Second Life Blogs | Pixel Scoop | Virtual Worlds News

Pixel Scoop’s highly advanced, trained, armed, lethal and dangerous team of super-brave and mega-tough secret agents (ok, ok, me with a bazooka that shoots couches) went undercover, risking life and limb to highlight the abuse and mistreatment in Second Life™ of the minority population of alts.

What we uncovered was hideous by any standard, a complete breach of avatar rights in every single way. Some of you may be shocked and for those who are easily upset, we recommend proceeding no further in your reading of this article.

As we all know, the alt population is much higher than official statistics would have us believe. Some experts in the field actually believe that alts could make up as much as 40% of the population. Some say it far exceeds that. The alts that we met told us that statistics would forever be innacurate, as some primaries really do take alts under their wing in such a way that one would never even know that avatar was an alt. For most, however, they are not so lucky and horribly difficult circumstances, dismal living conditions, poverty, neglect and abuse are part and parcel of their everyday life.

We caught up with two alts, who, for fear of repercussions from their respective primaries asked to remain unnamed. For the purposes of this piece, we will refer to them as Bob and Betty. They both tell similar tales of woe about their arrival into world. They were summoned to life by primaries who have since failed to care for them in any way that would be deemed acceptable. Pixel Scoop followed them to uncover their inhumane living conditions.

While Bob’s primary enjoys life on a private island with 3750 prims, beaches, lakes, mountains and a beautiful house, Bob scrapes together his belongings in a plastic carrier bag and trawls from pillar to post in search of somewhere to rest his head. He told us,

“When I first arrived in world, I spent most of my nights laying my head wherever I could. I didn’t have a place to call home. Nobody was interested in helping me and I had little choice other than to just rest wherever I lay. I’m ashamed to admit that sometimes I would rest in other people’s homes. If their doors were unlocked I would wander in and lay down until they returned… they would often ban me on sight. They wouldn’t give me chance to explain. They were not interested in my story. To them, I am just vermin . I’m scum. I’m just some tramp sleeping on their couch. Desperate for help I went to the primary who brought me here. He has a full island. It’s beautiful. I asked him if he could just spare me ten prims for a bed somewhere. He laughed and told me he would never dream of having me on his island. He didn’t want his friends to see me. I was just an embarrassment to him. Occasionally when he needed my help, he would pay me some attention. On one occasion he was nice to me, needed me for something. But when he was done he just left me there at the bottom of the ocean on a laggy mainland sim. I was there for three weeks. When I finally got out I vowed to myself that I would find myself a place. That’s how I ended up where I live now. It’s rancid and derelict. It’s an old abandoned warehouse in a very bad area and the place is full of griefers and drug dealers. But at least when it rains, I don’t get completely soaked now. I will stay here for as long as I can.”

Bob looks out at his derelict 'home'.

The story was also terrible for Betty. When Betty was brought into world her primary left her to fend for herself on a terribly dangerous part of the mainland. While Betty’s primary enjoyed life with 1000 prims and a koi pond, a stunning skybox and high end animated furniture, Betty had 117 prims and a library standard cabin with no door. She told us,

“My primary made it clear from the start that I should expect nothing from her. She was happy with her life and her beautiful parcel. She had friends she would never let me meet. It was made clear to me from the beginning that really, I was on my own. She would only summon me if she needed something, which wasn’t often. She gave me a rancid little spot on the mainland. I live there still and am surrounded by ban lines. Some nights I just sit in my cabin on my library bed with no animations and I just stare into space asking, ‘why me?’ I just don’t feel that I was ever bad enough to deserve this life. Heck, I can’t even lie down on my bed. She wouldn’t even give me a sleeping animation. I am eternally awake.”

Some days, Betty just stares at the walls.

