Responding to the question, “Does Second Life Have Way More Player Drama Than Traditional MMOs?“, longtime SLer Jumpman Lane (no stranger to drama himself) offers a first-hand compare and contrast:
I would say the chief difference between drama in SL and say drama in The Elder Scrolls Online is a matter of scale, a matter of scope. Precisely because people in ESO aren’t in a world where “nearly everything in the virtual world is created by users” they don’t stir up drama outside their own rather small cliques.
For example, take the Trial Scene. Trials are 12 man dungeons where players have to be rather accomplished players to be effective. A lot of finger pointing ensues as a result of failure. (Failure being measured by leader-board scores). Outside of the trial group, very few would be aware of the very REAL drama going on between the people within it.
Because people in ESO are shoe-horned into fitting within the world itself (made by the company developing it) they are limited in the means that they can use to “strike back” at their enemies. Even should they go outside their MMO world, to say Twitch or YouTube, the drama remains limited because the interest isn’t there. people are rigidly, PvPers or PvEers and won’t notice. As a result, their dramas are rather like tempests in a teapot (as opposed to the grid-wide drama possible in Second Life).
The fact that SL is single-sharded is another major factor for drama — whereas many or most drama in sharded MMOs will be confined to the specific shard where the drama gets dramatic. (Like Second Life, Eve Online is also single-sharded, and holy fucking fuckarollee there are whole long articles about drama in Eve.)
Anyway, Jumpman continues, ESO players were shocked when he shared with them the horror stories of SL drama:
I found the people in ESO very INNOCENT when it came to drama. I mean, I didn’t even know what people meant by “toxic” until I played ESO. Once I realized what it meant, I realized, “These fools don’t have a clue. I’m the most toxic person they’re ever likely to ever MEET.” What they considered “drama” was just another day in Second Life. You get that just logging in lol.
I had a friend in ESO who knew me in SL and she was like, “Jump! Do they know who you ARE?” I was like, “Nah, they don’t have a clue…” Now, I had friends in ESO who I played with everyday. I was in Discord with them every day. Since my @name there is Jumpman Lane there too, I tried explaining about SL and who I was there. They were SHOCKED. Now, they had their own little dramas, people they didn’t like or whatever in ESO. They couldn’t CONCEIVE of the scale of drama possible in Second Life.
In a virtual world where you can be anything you want to be, stabbing back at your enemies is only limited by your imagination. Drama tends to spiral out of control in Second life. Though, Linden Lab is very pro-active in its governance of its game. Lindens are people too and not above engaging in a bit of drama themselves. Lindens are more hands on with their virtual world, much of it they didn’t even create. They “play” their “game” (contrasted with the devs of ESO, who MAKE their game but don’t play it, and if they DO play it, they don’t play it well). Again, Lindens are more hands on.
… Having played ESO, I’ve learned that the rather ridiculous “high drama” of SL is best tempered by restraint. Because you CAN do something, doesn’t mean you SHOULD… especially in a world limited only by your imagination.
It’s an interesting point that some Lindens are themselves embroiled in SL user drama. That’s not completely a surprise, as many Lindens are recruited from the user community, and during off-hours often keep playing as their “civilian” avatar.
Is there a way to lessen the drama? Nothing’s perfect, of course, but I still think my proposal for adding a Reddit-like Karma system would work relatively well. Then again, the reader reaction to that proposal is pretty much… full of drama.
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 
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