| If I told you this, would you believe me? Try doing | | | | Boredom with what the Sims had to offer, or a lack |
| so, because it's the truth. And young Black men are | | | | of desire to wait for the further events? We had |
| busy killing each other at an alarming rate in this | | | | chat rooms going, and Eminem (might be the real one |
| world. Do we really need something like a pseudo | | | | from rap music) was there, helping to build a SimBall |
| Mafia causing the same sorts of problems? | | | | stadium. Some guy called Eminem, and he wanted to |
| Right now, the online game "The Sims Online" which | | | | build us a ball stadium. What if the pseudo "Mafia" |
| is labeled a "T for Teens" game has been overrun by | | | | decides to trash that too? Em there might have been |
| several obviously Mafia named families. They are | | | | trying to do something real and good for a change. |
| very aggressive and very obvious. Whether or not | | | | Dunno. |
| they are the real Mafia is a question which I cannot | | | | And all I could do was flee. I destroyed our house |
| answer. But one thing they really do, even though it | | | | before the Mafia could trash it. I simply deleted all of |
| is to virtual and not real houses: they trash people's | | | | our characters and quit the game. Oh, yeah, I |
| hard won properties. The kind of properties that | | | | thanked them on the way out. I thanked the Mafia. I |
| people would like to build a lifetime to achieve. | | | | told them a mixed truth: I was spending too much |
| Beautiful, sprawling mansions you can't own in real | | | | time on the game anyway. I'm a professional writer, |
| life, the kind that are totally out of reach for the | | | | and I really want to spend the time writing. Well, I |
| vast majority of people. | | | | certainly have found something to write about now. |
| Some people have been playing The Sims Online for | | | | Parents, watch the video games your teenagers are |
| years. Maybe you think they're weird, maybe you | | | | playing. You might turn around and suddenly find you |
| think they're no one to feel sorry for. Maybe you're | | | | have a Mafia member for a teenage daughter or son, |
| even rooting for the pseudo Mafia. But not me. I had | | | | in Real Life. I know that now. You might think I'm |
| real friends going on that game, and slowly but surely | | | | crazy, but I'm not. A man told me recently he's been |
| they began destroying our Sims houses, which were | | | | finding kids that stay all day on those games. I'm not |
| our prized possessions on that game. | | | | the only "nutty" parent here who's getting worried. |
| I have a friend (an entirely different situation) who | | | | And The Sims Online is the haven for a slinking beast |
| was screwed over for $15,000 real life dollars when | | | | with no better name than the Neo Mafia: "My New |
| he tried to sell some photographs and they were | | | | Family." And for the last time, if you're Italian, I am |
| more or less taken from him. Is that a good thing to | | | | not picking on you. But if you get all stressed out |
| do to someone? And is it a good thing to interrupt | | | | over what I'm saying, I'd like to know you a little less |
| some high tech "decent" game involving minor adult | | | | well. And do you need to be affiliated with these |
| activity and corrupt it still further? I am so tired, I | | | | mysterious strangers? Are you a parent? Ma fia? Neo |
| don't know. | | | | ma fia? |
| To "green up" socially on The Sims Online at all, it | | | | Yes, parents, that is what it means in |
| forces you to do interactions that are rather similar | | | | Italian-American. My new family. |
| to having sex with animals (wrestle with your dog, | | | | Still feel comfortable with the concept? |
| but you should see what it looks like if you really see | | | | I don't. I pulled my daughter off what I had thought |
| it) and that is bad enough, but rather bearable. | | | | was a harmless game, where I had been restricting |
| Sigmund Freud would tell you that such behavior is | | | | some of her activities due to their turning out to be |
| relatively normal, that having an orgy session involving | | | | of a too adult nature (I hadn't known about the |
| "heavy petting" with your own puppy, where it loves | | | | gambling and the love houses, but they turned out to |
| you and licks your face and you are all over each | | | | seem fairly harmless) and myself as well. I destroyed |
