Real Life Cop Enjoys Second Life Policing Players in Grand Theft Auto V

Pretty fascinating Glixel article about a retired police officer who applies his background to police players on his favorite GTA V server, with LOL-able results (see video above). However, his reasons for first doing so were no laughing matter, but as a way to recover from RL tragedy:

I didn’t devote too much time to it, and then I had a loss in the family – my younger brother was killed – and, after that, I didn’t really want to invest much time into interacting with other folks. I was able to use the game as a kind of escape. That’s when I started investing a lot more time, and I rose through the digital ranks, from deputy up to sheriff, and then I was eventually transferred over to the state police, which is kind of an honorary organization in SOE [State of Emergency, the online community associated with Thompson’s server] for the higher ranking law enforcement or medical services personnel.

Reminds me of the Green Lantern Core keeping Second Life safe from virtual crime, which led to one member volunteering his time in a humanitarian relief effort IRL.

Comments

[Marianne McCann]

"no matter where you go, there you are."

When I joined SL, it was to get away from the pressures of what I did in first life. Within months I found myself going down familiar paths, being an ambassador of sorts of kid avvies. Years later, here I am organizing large events, working with people, and helping to manage an SL city. My background in community organizing/activism became the thing I do both as a vocation and as a pasttime.