Senate Intern's Account Used to Vandalize Kirby Store in Second Life

July 16, 2007
It's not often that Nintendo's cuddly Kirby gets mentioned in the same breath with swastikas.

But according to the Second Life News Network, an under-construction store designed to cater to "all of your cell-shaded Kirby needs" was vandalized on Saturday. Swastikas and the words "Kirby hates our troops" were used to deface the site.

Okay, vandalism and griefing goes on all the time in SL. What's unique about this case is SLNN's claim that the defacing was done using the account of an intern for an unnamed U.S. senator:
A campaign manager for the senator, who asked SLNN not to associate the "intolerant acts" with the senator or his campaign, offered an explanation about how the graffiti got there.

"When the incident took place, the intern was en route to the senator's national office in Washington, and had a house guest... his house guest utilized his account to explore Second Life, as it were..."

The campaign manager said the incident would not hurt the senator's campaign. "As the staffer was not in charge of his avatar whilst the intolerant acts were committed, I see little reason for him to start anew with a new avatar..."

SLNN also reports that the owner of the Kirby Emporium, who goes by Intlibber Brautigan, in-game was annoyed:
One has to wonder in this age of Homeland Security, that a congressional staffer, who may have highly sensitive information on his PC, leaves his password on a post-it on his desk.

GP: SLNN needs to do a much better job of explaining this story. Why not name the senator? And what is Nintendo's relationship - if any - to the defaced Kirby Emporium?
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Comments

@chadachada

correcting something like this is as easyas deletign and re rezzing the item, not really a scandal.

hm...maybe we should add this to the top ten list of biggest video game scandals...

In other news, a Hitler lookalike is terrorizing furries.

Honestly, I think there's the potential for this to be a publicity stunt on the Kirby end to generate traffic. Nothing gets hits like controversy.

Sitfr

Neither.

Greens are probably the most commonly used camouflage color for ground based troops for forest and jungle operations, while pink has been scientifically proven to be an effective camouflage color for jets in flight.

There you have it - the Army and Air Force need each for their needs.

...of course, I'm kidding

Pink does more than you think, and apparently it hates our troops. Pink Hates Green.

But then who should we do away with? Pink or Green?

To answer the question regarding why the senator's office was concerned about being near a shop selling pink cartoony Nintendo characters, the shop was considered "trivial" according to the campaign manager, and apparently the senator's intern wanted to make a serious impression on visitors. The senator's campaign headquarters is now on its own island. Whether or not the Kirby store was approved by the Nintendo Corp. isn't an important point for this story, in my opinion. However, it will be an important point when the store has its grand opening. These are my personal comments and do not reflect the opinions of Second Life News Network.

My little brother used my Xbox Live account to cheat in Halo 2. I swear.

@Terminator

You mean the attack on Edwards?

That was Anon and /B/tards or one of them atleast.

I guess I must be out of the loop, but I really don't get the joke.

I'm pretty sure that the Kirby vandalism was put up on private land across the street from the actual establishment. That's what I took from the SLNN article.

oh, it's surely a prank. But if they won't name the senator, they are going to make me dust off my almost-never-used SL account and go down there and check it out...

“As the staffer was not in charge of his avatar whilst the intolerant acts were committed, I see little reason for him to start anew with a new avatar…”

Oldest excuse in the book.

I'm sorry, is the senator in 2nd grade?

I'm not sure how SL works, but my guess is that the kirby story owner wanted people to show off their stuff in their store tahts kirby. If those creators made something Kirby-esque, then the store could buy it from them. It's that simple. That's probably why they wanted it set up like that. Creativity spawns anywhere, they just weren't expecting such vandalism like that, much like in real life when that happens.

but....I was always under the impression that it was Samus, not Kirby that hates our troops.....
(jk...for those that can't take a joke)
That's such an immature (and albeit, stupid) joke

ok, so tell me where kirby comes into play? I mean... that is the dumbest thing I have ever seen and I saw both Jackass movies. I see no imagination here.

The person who did this is a lamer to the noobish degree. I award you no points, and may god have mercy on your soul.

rdeegvainl Says:
"Actually about the password note. Was the computer a personal one? or was it a government one?"

I was wondering that too, mostly because I pictured an intern goofing off at work (like I'm doing right now!). Considering the avatar is used to campaign (the quote suggests), and therefore probably only used at the office, I'm thinking the intern is full of it.

I doubt Nintendo has any connection, seems like a Kirby fan who wanted to show a little love for the "troop-hating" puffball.

This has "prank" written all over it. Hell, I wouldn't be suprised if it was the same set behind the "Republican" griefing.

Why not name the senator?

Because if what they say is true it will only give the senator unfair bad press.

Oh and "kirby hates our troops" . . . what a really bad joke.

'Kirby hates our troops'?

To this i pose this simple question.... What the hell?

Actually about the password note. Was the computer a personal one? or was it a government one? if it was a personal one i don't care if they broadcast their password all over the internet. They shouldn't have sensitive info on the machine, and if they do, that is the crime, not a password in plain sight. I work with government IA, and that is a HUGE no no. But it is a game, so i really don't care who vandalized what.

@Awol And if you forget, you can just ask and they'll send you your old password.

BTW with second life you don't need to put you password on a post-it they have an option to save it and you just need to click login. Not sure why that it belongs to a senators aid matters or not, it was a Kirby store not alike a campaign office in SL or something.

Also how did this person manage to vandalize the Kirby store was the land owner that stupid to allow people to make items on his land... If you ask me the owner was asking for it if he allowed people to create items.

Politicians, what are they going to try next?

Ugh. If his story is true, then he is just an idiot. Most people don't know how or don't care to create guest accounts on their computers. On our computers at home I've set up guest accounts so my friends can use them at my place without messing up any of the sites or services I am logged onto.

And I don't put my passwords on post-its. ;)

Ahh, the old "I didn't do it, my friend did" excuse. Let me give you a piece of information. "I didn't do it, my friend did" doesn't work for school kids, so it's probably not going to work for you.

[...] As political scandals go, this was an odd one. Gaming blogs were buzzing last week with reports of a bizarre incident involving the staff member of a U.S. Senator who (allegedly in a drunken rage) used a plot of land in Second Life to build an offensive display of protest against a fluffy pink video game character known as Kirby. [...]

Wait, why does Kirby hate our troops? Is there any proof of this?

[...] As political scandals go, this was an odd one. Gaming blogs were buzzing last week with reports of a bizarre incident involving the staff member of a U.S. Senator who (allegedly in a drunken rage) used a plot of land in Second Life to build an offensive display of protest against a fluffy pink video game character known as Kirby. [...]

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