| other, is fun. | | | | the skills house I had built and the store she had so |
| But what is not fun is coming home one day to | | | | carefully applied herself to and had been having some |
| having your hard won, worked for skills or money | | | | fun with for awhile. It wasn't interfering with her |
| house trashed by unknown people while your town is | | | | homework, but she did say it was getting a little |
| crawling with "De Corleoni Territori," "Italian Mafia | | | | boring for her. But she learned a little from running |
| Empire," "The Vito Family Territory" and so forth. I | | | | her store. What did she sell there? Mostly furniture |
| am not talking Anti-Italian Defamation. I am not | | | | and pets. |
| talking against Italians. I HAD Italian friends on the | | | | Maybe she was supposed to be strong-armed into |
| game. I am talking about a bunch of people either | | | | giving up her money? |
| acting like the Mafia, or worse yet, actually being | | | | Yeah, pick me to death because I let my kid play it. |
| connected with them somehow and taking over a | | | | Oh, rahs for you. I had played the offline version of |
| children's video game. Or were they involved in the | | | | the Sims, and it had seemed pretty harmless. The big |
| first place, and is Maxis a Mafia held game company? | | | | deal was they let gays kiss on it. Didn't bug us much. |
| Look at the names. Maxis, Mafia. | | | | The timing was right for us to have quit the game. |
| It is true the game is labeled "T for Teens" and is | | | | Neither one of us wanted to play it much longer. But |
| connected with what looks like some harmless fake | | | | I wonder what a game is doing out there that is |
| gambling. The money being exchanged seems to be | | | | stuffed with "Mafiosi" who are real people in real life, |
| Simoleans at first. Fake money you get by working | | | | not just characters on a screen whom you blow |
| at odd jobs on the game, and you also acquire skills | | | | away with pretend guns. In The Sims Online, you are |
| so you can make more of the fake money. But you | | | | a real person in a real life situation, where you have |
| can also buy blocks of the money on EBay, roughly | | | | to go to the bathroom as your character, your |
| $15.00 for 1 million Simoleans. And you can buy | | | | character can die by being mangled at work on the |
| "rares," which people barter and pay for, such as | | | | job and get revived by a reviver, other intriguing and |
| Mystic Trees, tigers and cheetahs. Makes it looks like | | | | exciting things can happen, and you can even get |
| you're not spending money, like the gambling is | | | | bored but solve that problem. It's a good game for |
| harmless. But is this what you want your teenager to | | | | people with some time on their hands. And it teaches |
| be doing? For 20 hours a day, five days a week? | | | | real life values involving working for a living, getting |
| Okay, video addiction is bad enough, but we're talking | | | | skills and needing fun. |
| about Organized Crime here as well. Remember a | | | | And I was talking to people my own age other than |
| little place called Columbine High School? | | | | my husband and family for the first time in years. |
| And the Mafia is in and roughly controlling every town | | | | Real people play the characters on the game. Real |
| that I've visited on The Sims Online, and I've roughly | | | | people owned that property that somebody trashed. |
| checked them all over. Dan's Grove, Jolly Pines, | | | | Real people suffer when it turns out that the place is |
| Blazing Falls, Alphaville. The Mafia is everywhere. | | | | under control by the Mafia. |
| I have talked to these "Mafia" gentlemen and ladies, | | | | I reported them to the FBI. I told a gentleman at an |
| and visited their houses. They don't have very much | | | | acclaimed newspaper about these strange events. |
| to do at them but the usual Sims stuff. I'm afraid | | | | The Mafia people I talked to tried to claim that I was |
| they have discovered game "cheats" and, being | | | | crazy, that I was imagining things. The "friend' I had in |
| bored, are using them to destroy other game | | | | the Mafia tried to calm me down, told me that they |
| players' properties. And yes, I have evidence, not | | | | are a hokey Mafia imitation that has nothing to do |
| hard unfortunately, that they have watched people | | | | with the real McCoy. He sounded reasonable. But the |
