Not satisfied with having completely eradicated the global threat of terrorism, the U.S. Department of Intelligence, in their infinite wisdom and spendthrift, have turned their attentions to the final asylum of those that hope to violently wrest our freedom from us: MMOs.
Dubbed "The Reynard Project" (What happened to cool names like Enduring Freedom?), the Department of National Intelligence has broken the initiative into two stages. First, to analyze "the emerging social, behavioral and cultural norms in virtual worlds and gaming environments" claiming that "the cultural and behavioral norms of virtual worlds and gaming are generally unstudied", and second, should the collected data justify further action, to institute an automated system to track the actions of those playing games like World of Warcraft and report behavior they consider indicative of terroristic intent.
Yes yes, the U.S. is once again ham-handedly encroaching on the freedoms of its citizens, but if you're not used to it by now you really haven't been paying attention. Further, this kind of action was all but inevitable considering the frequency with which the words "terrorism" and "Second Life" are bandied about in concert.
What's more concerning than the actual intent to monitor the actions of a group of people who've shown no more realistic intent to violently subvert the dominant paradigm than a group of cafe-bound freshman poli-sci students is the fact that, to the U.S. Department of Intelligence, the world of MMOs is "generally unstudied". Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that aside from the seemingly constant studies into the psychological and behavorial effects of MMOs and MMOs as a social phenomena, there was an entire industry dedicated (in part at least) to studying and speculating on the social, behavorial, and cultural effects of not only MMOs, but video games in general. I've heard that sometimes these people even write about their ideas in a completely public forum.
So which is the more distressing issue? The fact that anyone playing an MMO in the states is likely to have their actions monitored in an attempt to create a baseline from which an automated system can be launched to monitor for and report non-normative behavior. Or is it more horrifying to realize that the U.S. Department of National Intelligence (and I really want to stress that title here) is so completely ignorant of the public debate and analysis (and the resultant data) surrounding the past time of a large number of its citizens that they feel they have to collect this data at all?
The odds that terrorists are using MMOs as training grounds, recruitment centers, or meeting areas are incredibly slim, but however remote the possibility still exists. That being said, while as a U.S. citizen I have a burning desire to be protected from random violence at the hands of zealots, I don't want to be protected at the cost of my freedoms, especially by a governing body as seemingly bumbling and surveillance-happy as this one.
[Via ThreatLevel]
Contest:
2:45 PM on 02.25.2008
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-One of the smartest men in our nation's history
god damn stupid. dunno y the fuck any terrorists would be online in the first place. you think they get cable in their tunnels of theirs?
Wow talk about sensationalist news. Although I don't agree with the idea of the government monitoring our online activities, where I do agree with is that social cultural behaviors in virtual worlds are actually very much unstudied by reputable researchers. READ THAT SENTENCE AGAIN QUAIS.
Sure there has been "debate" and "studies" concerning virtual entertainment, but between who? Arguments are made by either a group of bias pro-gamers and fanatical nut-jobs whose academic credentials are pretty much non-existent.
There really needs to be studies done concerning the creation of virtual communities and the impact those have on real world communities. There really is only a few set of qualified researchers taking this sociological and anthropological research seriously. All we have right now are clumsily studied statistical research which for the most part is very suspect.
I know its COOL to hate the government, but seriously, virtual communities are very much under-studied, especially for a social phenomenon that has created a very real impact in our lives. More REAL ACADEMIC research we put into it, the most likely we can squash all the anti-video game hate this currently occurring and being fueled by the so-called research and studies that you believe have actually happened.
It's time for the real professionals to take over and stop people like Jack Thompson and pseudo-academics generating bias statistics.
I may not support the government for all their freedom crushing activites, but they are very much right in saying Virtual communities are pretty much left "unstudied" because frankly they are.
As ridiculous as that sounds, I could see our money grubbing government doing that in the future.
While I do agree with you that more studies of a true academic nature would certainly be beneficial, I believe the malice in the story is directed towards the intentions behind these studies, which is to monitor these groups for "behavior indicative of a terrorist threat." You can't help but admit that the fact that a terrorist threat may be lurking in your local raid group is somewhat ludicrous.
If the purpose of these studies was solely to gain a better understanding of the social and economic impact of these virtual communities, then this article would probably have been entirely different in tone. Unfortunately though, this research is not going in the direction that would provide that sort of data. Instead, we'll have spooks monitoring The Barrens chat for someone saying "Muhammad".
-2nd Amendment functions properly. Assault weapons now covered.
-Habeas Corpus no longer functions in terrorist investigations.
-Using the Constitution will no longer override the Patriot Act(You will recieve a 'more powerful spell in play' message)
-Wiretapping no longer procs angry responses.
-Torture will now function properly when used in context of Patriot Act.
