Truemors
A few days ago, the most popular virtual world, Second Life has experienced their most publicized "Terror Attack". A reporter from NowPublic has provided the official story earlier today.
The in-world retail giants American Apparel and Reebok were temporarily "nuked" but no civilian was really hurt nor was their corporate property damaged beyond repair. Within hours, the respective corporations managed to restore their buildings' architectural infrastructure and merchandise.
This is not exactly "breaking news" as the Second Life Liberation Army has been waging their "war of terror" campaign since at least 2006. It comes as a little surprise then that the major SL news networks such as the Second Life News Network (SLNN) and Reuters have not made this potentially "news alert" part of their running headlines.
Even the founders and "benevolent dicatators" of Second Life, Linden Labs believes that the so-called "terror attacks" amounted to little more than a practical joke or at most, a political statement...
When NowPublic's "Actual News Guy" Mark Schneider put me on assignment to fetch an image of the virtual carnage left behind by this now-sensational "terror attack", I had accidentally mixed up my address for American Apparel with another similar looking property. I thought at first that I was actually witnessesing the "nuked" residue of American Apparel but it turned out to be some mutated form of installation art.
-See the exclusive photo embedded within this opinion article-
Once I finally made it to the correct Second Life addresses for American Apparel and Reebok, I found their buildings to be perfectly intact without a trace of terrorism.
However, my mistaken first impressions of the more artistic residue left behind in that misleading location reminded me that all activity in Second Life whether or self-consciously or not resembles that of performance art - where there are no real casualities but lots of beneficial media coverage for both of the corporations, Second Life itself and the performance artists who assumed the controversial role of "terrorists".
This is probably a rare case where an "act of terrorism" contributes directly to a win-win situation for all parties involved.
-Jeremy O. Turner reporting for NowPublic.
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