Real-life terrorism in MMORPGs?
Have you ever thought of the possibility that MMORPGs could be used by terrorists to recruit and teach people how to blow up stuff? The Counterterrorism Blog (“The first multi-expert blog dedicated solely to counterterrorism issues”) has. Here are a few snippets from an entry by Andrew Cochran.
Many of the overwhelmingly positive features of Second Life can be adapted for negative Real Life means. The rapid and potent way in which communication takes place would seem to be an ideal platform for recruitment into radical groups, especially given the age range of those engaged in the world, which is typically 18-34. The teaching capabilities of the world can clearly be adapted for use by terrorists.
You may be asking yourself (or your monitor, if you’re one of those kinds of people), “How’s it going to work, anyway?” Cochran has the answer.
Streaming video can be uploaded into Second Life and a scenario can easily be constructed whereby an experienced terrorist bomb-maker could demonstrate how to assemble bombs using his avatar to answer questions as he plays the video. Using the decentralized organization effect, already successfully used by SL companies, the bomb-maker and his pupils can be spread around the globe and using instant language translation tools (available in the world) could be speaking a variety of languages.
And that’s not even the worst part.
…possibly by far the most useful tool currently available to radical groups is the ability to transfer in-world money between avatars that can be translated into real currency. The Second Life currency of Lindens (approximately $270L to $1US) can be bought using a credit card in one country and credited to one avatar (account) and can be given to a co-conspirator avatar in another country.
Please note that the article also mentions other MMORPGs, (World of Warcraft, for one), but Second Life is mainly used as an example because it is, in the author’s words, the “purest version of a digital 3-D world.”
The whole thing sounds a bit farfetched, but who knows? If the terrorists haven’t thought about it yet, then they certainly know about it now. Click on the “via” link below for the full article on the Counterterrorism Blog.
Have you ever thought of the possibility that MMORPGs could be used by terrorists to recruit and teach people how to blow up stuff? The Counterterrorism Blog (“The first multi-expert blog dedicated solely to counterterrorism issues”) has. Here are a few snippets from an entry by Andrew Cochran.
Many of the overwhelmingly positive features of Second Life can be adapted for negative Real Life means. The rapid and potent way in which communication takes place would seem to be an ideal platform for recruitment into radical groups, especially given the age range of those engaged in the world, which is typically 18-34. The teaching capabilities of the world can clearly be adapted for use by terrorists.
You may be asking yourself (or your monitor, if you’re one of those kinds of people), “How’s it going to work, anyway?” Cochran has the answer.
Streaming video can be uploaded into Second Life and a scenario can easily be constructed whereby an experienced terrorist bomb-maker could demonstrate how to assemble bombs using his avatar to answer questions as he plays the video. Using the decentralized organization effect, already successfully used by SL companies, the bomb-maker and his pupils can be spread around the globe and using instant language translation tools (available in the world) could be speaking a variety of languages.
And that’s not even the worst part.
…possibly by far the most useful tool currently available to radical groups is the ability to transfer in-world money between avatars that can be translated into real currency. The Second Life currency of Lindens (approximately $270L to $1US) can be bought using a credit card in one country and credited to one avatar (account) and can be given to a co-conspirator avatar in another country.
Please note that the article also mentions other MMORPGs, (World of Warcraft, for one), but Second Life is mainly used as an example because it is, in the author’s words, the “purest version of a digital 3-D world.”
The whole thing sounds a bit farfetched, but who knows? If the terrorists haven’t thought about it yet, then they certainly know about it now. Click on the “via” link below for the full article on the Counterterrorism Blog.
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