October 6, 2007 -
Earlier this week GamePolitics issued a Tivo alert for an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit with a video game theme.Titled "Avatar," the plot centered around sexual obsession in an online world similar to Second Life.
GP correspondent Colin McInnes caught the episode and blogs his impressions:
Well that was the lamest video game tie-in ever... although not delving much into fantasy bull like some other shows...
Former kidnapper thinks woman's 'AY' (Alternate Youniverse, a Second Life rip) avatar looks like his last victim 25 years earlier, so he stalks, kidnaps, and rapes her.
On the upside, the [game company] CEO was very cooperative, helping the police with real-life info about the accounts (doesn't even ask for a warrant), but it turned into a wild goose chase... it seems anyone who came into contact with her avatar doesn't get questioned, just immediately arrested, (you can practically see them seething "you filthy gamer")...
Dumbest part, at the half-way point:
"I guess he decided to re-enact his crime in the virtual world..."
...yeah, by kidnapping her in real life, not the virtual world /rolleyes... They never do explain how the bad guy tracks the victim down in RL... Stupid crap from the CEO's office near the end:
"he put in a safety catch so if you zoom up to bird's eye, the cabin vanishes"
...uh, you're the CEO, you designed the software, you're a Mod, override, duh...
The whole avatar thing didn't work. He links her avatar to his former victim, but kidnaps her, even though two don't look alike... so it was unclear why he cared after he found her... too many loose ends...
Second Life Insider has a report as well...
Comments
----
Papa Midnight
If I'm not mistaken, the impossible IP addresses are used for the same reason that everyone's phone number is 555 something. Someone out there more than likely owns said IP address and would probably be unhappy to have their corporate site's IP broadcast all over. Is that unreasonable in most cases? Sure, but I'm pretty sure that's the justification for it. However, if they do use an IP address, would it be too much to ask that each section only has 3 numbers even if they are over the 255 range? It could be done.
Oh look, a bunch of pixels look like someone I did 20 years ago. Lets go get the owner. Yippee..
and i usually like L&O SVU too...
Law & Order: We Gotta Eat Too.
piss-poor writing and psuedo science. SVU is like The Core of television programs.
The show starts with a girl over 18 not being where she should be. That was the crime they were investigating. Yes, she was in trouble, but I thought that in most states you couldn't file or investigate a missing person report on an adult until they'd been missing over 24 hours... While time passing is hard to follow in an L&O show, they didn't establish well enough that a crime had occurred, let alone a dude should be arrested for playing a game.
Everything fit too into place too well for the investigators. (The corporation of the developer, how easy it was to get the account info, how simple it was to narrow down who the characters interacted with...) It felt too fictional for a show like this.
How simple it was for them to find the guy would have been like if an episode of CSI they used equipment similar to what Ethan Thomas had in Condemned. The concept of what happened felt like it could happen but too many of the 'facts' and the 'proof' were too easily obtained to the point where half way through the show, I began to say, "This wouldn't happen."
I was also a little surprised that they took the direction they did for the show; I was expecting the game for the show to be a World of WarCraft or Everquest rip off over a Second Life rip off just because of how much talk shows and the news have talked about crazy stories from MMOs.
Trial by Jury was good, but I liked Conviction a bit better. It technically wasnt related directly to the L & O franchise, but same creator. Unfortunately good shows are too often the first to get canceled.
I didn't go hunt down the owner of the Avatar. I kept going.
Nearly every crime drama TV show has fallen back on the "horrible crime happens in creepy subculture!" idea as seen in so many episodes of CSI. I'm just waiting for the episode where they do something like, "A LARPer kills another LARPer with a boffer-sword so he can steal the victim's in-game princess!"
They get a grainy video image from a security camera. Through the wonders of nonexistent technology, they are able to zoom and clarify a crystal clear picture of a license plate, a credit card, a note, or whatever the plot requires. Makes me laugh every time.
In case of hacking, unplug.
If I'm not mistaken, the impossible IP addresses are used for the same reason that everyone's phone number is 555 something. Someone out there more than likely owns said IP address and would probably be unhappy to have their corporate site's IP broadcast all over. Is that unreasonable in most cases? Sure, but I'm pretty sure that's the justification for it.
"Favorite cliche in these shows: the camera of infinite resolution."
You'll like the comic at http://biggercheese.com/index.php?comic=360
岩「…I can see why Hasselbeck's worried about fake guns killing fake people. afterall, she's a fake journalist on a fake news channel」
Love the Dilbert.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
*throws out son's and daughter's gameboys*
A rushed feeling aside, my main complaint of WTFness is "Wouldn't there be more than just one avatar like hers?".
Don't get me wrong, but I've yet to play or hear of many games where an individuals avatar is down right one-of-a-kind! Not to mention, the victim's avy looked quiet generic to me... Wouldn't there be more than just one victim if he went after her just because he saw her avatar? What about victims in general? Pig-tailed-naughty-school-girl is not a rare thing to see...
On a side note, my mother imediately questioned me of the "online sex" occuring in computer games.
Yeah mom, it's really invading into my Oregon Trail playing time. Can't get a decent cattle shot in without some little punk hacking into my computer, wanting to cyber.
....
Oh, and let's not forget the first rapist in the show... What the hell happened to the 'sleeping boyfriend'?
There's already a set of IP Addresses available for use without making them "invalid". Just choose one of the private-IP addresses in the 10.x.x.x, 169.254.x.x, 172.16-31.x.x, and 192.168.x.x ranges. Those addresses look reasonable enough, and the cheap hackers that try using them will simply risk killing their own network.
Even if it doesn't stop complaints of being an unrealistic IP Addresses, it will remove the largest chunk of these complaints.
You're right actually. A lot of people can have duplicate avatars, hell, on Second Life I find it rare when I see completely unique avatars. Heh, mine was custom made though.
I’m a big fan of Law & Order, but this episode has to be one of the worst ones yet.
That's the impression I was left with, just a loosely written episode instead of a demonize gamers one. I'm a fan of L&O, their "video game" episodes are either totally outragous (president of Blizzardish company kills girl) or just desperate defenses by obviously guilty perps.
kurisu7885 Says:
It’s “Fur and loathing” all over again.
.....was that the name of an episode? Oh dear...
She argued what we all do. That video games aren't the cause of violence today and they're not an excuse for murder.
That was the GTA episode. While the verdict did pretty much validate what we all say here about violence and games, the 48 minutes leading up to it was complete trash.
I am a L&O junkie, but I was nauseated by that ep.
"It’s 'Fur and loathing' all over again."
Lol I saw that episode
anime girls hetero handjob fan club /%/ Dont delete this links, its very useful for :) [@multi_txt.txt||2||r||1||