Second Life & WoW Terrorist Training Camps? 292
Tech.Luver writes "theinquirer reports that 'Aussie Security experts claim that Second Life and online games such as World of Warcraft are being used to train terrorists.
Apparently there are three jihadi terrorists registered and two elite jihadist terrorist groups in Second Life and they use the site for recruiting and training. This is on top of the Second Life Liberation Army.""
Slow news (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd like to be the first person (Score:5, Insightful)
The SLLA isn't a real "terrorist" organization. It's a bunch of unfunny people who think that exploding picture replicators near buildings in SL comprises some sort of Jacobin revolution. I'm serious. Look at their white paper.
As for real terrorists: frankly, I hope they're practicing in Second Life. Because with all the other, harder-to-track ways they could be communicating information--IRC channels, encrypted and hidden forums, custom IM software, etc--they choose to use a public program in which anyone can access anywhere by default and the company religiously logs any and all chats that pass through their network and make it a point to discipline people on the basis of chatlogs.
So we should be so lucky to have terrorists so stupid that they'd communicate using SL--a clunky graphically terrible product that can't even properly form eyebrows, much less a complex trigger mechanism--as opposed to, say, sending a real video over some other quicker undetectable means.
Suddenly everything is clear (Score:4, Insightful)
They thought their spell of detonation and shield of fire protection worked outside the game too.
You can't make this stuff up (Score:5, Insightful)
It's sad that everytime someone says "But you can't stop X, otherwise we might as well crack down on Y too, which would be silly", it's not long before Y becomes the Internet taboo which people also want to crack down upon...
Please tell me this story is just a parody?
Re:ROFLMAO (Score:2, Insightful)
Granted, I didn't really buy this when I first read it, especially the bit about using WoW as a training tool. But to be honest, not all terrorist training has to be violent. Terrorism is about guerilla warfare, and guerilla warfare has been around for centuries. It's an art, just like any other form of war, and it does have it's own subtleties.
I assume that if WoW really is being used for "training," it's for things like team dynamics. Who performs better as a leader? Who is a quicker thinker? When does communication between team members become a problem?
The Second Life stuff is obviously more "real" than the supposed WoW training, although I'm not buying this BS about "registered" terrorist organizations. To me, that just sounds like some people having a bit of "fun" playing terrorist. The complete lack of any names of these terrorist groups in the article screams to me that they aren't really terrorist groups.
Again, don't put it out of your mind just because you can't rack your brain hard enough to find a valid use. If you're not an analyst, being paid to do it all day long, you might just miss something small and subtle. (disclaimer: I have no knowledge of anything remotely related to analysis/terrorism/etc. I'm just a geek.)
Re:I'd like to be the first person (Score:4, Insightful)
This countries supply of WoW gold and online poontang is in jeopardy! They are attacking our very way of life! We must mobilize for action! It's not going to be easy. I've heard that the terrorists are employing epic mounts, and exploding sheep technology, as well as second generation teledildonics, but we must not let them prevail!
We will fight them in the empty casinos! We will fight them in the level 60 raid instances that no one does anymore! We shall overcome!
The /b/utlerian jihad (Score:1, Insightful)
Eh. (Score:5, Insightful)
WoW tactics boil down to tactics vs mobs, and tactics vs mobs. In the first you're fighting a bunch of simplistic AI, and in the second you're fighting a bunch of people who know they're not going to lose anything if they die, so they just do the lemming over and over until one side wins...It's a joke.
I can think of a thousand "games" that you could play in the real world that would actually get you useful skills, and useful training. Playing WoW, on the other hand, gives you the wrong kind of reflexes, zero physical conditioning, and no actual experience with moving around in the world.
Re:Eh. (Score:3, Insightful)
What about this: http://www.americasarmy.com/ [americasarmy.com]
It has a focus on terrorism, realistic weaponry, combat and team tactics. Shouldn't it be first up against the wall?
Re:ROFLMAO (Score:5, Insightful)
Try
-Counterstrike
-any multiplayer WW2 shooter like Day Of Defeat, Call Of Duty...
-America's Army (get your training sponsored by your enemy
Much better choices for terrorist training (and I'd still consider them inadequate unless you throw in some real life practice with guns)
Re:Slow news (Score:1, Insightful)
your: belongs to you
you're: you are
Keep digging that hole.
Re:ROFLMAO (Score:3, Insightful)
Try
-Food handling training
-Medical school
-Water treatment facility work
Who needs guns when the enemy has no water?