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