Patriotic Nigras

Last updated
Patriotic Nigras
Formation2005–2011
Type Multiple-use name/avatar;
Purpose Internet activism;
Region served
Global
Membership
Decentralized affinity group
Website www.patrioticnigras.org [1] [2] [3]

The Patriotic Nigras (also known by the initialism PN) were a group of griefers in the online world of Second Life . [4]

Contents

While the PN were known mainly for the disruption of Second Life and its users, they had also established themselves on the video sharing website YouTube, where they have posted videos of their activities including server raids. Their method of attack ranges from trolling a group or individual to the manipulation of the in-game scripting engine, where they perform such activities as showering their targets with boxes covered in internet memes and shock images. These boxes then produce storms of graphical particles that block the victim's vision. They have also created avatars similar to those of the residents being harassed and destroyed them in gruesome ways to simulate a virtual death. [5] The Patriotic Nigras have also caused the crashing of several Second Life regions (or "simulators") by using self-replicating objects that overload the processing power of the computer running them. [4] [6]

Properly characterizing the Patriotic Nigras has proven difficult for critics and researchers who have observed their activities from within their raids and from afar. The group has been described as a nonpolitical online terrorist group whose central motivation is described by the term "lulz". [1] [7] [8] Others have identified quasi-political motivations such as the effort to hinder the entry of corporations into Second Life, [9] and yet others have identified their activities as nihilistic or even agonistic online branches of the political avant-garde. [1] The DHRA has also described them as a prime example of online criminal gang culture including spillover effects into real life gang activity. [10] The group has been linked to internet group Anonymous as both a sub-group [11] and an early progenitor iteration. [12] They have been described as /b/tards (a group affiliated with 4chan), members of SomethingAwful.com, [13] and as an offspring of the W-Hats griefer group (itself an offshoot of Something Awful). [14] The PN make casual use of racist, sexist, and homophobic terminology which some researchers dismiss as a joke [6] and which others have identified as "problematic" and "troubling". [8]

Whatever the true character and affiliations of the group, it has provoked commentary by critics and internet culture writers since its formation in 2005, and it has been listed as one of the central figures in the griefer culture of Second Life. [15] Membership in the group has ranged from 35 members in 2007 [9] up to a rough 200 at their peak in mid-2011. [15]

History

Habbo Hotel

Anti-furry protesters at Anthrocon 2007 wear afro wigs and suits, and carry a sign saying "Pool is Closed" in reference to Patriotic Nigras raids on Habbo Hotel. Anti-furry protesters near AC 2007.jpg
Anti-furry protesters at Anthrocon 2007 wear afro wigs and suits, and carry a sign saying "Pool is Closed" in reference to Patriotic Nigras raids on Habbo Hotel.

The origin of the Patriotic Nigras has been traced by cyber-rights researcher Peter Ludlow to the /b/ imageboard of the imageboard 4chan where board members decided in late 2005 to "raid" Habbo Hotel, a popular avatar-based social networking game. The raid took the form of numerous black men presenting avatars with outsize afros and Armani suits [13] blocking access to the virtual pool and telling other users that "the pool is closed because of AIDS." From this raid, according to Ludlow, emerged the Patriotic Nigras and their Internet meme slogan "Pool's Closed." [16]

The success of the first raid has led the Patriotic Nigras to perform raids on the Habbo Hotel during subsequent years. The 2006 anniversary raid was organized at the /i/ imageboard of the website 7chan. [11] The format of these raids is always the same with the use of avatars that look like black men with afros, and with the group sometimes attempting to offend users by forming images with the avatars such as swastikas. [11]

Second Life

The Second Life phase of the group's activities began in early 2006 when an anonymous user known as "Mudkips Acronym" [14] reposted on 4chan a question originally posed at eBaum's World regarding whether or not Second Life "was raidable." There were 143 Patriotic Nigras members as of September 2007, of which around 35–60 were active. [5] The response to "Mudkips Acronym"'s challenge was rapid and the group soon established itself as a fixture on Second Life. As of 2008, the Patriotic Nigras were said to operate hundreds, if not thousands, of Second Life accounts. [17]

