CNN iReport

As Second Life mimics real life more closely as it evolves, it brings all the problems that diverse communities and lifestyles living together encounter.  One such debated lifestyle trait is graffiti.

It would seem that, up until now, there has been no tool for avatars to leave their ‘tags' in the virtual world without them being easily erased.  This has all changed, however, Inventor/Scripter/ Builder Natok Dryke has just finished his latest innovation the ‘Taggers Delight' tool.  He had received requests from his ‘in world' friends who wished to use graffiti as a medium for their own form of artwork.

I pick the word ‘artwork' very carefully here, as one avatar's art is another avatar's vandalism, depending, just as in the real world, which way you look at it.   You have to admire Natok's skill, whatever your point of view of the product, he offers a range of 15 types of graffiti tags with textures from Chiparus (owned by Tomarus Lednev, Region Ten Thousand Shadows), as well as a blank canvas for avatars to add their own ‘tag art' (I would think that this part of the package would appeal to artists and designers of other mediums, as well as taggers).

Natok invited me, and my friend Drax Ember, along to see an example of the new product at Tomarus's sim.  He used the side of a building to attach the tag to, and the tag did look very authentic, just like a spray painted wall in real life.

Natok told us that people want Second Life to be like real life and that taking just the good parts is a little bit unrealistic, he went on to say that there are more problematical things in Second Life like fraud (solutions to which he is working on, to his credit!!) also under age role play and other adult sims of a sexual nature, may be more harmful.

Drax pointed out that graffiti could be used by griefers, causing stress to people, especially if the wording on the tags were threatening or obscene.  In extreme cases it could be bordering on harassment if the user targeted one person or a group by constantly applying the graffiti to their possessions or property.  Natok explained that once Taggers Delight is purchased the name of the new owner would stay with the tag even when it is applied to someone else's property, so the person who applied the tag can be easily traced.

Natok is clearly a very innovative and gifted scripter/builder in Second Life and although he has designed and built weapons and defence systems in the past, Natok is now turning his hand to combating fraud and finding other ways to help the community, however, we will wait and see if graffiti is an invention too far.