Alicia Finds The Corn Field!
So, anyone been in the Corn Field lately? Inspired by a classic "Twilight Zone" episode and cooked up in 2005 by former Community Services director Daniel Linden (who had a uniquely deranged sense of humor), the Field was a kind of virtual penal colony where Residents who'd violated Community Standards one too many times were exiled, in theory to contemplate their virtual crimes while standing in uninhabited farmland. (Or if they preferred, just ride the tractor in the center of the Field while watching educational short films from the 40s on the nearby TV.) A relic of Second Life's more innocent times, when there were scarce 100,000 active users, I had heard the Corn Field had long since been discontinued as unfeasible, now that 12,000+ new accounts (dozens of them certainly griefers) are created every day. Recently the inexhaustible Alicia Chenaux got wind of it, sought it out, and learned that the Corn Field is still there. To what end, though?
As odd as it sounds, I'd still like to see it for myself. I'm just not going to do anything to get sent there, not like it's used anymore as it is.
Posted by: Marianne McCann | Friday, June 13, 2008 at 08:58 AM
Back in '05 I was sent there for about 10 seconds, then pulled back. Then a Linden IM's me and said "Oops! Sorry! Wrong Darien!" :P
Posted by: Dr. Darien Mason | Friday, June 13, 2008 at 09:19 AM
It's probably still there for sentimental reasons. As far as I know, it was never seriously used, except a handful of times, mostly because anyone put there could easily create a new alt. Griefers generally don't have enough invested in any one account to care if it gets disciplined or banned.
Posted by: Cubey | Friday, June 13, 2008 at 09:39 AM
Cubey, the point is moot since anyone banned could easily create a new alt anyways.
Posted by: Nexii Malthus | Friday, June 13, 2008 at 05:35 PM
It's still there because the Lab doesn't do much in the way of maintenance. In Waterhead there are notecard givers which have been empty since January 2007 - which they duly inform the newbie avatars of. The area around Hanja Welcome Area is totally empty, and the line on top of the screen reads that it "will be the new Welcome Area". In Morris there's an area where that same line reads as a personal message between Lindens (NE corner near the archery targets). And where once there was an Infohub (I forgot the name, sorry) and now there is nothing, that same line still reads Infohub.
And that's why the cornfield is still there. It's Linden debris.
Posted by: Laetizia Coronet | Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 05:46 AM
I was wondering about this, because oddly enough it was picked up by a newspaper in the Middle East.
http://dusanwriter.com/?p=572
"As in real life, Second Life also has its seedy side. Virtual prostitutes abound and virtual love affairs between avatars have reportedly led to some real-life marriages ending. There have also been allegations of illegal gambling. Criminal avatars known as “griefers” have reportedly been banished to a bizarre online prison dubbed “The Corn Field”, an eerily moonlit cornfield with a tractor, a black-and-white TV set and no way out."
Posted by: Dusan Writer | Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 05:18 PM
"This is the monster. His name is Philip Linden. He's thirty-nine years old, with a cute little-boy face and blue, guileless eyes. But when those eyes look at you, you'd better start thinking happy thoughts, because the mind behind them is absolutely in charge. This...is the metaverse."
(Seriously, The Cornfield is probably the coolest thing Linden Labs has done, in a long, long history of idiotic things)
Posted by: Two Worlds | Monday, June 16, 2008 at 09:03 AM