By mid-2006, a number of Second Life users had had enough of the PN's antics and a Second Life member named "Kalel Venkman" formed a counter-griefer vigilante group named the Justice League Unlimited. With avatars donning the skins of superheroes like Superman and Wonder Woman, the Justice League Unlimited established monitors in many areas of Second Life and zealously reported any untoward behavior to the Linden Lab administrators. The zeal with which they executed their duties, however, proved to be problematic and they were soon banned from areas such as FurNation for excessive vigilantism. According to cyber-rights researcher, Peter Ludlow, the Justice League Unlimited's anti-PN efforts also became problematic as the close association between 4chan users and Patriotic Nigras led to the unwarranted harassment of many users who were 4channers only and not members of the PN. [16]

In February 2007, the group gained media coverage after an attack on the Second Life headquarters of politician John Edwards in which the Patriotic Nigras attacked with their avatars bearing "Bush 08" buttons and defaced Edwards's structure with feces, Marxist/Leninist posters, and obscenity. [18] [19] They also received coverage for an earlier attack on a room where Second Life user Anshe Chung was being interviewed about her claims to have made the 'virtual property' equivalent of over one million dollars off the game. The room was invaded by flying penises. [20] This incident was also attributed to the "Room 101" group. [21] [22]

Titlescreen of the ShoopedLife client Shoopedlife.png
Titlescreen of the ShoopedLife client

The Patriotic Nigras were at first tolerated by the producers of Second Life, Linden Lab, but after the John Edwards attack they began to crack down and now take efforts to find and ban griefers on sight. To fight back, the Patriotic Nigras found ways to bypass the bans Linden Lab typically employs. [5] New Media critics have described the Patriotic Nigras' antagonistic relationship with Linden Lab as arising in reaction to the company's player-monitoring policies (described as part of a broadly Foucaultian institutionalized control apparatus). [2] To further their aims on Second Life, the PN developed a modified Second Life client called ShoopedLife that allowed them to bypass many of the hardware-banning methods typically used by Linden Lab to prevent persistent griefers from accessing Second Life. Reacting against this, the Justice League Unlimited formed close associations with Linden Lab administrators, going so far as to monitor when administrators were available for contact so that griefing could be rapidly halted. [16]

As Patriotic Nigras countermeasures intensified the situation, Justice League Unlimited suspicions concerning Patriotic Nigras connections to 4chan deepened and Second Life players received bans for nothing more than their association with 4chan. This finally culminated in the closing of Woodbury University's virtual campus, and led thereafter to an escalation of factional maneuvers between the Woodbury group and the Justice League Unlimited [23] who characterized all opponents as PN sympathizers. [16] In a series of multi-directional infiltrations, personal information including the real life names of "Kalel Venkman," several Woodbury group members, writers for The Alphaville Herald , and Patriotic Nigras leader "Mudkips Acronym" was published online. In August 2007, "Mudkips Acronym" resigned in fear that this information would be used to compromise his security, [5] and by mid-2008, the Justice League Unlimited had been disbanded following embarrassing revelations of the nature of their relationship with Linden Lab and their efforts to "dox" Second Lifers suspected of connections to the PNs through the collection of extensive dossier-style information. [24]

Following the exit of "Mudkips Acronym," members of the Patriotic Nigras held an election to determine the new leader, which was won by a user known online as "^ban^". [6] According to a griefing publication, "^ban^" resigned after ten months and handed control of the group over to a user known by the screen name "FrizzleFry101". [25] In July 2008, the PN client, ShoopedLife was further modified to utilize the Lua code base to automate specific functions of the regular client. In December 2008, the main developer for ShoopedLife, "N3X15," left the Patriotic Nigras, effectively ending development of the client. [26]

Related Research Articles

<i>Second Life</i> Online virtual world

Second Life is an online video game that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user-created content within a multi-user online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Francisco–based firm Linden Lab and launched on June 23, 2003, it saw rapid growth for some years and in 2013 it had approximately one million regular users. Growth eventually stabilized, and by the end of 2017 the active user count had declined to "between 800,000 and 900,000". In many ways, Second Life is similar to massively multiplayer online role-playing games; nevertheless, Linden Lab is emphatic that their creation is not a game: "There is no manufactured conflict, no set objective."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avatar (computing)</span> Graphical representation of a user or a users alter ego or character

In computing, an avatar is a graphical representation of a user, the user's character, or persona. Avatars can be two-dimensional icons in Internet forums and other online communities, where they are also known as profile pictures, userpics, or formerly picons. Alternatively, an avatar can take the form of a three-dimensional model, as used in online worlds and video games, or an imaginary character with no graphical appearance, as in text-based games or worlds such as MUDs.

