WATCHING THE DETECTIVES. Got a philandering spouse? Property needs securing? Marked for vendetta? Online gumshoes for hire in Second Life-- rates from L$100/hour, plus expenses. Laura Skye had an inkling that her lover was unfaithful, and had gone back to tomcatting in the racier nightclubs, where the working girl avatars come with loose clothing and even looser morals. So she hired herself a private investigator, to do some snooping. "I found out he went with an escort," she tells me at my office, "and we had a big argument. And then he promised no more. But I didn't trust him." So she... [New World Notes]
This is a rather interesting idea. I play Second Life, and there have been times where I could have used an in-game private detective myself. I own a large island called Funadama, which I have been slowly selling pieces of to people who agree to abide by a fairly restrictive charter--the idea being to keep the island a pleasant place to live, and not overrun with casinos and strip clubs.
Selling land to people I don't know is risky, because there is no mechanism to enforce contracts in Second Live. The buyers have to want to abide by the charter, so I've instituted a three-month trial period so that I can keep an eye on new buyers. I've already had one sleazy "land baron" type try to con me--unsuccesfully, as it happened, but in the future I think I will be adding a background check to the process by hiring a PI.
10:44:14 AM 
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