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Bot-avatar Pesters Second Life Users (For Science!)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the yeah-sure-it-is dept.

holy_calamity writes "A bot-controlled avatar that tracks down lone avatars in Second Life and purposely invades their personal space has been created by UK researchers. The idea was to see if users value their virtual personal space. Bots avatars are not encouraged by Linden Labs — although this one is being deployed by academics, presumably spam-avatars (spavatars?) won't be far behind."

10 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Personal Space by dintech · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sounds more like 'Second Wife' than Second Life...

  2. Re:I for one welcome ... by cromar · · Score: 2, Funny
    Now, that would be a cool idea for a bot net experiment =oP

    I'm down.
    1. Steal top secret gov't research.
    2. ???
    3. Build mesh networked pan-handling robot emissaries.
    4. Profit!
  3. Re:One flaw by sw155kn1f3 · · Score: 5, Funny

    >> Female avatars do NOT have to be controlled by a female user.

    Huh? You mean that cute elf girl I've been dating... Oh shit..

    --
    - Arwen, I'm your father, Agent Smith.
    - Well, you're just Smith, but my father is Aerosmith!
  4. Naked Ruth Bots? by MLease · · Score: 2, Funny

    Are they hot?

    -Mike

    --
    I'm sorry; I don't know what I was thinking!
  5. Hiro by hansamurai · · Score: 4, Funny

    So how many users chopped off the intruder's appendages with a katana and then had their homemade daemons clean up their handiwork?

    --
    Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
  6. Re:Statistics! by foobsr · · Score: 2, Funny

    28 events is a ridiculously small sample size

    But imagine how many nearly identical conference/research papers they can conjure up by slowly increasing the sample size they report on!

    CC.

    --
    TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
  7. Oh, when THEY do it in SL, it's called research by Rogerborg · · Score: 3, Funny

    When I do it to teenage girls on the subway, it's called 6 to 12 months.

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    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  8. Re:interesting test for science' sake by Rogerborg · · Score: 3, Funny

    do Westerners stand further apart than Asians when chatting in a virtual world? I

    No, they stand the same distance apart; it would violate the laws of physics if one of them was "further apart" than the other. What a peculiar question.

    --
    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  9. In related news... by CarpetShark · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...researchers stalk people online to see if they mind.


    "Online research" patent claimed by FBI and RIAA.
  10. Re:Statistics! by mattOzan · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Out of 28 avatars approached this way, 12 simply moved away and 20 also responded via text chat."
    So it looks like there's only 28 people left in Second Life? More than I would have imagined. They were probably just startled to see someone new.