A griefer or bad-faith player is a player in a multiplayer video game who deliberately and intentionally irritates, annoys or trolls other players within the game. Griefing is often accomplished by destroying things constructed by other players or stealing items. A griefer derives pleasure from the act of annoying other users, and as such, is a nuisance in online gaming communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linden Lab</span> American technology company

Linden Research, Inc., doing business as Linden Lab, is an American technology company that is best known as the developer of Second Life.

Nigra may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Ludlow</span> American linguist and philosopher

Peter Ludlow, who also writes under the pseudonyms Urizenus Sklar and EJ Spode, is an American philosopher. He is noted for interdisciplinary work on the interface of linguistics and philosophy—in particular on the philosophical foundations of Noam Chomsky's theory of generative linguistics and on the foundations of the theory of meaning in linguistic semantics. He has worked on the application of analytic philosophy of language to topics in epistemology, metaphysics, and logic, among other areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anshe Chung</span> Virtual avatar

Anshe Chung is an avatar of Ailin Graef in the online world Second Life. Referred to as the "Rockefeller of Second Life" by CNN, Graef has built an online business that engages in development, brokerage, and arbitrage of virtual land, items, and currencies. Her work has been discussed in Business Week, Fortune and Red Herring.

The virtual world Second Life has its own economy and a virtual token referred to as Linden Dollars (L$). In the SL economy, users buy from and sell to one another directly, using the Linden, which is a closed-loop virtual token for use only within the Second Life platform. Linden Dollars have no monetary value and are not redeemable for monetary value from Linden Lab. However, the presence of a currency exchange has led to the Linden Dollar being recognised as a centralized virtual currency, a fiat currency, or property. A resident with a surplus of Linden Dollars earned via a Second Life business or experiential play can offer to exchange with other users via the LindeX exchange provided by Linden Lab. This economy is independent of the price of the game, which users pay to Linden Lab, not to each other. Linden Lab reported that the Second Life economy generated US$3,596,674 in economic activity during the month of September 2005, and in September 2006 Second Life was reported to have a GDP of US$64,000,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">4chan</span> Anonymous imageboard website

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anonymous (hacker group)</span> Decentralized hacktivist group

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Avatars United was a web community for avatars of online games and virtual worlds. It was launched in March 2008 by Sweden-based Enemy Unknown and closed in October 2010. It was owned by Linden Lab, which announced its closure on September 23, 2010.

An imageboard is a type of Internet forum that focuses on the posting of images, often alongside text and discussion. The first imageboards were created in Japan as an extension of the textboard concept. These sites later inspired the creation of a number of English-language imageboards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">420chan</span> Anonymous forums where users can discuss drugs and alcohol

420chan was an anonymous imageboard founded on 20 April 2005 by hacker and freelance web developer Aubrey Cottle. According to its founder, its name was a portmanteau of 420, a slang word originating in cannabis culture but now applicable to drug culture more generally, and 4chan, another imageboard website. Discussion on the site was primarily focused around recreational drug use and wrestling, with other boards related to topics including humor and academia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cory Ondrejka</span>

Cory Ondrejka is the former Chief Technology Officer of Linden Lab, makers of Second Life. With Philip Rosedale, Ondrejka co-founded Second Life and played a significant role in the architecture of the product. After leaving Linden Lab, Ondrejka became Senior Vice President of Digital Strategy for the EMI Group until he left EMI in September 2009. He also was vice president of engineering at Facebook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Encyclopedia Dramatica</span> Parody-themed wiki website

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References

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Further reading