Patriotic Nigras

The Patriotic Nigras are a group of Griefers in the online multiplayer game Second Life.cite conference
first = Julian
last = Dibbell
authorlink = Julian Dibbell
title = Sympathy for the Griefer:MOOrape, Lulz cubes, and Other Lessons from the First 2 Decades of Online Sociopathy
publisher = nowrap| [http://www.glsconference.org/2008/index.html Games, Learning and Society 4.0]
date = 2008-07-11
location = Madison, Wisconsin
url = http://hosted.mediasite.com/hosted4/Viewer/?peid=9d1cf257-52ff-4704-9cb5-37de2ecca35b
accessdate = 2008-07-11]

The Patriotic Nigras mainly disrupt and harass members of the online world Second Life, but have been known to operate on YouTube. Their method of attack ranges from showering their targets with boxes covered in internet memes and shock images that produce storms of graphical particles that block the victim's vision, to specifically trolling a group or individual. Another one of their common tactics is to make their avatars very similar to those of the players they are harassing and then to destroy their avatars in gruesome ways.Giles, Jim. "Serious Grief". "New Scientist" 9:1-7 (2007). Pages 52-53.] To further their aims on Second Life the PN have developed a modified Second Life client called "ShoopedLife" which allows them to bypass many of the hardware banning powers which were typically used by Linden Labs to prevent persistent griefers from accessing Second Life. In July of 2008, ShoopedLife was further modified to utilize the LUA codebase to automate specific functions of the regular client.

They have also been behind the crashing of several Second Life regions, known as sims, using self-replicating objects, or objects that create exact copies of themself, which taxes the processing power of the sim. [Dibbell, Julian. [http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/16-02/mf_goons?currentPage=1 "Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World.] "Wired".]

History

The group was started in 2006 by an anonymous user known as "Mudkips Acronym" after a post upon the website 7chan asked whether or not Second Life "was raidable." They had 143 members as of September, 2007 around which 35-60 were active. The Patriotic Nigras are said to operate hundreds, if not thousands of accounts in second life. [Girard, Nicole. [http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/social-networking/59401.html "Griefer Madness: Terrorizing Virtual Worlds".] "MacNews". Accessed August 10, 2008.]

"Mudkips Acronym" resigned as leader of the PN in August, 2007 after a spy within the organization obtained his personal information and gave it to the anti-griefing organization, "Justice League Unlimited", who quickly published it on the Internet. Mudkips resigned in fear that this information would be used to compromise his security. The current leader of the group is known by the screenname "FrizzleFry101". [ [http://www.grieferherald.com/patriotic_nigras/ "Evidence of Script Stealing Exploit Surfaces".] "The Griefer Herald". Accessed August 10, 2008.]

In February, 2007 the group gained media coverage after an attack on the Second Life headquarters of John Edwards in which the PN attacked with their avatars bearing 'bush 08' buttons and defaced Edwards's structure with feces, Marxist and Leninist posters and obscenity. [Fulco, Ivan. [http://www.lastampa.it/_web/cmstp/tmplrubriche/giochi/grubrica.asp?ID_blog=35&ID_articolo=146&ID_sezione=50&sezione= "Griefer: non chiamatemi vandalo, sono un attivista dei mondi virtuali!".] "La Stampa". Accessed August 10, 2008. (Italian)] [Brownlee, John. [http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontents/2007/03/john_edwards_me.html "John Edwards Meets Second Life 'Feces Spewing Obscenity'".] ] They also received coverage for an attack on a room where Second Life user Anshe Chung was being interviewed after making over one million dollars in real world money off the game. The room was invaded by flying penises. [Giles, Jim. [http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19526196.000 "Virtual entrepreneurs and 'griefers' spoil the fantasy of online worlds".] "New Scientist".]

The group was at first tolerated by the producers of Second Life, Linden Labs, but after the John Edwards attack they began to crack down and now take efforts to find and ban griefers on sight.

References