Adventures on the Web's Most Depraved and Deviant Site

by Warren Riddle on August 13, 2009 at 07:00 AM

Obi-Wan Kenobi, geek prophet of the highest esteem, once said, "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy [than in the Mos Eisley spaceport]." Well, he obviously never tainted his computer -- or corrupted his sensibilities -- by visiting 4chan.org. A haven for hackers (like the one who gained access to Sarah Palin's e-mail account), perverts (exemplified by the group who flooded YouTube with porn), miscreants, and various other degenerates, the site breeds Net deviance (like the RickRoll epidemic).

AT&T recently blocked access to 4chan (allegedly to protect servers from "denial of service" attacks), resulting in "Project AT&T," a 4-chan-designed campaign for exacting revenge on the corporate behemoth. AT&T eventually moved 4chan to a new IP address, effectively creating a detente between Ma Bell and the Web guerrillas.

Inspired by the standoff, The New School University professor and author Douglas Rushkoff decided to spend three weeks in the 4chan morass of sin in order to investigate its primitive rituals and practices. He equated his experience trolling the site to "walking through a bad neighborhood -- one where if you break some custom you're unaware of, you could get hurt."

Some Web crawlers may assert that 4chan remains one of the last true bastions of freedom (or anarchy) on the Web, so if you're intrigued by the site (but don't want to stumble across child pornography like Rushkoff did), just read his blog detailing his adventures in cyber-squalor. A few tips if you decide to look: DO NOT visit the site at work, make sure your anti-virus software is up to date, draw the blinds, and be prepared to take a scalding shower afterward with bleach. [From: The Daily Beast]

http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,entry&id=505882&pid=505881&uts=1250112216

http://cdn.channel.aol.com/cs_feed_v1_6/csfeedwrapper.swf

Are These Games Too Sexy?

While recent game titles have attracted media attention for nudity and sexual situations, risque role-playing games have existed since PC gaming first began. Early games, such as 'Sex Games' for the Commodore 64, demanded specific commands, such as "remove pants," and required specific sequential actions to achieve one's nefarious goals. Currently, a plethora of games with bawdy scenes have invaded, or graced, the gaming world and vary in degrees of lewdness. Here are a few significant titles with prevalent or graphic bawdiness:

'God of War I & II:'
Press the right buttons, and gently twirl the thumbstick, to see the climax of mini-games in both God of War I and II for PS2 and PSP

'Grand Theft Auto III (consoles)'
The infamous "don't come a knockin'" prostitute scenes created a stir when GTA 3 was originally released for PS2.

'Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude; Box Office or Bust' (for consoles):
These most recent incarnations continue to follow the exploits of love lorn Larry in versions for both PC and next gen consoles

'Leisure Suit Larry 3: Passionate in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals' (for PC)
Released in 1989 for PCs, this third installment of the groundbreaking franchise of risque role playing preceded GTA 4 by 20 years when the title character shows the full Larry in an infamous shower scene

'Mass Effect:'
The backlash from FoxNews greatly exaggerated the tame innuendo and implied relations between the two sapphic lovers in Xbox's Mass Effect.

'Playboy: The Mansion' (consoles):
Disappointingly demure, perhaps the highlight of this sojourn to the mansion is playing photographer in this release for PC, PS2 and Xbox

'Rapelay:'
Amazon removed listings for this disturbing, yet readily available in Japan, DVD-ROM in which the main character stalks and, to put it mildly, torments young girls.

'The Sims;' nude patch:
Denisons of young gamers were disappointed when learning that unblurred nudity in this game for PCs, consoles, and handhelds required downloading a censor patch

'Soul Calibur' (consoles):
The character Taki from the Soul Calibur franchise continues to titillate thousands of pubescent gamers in versions for every console.

Next >> 'The Web's Most Controversial Sites'

Tags: 4chan, 4chan.org, ATT, douglas rushkoff, DouglasRushkoff, hack, top

Comments

SteveAug 13th 2009 3:41PM

Neutral

The thing about Anarchy is that both good and bad things spring from it. People are going to point fingers at anything that's bad even if it does some good. Anarchy creates both the good and the bad, a true balance, thats why its so aluring.

Steer clear of /b/, /rs/, /r/, and a couple others and you'll be fine. I've found countless wallpapers that are amazing from /wg/. However it is funny to watch /b/rothers put some stupid attention craving person in their place on youtube.

Long live 4chan and you should police yourself, not have your rights restricted by your ISP.

Dislike

Report

Add your comments

Your comments:

Remember me

E-Mail me when someone replies to this comment

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.