Monday, May 12, 2008

News Flash! Bank heist was an Inside Job!



Personal Secretary (AliseIborg Zhaoying) working undercover for the robbers performs a ‘laptop’ dance in order to distract the Bank Manager (Wirxli FlimFlam) just seconds before the robbers storm the bank.


In Grand Theft Avatar, Second Front challenges the authenticity and embodiment of virtual identities by assuming avatar identities including those of Camille Utterback, Char Davies, Howard Rheingold and Christiane Paul to commit a parodied staging of a bank hold-up of the Linden treasury. As the robbers plotted their raid, it was just another regular work day for the bank staff that included Gazira Babeli as the Janitor, Bibbe Oh as the Bank Receptionist (looking like the reformed Patty Hearst), Wirxli FlimFlam as the Bank Manager (looking very Howard Rheingold-ish even in Wirxli's signature purple) and AliseIborg Zhaoying as the Personal Secretary. With one exception - the Personal Secretary was actually a double-crosser working on the inside for the robbers and was doing her best to distract the Bank Manager from the drone of the approaching robber-copter above.

Lounging in our post-heist lap of luxury, and not having to work in our boring bank jobs, some of us at Second Front are finding the time to be philosophers, pondering on such lofty questions as: Who is my avatar self? How much of my Pre-Second Life self am I investing in my avatar? Can we actually own our avatar identity? If not, is it possible to steal virtual identities? and even if it's verging on paranoia, should we ask ourselves who or what really does - Linden?! YIKES! We welcome all you Second Front groupies to send us your comments and to help us do some very serious soul searching.