Is revenge sweet?

Today's login message of the day was about "reincarnation" when you get "killed" and teleported home except you remember who did it to you so you can seek "revenge". Yesterday's MOTD was about watching out for damage enabled areas because you could get "killed" there. And yes, I know they are recycling the quasi-cute MOTDs.

A few things strike me as kinda funny. First of all, "revenge" has gotten otherwise peaceable folk sanctioned or banned, so why do they encourage that? Yes, I know you need to seek revenge within the bounds of the ToS which means you can go shoot them, but you dasn't utter profanities at them because that's really bad. Second, as I have said about a half zillion times, real "damage" is way better than push-guns set to "blow-off-world" as you often have to relog when hit by the latter and you can be pushed anywhere, damage enabled or not.

So this anti-push-gun-crank went out and bought a gun today. Why? well, it was 1700 Linden time and I looked at the event calendar and saw that a class had been canceled in Oak Grove because someone had left an errant, madly spinning zepplin in the middle of the stage. There were three Lindens online at the time, all apparantly too busy to clear some trash so an instructor could teach. After not hearing back, I went over to Oak Grove to see if there was anything that could be done. Well the script in the aircraft was probably borked as I was not the owner but it let me Ride it but I had no control. I tried attaching it to me to drag it out of there to no avail.

Noting that the aircraft was physical, I realized that I could push it off world if only I had a gun. I'd just read about Francis Chung's Seburo, so I went and bought one. I never thought I'd be saying this, but it is stunningly well crafted and has bunches of nifty features (e.g. rubber bullets that turn it into a "toy" gun, and a damage system that only hurts other Seburo brandishers, etc.) Best of all, when set to "push" it pushes with a sane force. So 500 rounds later and that zepplin was no longer a threat to teaching. I expect I'll only use this fully automatic weapon for peaceful purposes (and maybe deer hunting).

So, to summarize the lessons I've learned:
1) The MOTD says you should watch out for damage enabled areas for no good reason
2) The MOTD encourages revenge but doesn't note that you should use weapons and not words
3) Having people teach new residents how to use SL isn't worth clearing the stage for
4) Vehicles still have bad problems (even from the world's best designers)
5) I finally found a way to use weapons to help people
6) Revenge is usually never as rewarding as you hope it will be (okay I added that one)

It's too late to make a real point. Sorry.

I'm hoping that today's MOTD gets taken as a joke -- as opposed to any serious validation for griefing. I wish there was an emoticon at the end of that sentence, or even a disclaimer.

You laid it out well, Malachi. *sighs*

I agree; these MOTDs are just begging for griefers. In a sense, the Lindens are not only promoting griefing but also griefing the community themselves through their promotion.

i wondered about this too. sense of humour notwithstanding, i'm not comfortable with it. there are plenty of features and attractions that can be posted on the motd. there's no reason to have them skirting the edges of bad taste.

I'm waiting for the MOTD to encourage you to build your own penis

Oh wot fun we 'ad, but did it really turn out bad?
All we learnt at school, woz how to bend or break the rules.
Oh wot fun we 'ad, but at the time it didn't seem so bad.
Tryin' diffrent ways... to make a difference to the days.........

Siggy.

When I logged into SL for the first time ever over a year ago, that was the message of the day. Because I remember my very first reaction to SL was 'hehe, cool' swiftly followed by 'oh brother *sigh*' as I imagined what this prolly meant in reality.

I don't think they change them much. They obviously add them occasionally, but it seems they just have a stock set of MOTD phrases.

I don't think they skirted the edges of bad taste; to me it is bad taste.

Besides that, the only result of taking revenge will be another revenge taken......

It's all part of the evolution of SL, Now that the phantom Avatar trick is open source your only means are huge push scripted bullets and land kickers. The heart at the top of the screen option is all but history now. This is one reason why new ways for people to let loose are on the rise ala Unreal SL, Darklife, Tartarus and so on.
SL is able to handle this with the right code though, havok afaik was made for this as much as it was made to play dress up my pretty barbie.
Take any first person type shooter game for instance and you almost always have an option of an instakill type sniper rifle with a huge drawback though, in SL the same sniper rifle is in mouselook the same as it is zoomed in though. Once the code is in shape to handle this type of thing then the so called revenge will be justified.

