I have no issue with Militaristic Groups doing their thing in the areas they've set aside for it. SL is all about free expression.

But when it becomes non-consensual - its griefing and should be treated as such.

Griefers reek!

Exepted when it's coming from me ^_^
because if i kick you ass it's for your own good ^_^
though i don't do it often but the rule still apply