-Terrorists can no longer use stealth against U.S. government
-Fixed a bug involving arcane missiles
Seriously. According to my constitutional law teacher, your constitutional rights in the USA are going to hell in a hand basket. When the patriot act comes up for review, lets not get it renewed this go round.
is osama even responsible for 9/11? if so, why the fuck is no one looking for him?
if you want to stop terrorism, let me give you a suggestion -
stop fucking around in the affairs of other countries, stop giving israel billions of dollars worth of munitions, tanks, fighter jets and nuclear weapons.
the united states is the only one responsible for 9/11, because even if it was caused by 'terrorists' it's still our own fucking fault.
we should stop being vaginas and own up to the rape we export to the rest of the world.
I'm sorry folks but thats just how real life works.
@Luigi takes over: I lold at the patch notes, nice!
It was not our fault extremists blew up the twin towers and killed some of our friends/family. Granted the "INTERNATIONAL POLICE" style we have angered them, nobody forced them to blow the shit out of a building and kill a few thousand people.
You really piss me off.
The solution to the problem of angering people is withdrawing from our imperialistic policies, yes. Have a bit more tact man, I'm on your side but you really don't give our argument any credence.
That's not cool.
I really didn't want to say this, but your views sound kinda like that of an extremist.(read: you sound like a terrorist). There's a way to be critical of your nations policies and not be so fucking crazy.
Also, to anyone who says "if you don't like america get out" die. America was founded on freedoms and has experienced many changes over the course of its existence. "If you don't like America, VOTE to change it" would be more like it.
It's funny how your comment has NOTHING TO FUCKING DO with the post. Don't come to Destructoid to spew your inane, sensationalist bullshit. Call MSNBC.
@Luigi
-Instance "Iraq" no longer generates Epic [WMDs]
we bankrolled the theft of 'Israel' from the Palestinians.
they blame us for the jews walking in, kicking them out of their homes, killing them, and exiling them to a bunch of shit hole refugee camps out in the desert.
If someone came to your home, killed your parents, then tossed you in a refugee camp and took your house, what would you do?
become a suicide bomber, and since America supplied all the equipment for the said 're-colonization' of the 'holy' land, we paid the price.
I would never give someone a gun, fully knowing they were going to go murder innocent children with it and then 'borrow' all their possessions.
it's about hunting down terrorists, and I merely asked why nobody is looking for osama, since he's apparently the worlds # 1 terrorist =)
'sensationalist-bullshit'
so by saying that, you completely shrug off everything i typed, because you lack the mental capacity to combat my facts with anything but your ad hominem.
But hey, I'm sure the government is going to be totally responsible with our rights and give them back the second these bad bad men stop threatening us. Unless we go to war with east asia instead of eurasia, then its back to the floating fortress factory for me.
At least the second amendment is intact. Who cares about freedom from unreasonable search, cruel and unusual punishment, our the right to assemble and petition so long as we can still own bangbangs to protect us from crackheads.
'I love america, america does good things for the world. terrorists are all evil people born evil raised evil who will always be evil who wake up every morning thinking to themselves 'i'd love to kill babies'. Osama bin laden is an evil person, i know he caused sept 11 because there is so much evidence. I'm sure we'll catch him sometime, but meanwhile we're busy in iraq fighting people who had nothing to do with sept 11 because we're liberating them via americanizing them. meanwhile there is mass genocide in darfur because america doesn't care because darfur doesn't have anywhere near the amount of oil that the middle east holds'
there you go, happy?
Using MMOs to meet? Not such a bad idea with the number of WoW users and places to speak. No doubt much of what would be said would be overlooked in the first place. The uncertainty of internal Blizzard protocol would deter me, but who knows.
@slapme
I think you may have hoped you would lose me with the Latin: alas, you fail. I doubt calling what you say "sensationalist bullshit" is an ad hominem - or, "to the man" - fallacy. Now, if I mentioned, argumentatively, that you like to suck on fresh circumcision wounds, that might be.
Of course America "exports rape to the world". Everybody exports rape to the world - that's nothing unusual in the slightest. The Catholic fucking Church exports rape to the world (although we already knew that, right?). And if all of a sudden, everybody began to realize that we export rape to the world, global economies would collapse. Ignorance is the natural order of industrial society, and it's nothing to be ashamed of.
Well, as for Bush and your 9/11 "conspiracy", I'm just as happy not owning up to anything. I wasn't responsible for that. No, I'm not happy losing people in a blood-guzzling war machine for a fruitless cause, but I don't resent that we're doing it - who else would we blame, the "real" culprits? Do we even fucking know who those people are?
Also, I hear Osama is hiding out in Kalimdor.
only a true friend would hypothetically tell me this.
Osama bin laden is hiding out in kalmidor, i'm smoking a blunt with him right now... wait... how did you know that?! Osama? it is you!
It is believed the Gnome was promised as many virgins as he could handle upon completing his mission, of course the jokes on him, as the World of Warcraft is populated entirely of virgins."
I kid, I kid.