I'm speaking as someone who has been banned for accidental and non-accidental shootings with all types of available scripted stuff. I even said at one point it wasn't a good idea to encourage new people to the game to grab a pistol as soon as possible and as far as I know they have now removed the shooting range from areas like Ahern, one of the areas I was banned from before actually when I had no knowledge, I think it may have been a stray scripted object bouncing with push or some junk, I never intentionally fire on crowds or grief with firebombs. I do go to sims like Jessie and Rausch looking for a fight often though and a few are there to give them. The thing is that if this is going to be encouraged behavior, IE people are allowed to make and sell firearms with push and kill capacity and sims are allowed to be damage enabled than it should be only in those areas where the functions even exist, I realize it can't be that way or it would break other things like I dunno setting off a gazillion laggy little hearts or butterflies at will or wearing prim hear clocking in with 250 twisted double sided torus or whatever.

Yeah, I thought the same thing as you today as I logged in Malachi. Also, the use of the comparative "sweeter" made no sense at all.

Azelda

I can't help but jump in and say that we're adults -- if someone can be so easily swayed by a motd, then that's fine if they get suspended or banned. The rules clearly state what the community standards are. I'd hope we are mature enough to get a giggle from the revenge sentiment, then apply appropriate standards to it.

Unless you're American, in which case you should consider suing the Lindens :/

*Is interested in a Sniper Rifle*

But the rules are far from clear as myriad posts here have shown. And, even if you think you've undestood them, there are still ad hoc rules that say if you type a profanity at someone who has been harrassing you for hours, you are the guilty party. And these ad hoc rules only become known after someone runs afoul of them or they are whimsically decided.

Furthermore, if we are adults, then why is virtual, not all that realistic nudity prohibited in game. And profanity.

And who really reads the Terms of Service, all 5000+ words of it? Did you read the whole EULA for the DirectX that you need to run Second Life? And even if you do, you know nothing about the actual rules because The only reason that people have bothered to read the LL ToS is because unlike the DirectX folks, Linden Lab will deny you service if you do something they don't like.

No, I don't take the MOTD seriously, but as the singular voice of LL that players see on a daily basis, they should not be encouraging behavior that can cause you denial of service. It used to be cute, it no longer is.

Peeps.... it was an attempt at humor... probably nothing more... the fact that it caused more alarm than laughter is a sad commentary on those who posted in this forum.

I, for one, laughed my AZZ off when I read it.

here ya go: /13/ce/29268/1.html#post296213

No offense Wall Street but that Motd has been here for almost 18 months, They cycle through them from time to time and add new ones with new features.

Its funny how poeple can be swayed from one topic to another. I have been keeping quite ambily reading the forums for the last week, This is one time I tend to agree that the erratic behavior needs to cease and someone needs to grab something and get a voice and stand behind it. Otherwise there will always be desent amongst the members of SL for erroneous treatment.

Anyway I digress this all has been debated to the point of needless banter falling on unlistening ears or eyes as it may be.

Sincerely, Shadow

*Wonders what that Texture Wall Street tried to send him last night was and the message "You cannot escape me David Hasselhoff." LOL!

My MOTD contribution:

"By exploiting certain bugs in SL's privilege system, you can sell items made by other people and businesses. "


I put the little winkie emoticon to express the Linden's stand on the issue.

-aimee

"Had a battle with another SL Resident? Be victorious and file the abuse report before them!"

Ah Blake, I remember you well. You should have accepted the texture, as it was quite hilarious and had a poignant political message.

As for David Hassellhof, you tend to resemble him, my german superstar. Though you may resist the seemingly pernicious label at first, remember that D.H. boned Pammy Anderson - in this light it is a supreme compliment.

I have one thing to say on that damien,

Been there done that and got it in under the wire..hehe

HAHAHA !!!

Bah, I liked Everquest's methods.

You Have Gotten Better At Loading! (.
Ruining My Own Lands.
Buy:LurN Tu Tok liK Da OgUr iN Ayt DaYz by OG.
If You Squeeze Dark Elves You Don't Get Wine.
Sanding Wood Elves... now 32% smoother.
Hiding Catnip From Vah Shir.
Polishing Erudite Foreheads.
Filling Halflings With Pie.
Whacking Trolls With Ugly Stick.
Looking Up Barbarian Kilts.
Ensuring Gnomes Are Still Short.
Stupidificationing Ogres.
Attaching Beards to Dwarves.

No, revenge is never sweet...


"Revenge has no more quenching effect on emotions than salt water has on thirst."
Unknown

"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves."
Confucius


I say surrender your revenge to the sweetness of forgiveness.

Actually revenge is salty with a slight garlicy flavor. Tastes better cold.

it does not taste better. who told you that? it's best served cold because it comes cleanly out of the dish and makes washing up a lot easier.