These living conditions are common for Second Life alts. And it isn’t just their living conditions. Most alts, simply because of the failure on the part of their primaries to provide them with adequate skills, clothing and contacts, are entirely unable to obtain any form of employment to support themselves. Alts sometimes don’t even have enough money to upload an image. Shocking, I know. Because of the poor employment prospects plaguing alts, there are now a number of unscrupulous characters in Second Life taking advantage. These are people running bot farms. Despite recent attempts by Linden Lab to protect the exploitation of alts in this way, as with anything, the underground trade continues. These bot farms are run by traffic falsifiers, who round up alts and leave them in a box often suspended in the sky. There can be anything up to 80 of these alts crammed into a 20m by 20m space. It’s stuffy, uncomfortable and the alts are rarely paid. If they are paid, they can expect little more than a few Lindens per day.

But even that is not the worst fate these alts must face. We were shocked when Bob told us something much more horrific than we could ever have imagined.

“I know that my life would be so much better if I had companionship,” he began, “I know that where I live and where I sleep, what I do and how dismal life might seem at times, I know it would become irrelevant if I had love in my life. And I did meet someone once. She was a primary. I know what you’re thinking. You think I was asking for trouble by aiming so far out of my league as a primary. But really, she was into me. She thought I was funny. She said I was cool and cute. I took her to my place and even that derelict, hideous location I call ‘home’ did not put her off. She said it was quirky. But then it all went wrong. She kissed me using a HUD she had and then asked if I had some poseballs. I was awfully embarrassed to tell her that I didn’t have any. But still, she didn’t mind. She rezzed her own and we began to embark upon this incredibly sensual, erotic animation. She took her clothes off. I took mine off and realised I had no… you know… no thingie. She asked me straight out to attach one. I looked in my inventory and there was nothing there so I made a quick purchase of a free one from XStreet. She was getting excited, I could tell. I attached it and… well. That is where my life fell apart again. She stood up screaming. She said she wouldn’t have me penetrate her pixels with a freenis. I was mortified. She teleported away and she took her poseballs with her. So you see, I’m not even equipped for any intimacy.”

This, our research has revealed, is pretty much the normal situation for alts. Of the one thousand alts we interviewed for research purposes, 910 told us that they had substandard or no genitals and felt embarrassed about even trying to be intimate. The same survey we conducted also uncovered some shocking clothing statistics. 98% of alts have clothes that their primary passed over. Cast offs. 85% say that most of their wardrobe is made up of free items and blingy shoes. In fact, SLhealth Authorities are concerned that with so much bling usage amongst alts, the next decade or so could really see a huge problem with bling related health problems. These include blindness, WannaBeAGangsta Syndrome, Stupidity and Chronic Pixel Melanomas.

During the course of our investigations, we were shocked at just how many alts are shunned to areas of the grid such as Korea. Such infohubs are often the ‘home’ location for alts who are unable to set the place they sleep as their home location. This means that whenever they are teleported ‘home’, they return to Korea. Of the 1000 alts we interviewed, 999 said they had been teleported to Korea at least once, yet only 37 even speak a word of Korean. This means that well over 99% of alts are, at some time or another, subjected to finding themselves alone in a location in which they are unable to even communicate with the natives.

Another problem plaguing the alt population is that of repetitive strain injury. As most primaries ban the use of voice on their alts, typing is their only means of communication. Arthritis and other such related problems are on the increase.

So summarise, what our investigation uncovered is that alts are often homeless, sometimes left in the ocean for weeks on end, they are rarely ever able to instigate any form of intimacy and suffer from a severe lack of social contact owing to the refusal of the primary to allow them to mingle or network. Their only contact with other avatars is often Korea, where they are often unable to even understand the language. Alts have no access to animations most of the time and thus are left standing awkwardly (a problem SLhealth Experts see leading to posture issues in later life) or sitting in a funny position.

This is a serious problem affecting well over 95% of Second Life alts. Pixel Scoop has reported the findings of this study to several avatar rights organisations. We are preparing a report for Linden Lab.

In the meantime, we urge you… please look after your alts.