Spectacular Interventions of Second Life

Goon Culture, Griefing, and Disruption in Virtual Spaces

Datos Bibliográficos

ID19544644
AutoresBurcu S Bakioǧlu (0000-0002-3432-7920, Indiana University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2009
Volumen1
Número3
Fecha de publicación2009-01-17
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Virtual Worlds Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1941-8477 • E-ISSN: 1941-8477
EditorialVirtual Worlds Institute, Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4101/jvwr.v1i3.348
OpenAlexW121801666
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas15
Referencias citadas4

Employing game theory and cultural studies in order to make a much needed distinction between grief play (which is a type of game play) and griefing (as a disruptive cultural activity), I argue that griefers in Second Life, who engage in potentially subversive practices which residents recognize as characterizing the activities of subcultures, construct cultural formations, a term developed by Raymond Williams in his book The Sociology of Culture to describe groups that embody looser structures. Claiming that they are causing turmoil for the lulz (or laughs), they treat their activities as mere game play. However, underneath the rhetoric of game play based on targeting those who take the “Internet as serious business,” there exists a cultural phenomenon with serious effects. They not only jam the world’s signification system and subvert the bourgeois taste by spamming the environment with offensive objects (such as penises, swastikas, and communist symbols), but also attack the capitalistic ideology by crashing sims and significant media events, and regularly launching raids in-world which result in causing in-world businesses to lose money, thereby hurting the virtual economy at large

Aesthetics · Art · Ideology · Management · Media studies · Offensive · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Sociology · Taste · Digital Games and Media · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Law · Psychology · Social Media and Politics