| play the game from a distance. One of them knew | | | | other two of them kept going on, "You're crazy. |
| about something he shouldn't have known. | | | | Nothing like that is happening." |
| A lady in fun fired a game cannon at me, in private, | | | | One of them called me a drunk, and I don't even |
| and this Mafia guy knew that had happened. I don't | | | | drink. I have to take medications for my disability, |
| think she told him about it. How did he know? She did | | | | they don't cloud my head, and I can't drink. |
| it just for laughs, but it's not very funny that he | | | | Those guys were lying to me. If so, then they are |
| knew about it. He couldn't have known about it | | | | Neo Mafia. What would that mean exactly? What |
| unless he'd seen it happen, in all probability. And he | | | | exactly would it mean, if they have the technology |
| wasn't anywhere on the property or onscreen at the | | | | to get past the defenses in the game and tear |
| time. | | | | people's houses down? |
| The same Mafia dude, who kept denying he was | | | | "Trust me. I'm only Italian. I'm not a Mafia member. |
| Mafia while dressed in an obvious game-style Mafia | | | | You must be a bigot. It's because my skin is brown. |
| suit and with the name "Riccardo", also told me you | | | | Yadayadayaday." You can be whatever skin color |
| can't trash houses unless you're a roommate or the | | | | you want to be on TSO, and either sex for that |
| home owner. But one of the house trashing victims | | | | matter. |
| had no roommates whatsoever. And she wasn't | | | | First town on The Sims map: Dan's Grove. First thing |
| motivated to trash her own house...no insurance | | | | you see when you enter there: Italian Mafia Empire. |
| money is involved. | | | | It was a little hidden, but not very. Sort of to the |
| Game players on this game can be quite friendly. I | | | | South. It's obviously their beachhead, the place they |
| made a lot of good friends doing things like making | | | | originally hit. |
| pizzas, opening up my own skills house business, | | | | Then they simply moved out from there. And they |
| doing minor gambling (legal for adults and I'm 45 | | | | can hide. When you go there, to Dan's Grove, you |
| years old) and in general partying. You can play high | | | | don't find very many Mafia. They seemingly moved |
| tech, beautiful looking musical instruments and feel | | | | out from there. Trouble is they can move right back |
| like you're there. It's a great game for cripples like | | | | there at lightning speed. That's where they trashed |
| me. I can barely move sometimes in real life, and I | | | | the two houses. Or...whatever. Yes dear, it's all |
| can really move around a lot as a beautiful, young | | | | twelve year old kids. And my name is Auntie Em. |
| looking 20 year old. Except that I can't do it anymore. | | | | Maybe I was a fool for ever playing it. I assumed it |
| I quit the game because of the extremely heavy | | | | was just a game, and someone was being silly. |
| Mafia presence that was starting to visit my house | | | | I was wrong. |
| and breathe hotly down my neck. | | | | I hope the FBI does something, but God help |
| "Riccardo" showed up. At my house. The same day | | | | anybody, I don't know what. They'd have to join the |
| Jesse's house was trashed. It was the second house | | | | game to infiltrate it and gather evidence. Gosh, that |
| trashing since I had started playing there. Obvious | | | | would be so going overboard for them. Maybe they |
| Mafia guy, obviously scouting my house. Denied | | | | could just eat donuts, drink coffee, and pretend to |
| everything completely. This was after two of my | | | | look for terrorists instead? Or maybe half-crazed |
| friends' houses had been trashed. Want to know | | | | Black people and Native Americans from the sixties? |
| anything about terrorism? Now I know what it is. A | | | | You can buy money on EBay to sell on that TSO |
| little too thoroughly for my tastes. The Mob was | | | | game, kids are on that game, and they are being |
| making it obvious that I could be next. Why is that | | | | threatened into being recruited into the I would |
| exactly? | | | | assume mostly white people Mafia...right now... |
| "Yeah, they're just a bunch of teenagers who like to | | | | ...the real one or the virtual one? |
| trash houses..." "They're not the real Mafia, they're | | | | Who knows? |
| just kids." Like the ones at Columbine? | | | | |