Real Life Hubby Cheats With Avatar On Second Life

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Internet, Role Playing Games

Remember when we told you about the woman who murdered her ex-‘s avatar on Maple Story? This story is even more bizarre. Amy Taylor met her husband David Pollard in a chatroom and married him in both Second Life and the real world. They had been together 3 years when she discovered his avatar having sex with other ones. She had even gone so far as hiring a virtual detective. When David said he didn’t love her anymore after being caught, Amy filed for divorce the next day. This is proof positive that if you are going to mess around with Internet dating/activities, expect to pay the consequences in real time.

Read More | Reuters

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Virtual Protestors Complain Over Second Life Price Hike

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: PC, Simulation

The r/t world isn’t the only place with housing problems. Some residents of Second Life were so upset at Linden Lab’s recently announced hike in their purchase and maintenance fees that about 800 protested on the virtual site with signs outside their SL office, some going as far as setting their avatars on fire. CEO Mark Kingdon claims that it will only be directed to select landowners, and will not apply to those on the regular mainland or private islands. Considering that there are about 8,000 less subscribers this year than last, we can understand their reasoning. Then again, you can always take up residence in another OpenSim neighborhood.

Read More | Gigaom

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Woman Takes Revenge on Online Ex Via Avatar

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Role Playing Games

There is gaming, and then there is extreme gaming. A woman in Japan has been arrested for killing off her ex- online husband’s avatar in Maple Story. Apparently, the 43 year-old hacked into the game using his ID and password, then did the dirty virtual deed. Although she hasn’t yet been formally charged, she could face up to a 5 year bout in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.00. We think a fitting punishment might be a forced stay on Second Life for about six months.

Read More | CBS

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Second Life Database Suffers Huge Security Breach

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Adventure, Corporate News, Mods/Hacks, PC, Simulation

Today Linden Labs notified users that on or about September 6th, a Second Life database server was compromised and that hackers may have gained access to users’ personal information including names, addresses, encrypted passwords and encrypted payment information. While, according to their press release there was no indication that the hackers could compromise users’ online accounts, Linden is forcing all of their users to change their Second Life passwords in response to the breach.

From the release:

“We’re taking a very conservative approach and assuming passwords were compromised and therefore we’re requiring users to change their Second Life passwords immediately,” said Cory Ondrejka, CTO of Linden Lab. “While we realize this is an inconvenience for residents, we believe it’s the safest course of action. We place the highest priority on protecting customer data and will continue to take aggressive measures to protect the privacy and security of the community.”

With more and more online games every year (most of them requiring payment of some type), the issue of data security could quickly become a major focus for game makers. Will we be seeing a Microsoft-circa-2000-esque push toward writing secure game code in the near future? It couldn’t hurt to start soon…

Read More | http://secondlife.com/corporate/bulletin.php

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