In Conclusion

It sure has been an interesting last nearly two months working on this blog and going in and out of the Second Life universe. When I started the blog, I wasn’t sure what I was in for as I had little experience with the game beforehand. I’m glad I found some very interesting characters to talk with, many of which turned out to give me some very interesting and helpful tips regarding my avatar and how I still looked like a new player even after buying some new clothes and an animation package to make me a more fluid character.

I’m also fortunate to have felt some real emotions in the game, specifically fear, which I experienced while in the depths of NecronomVI, an incredible landscape that I was wholly unsure of from the start since it looked pretty unrealistic and fantastical. But that’s the thing about second life, it’s not supposed to be normal and if you’re just looking for that experience, you’ll be sorely disappointed. The draw of Second Life, which I explored in my blog post from yesterday, is the idea that none of these locations are fully true to life, since that would not be any fun at all.

It’s game where you are able to play any role you could ever dream up, and even though its user pool has dwindled, the aspect of role-playing runs rampant. As Lisa Nakamura states in "Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet,” “role playing is a feature of the…[game] and it would be absurd to ask that everyone who plays within it… [have the same] "rl"[a.k.a. real life] gender, race, or condition of life…[This] diversification of the roles which get played…enable a thought provoking detachment of race from the body.” By playing whatever race or type of character you choose, you have the ability to play and re-play the game to infinity. However, while many people in the game know how to reconcile characters who are white, black, kings or queens, when it comes to things like vampires, aliens and fairies anyone in the game can choose to approach that character with a different mindset. Nakamura also states that “performing alternative versions of self and race jams the ideology-machine, and facilitates a desirable opening up of what Judith Butler calls ‘the difficult future terrain of community’ in cyberspace.” However, it is this unknown area that I found to be the most beautiful aspect of the game. When I passed a creature that I had no idea what it was, I had no problem approaching it and realizing how it would like to be treated through a virtual face-to-face interaction. Both Second Life and the virtual world in general are great examples to illustrate how the realms of online pleasure are changing. While the conventional forms of online pleasure can still be accessed, it is these new interactions that can only truly take place in an area where the real body is fully detached that can wholly open up the conversation and illustrate how a new and more literal type of fantasy and escapism are becoming integral parts of pleasure, while reifying the notions of these ideas into the past.

Sources:

Nakamura, Lisa. "Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on

the Internet." University of California, Irvine Department of Humanities. Web. 11 May 2011.

Normaling

After I watched Taboo, I was struck with the idea of, if people love to play out fantasies in Second Life, is anyone trying to do the opposite and just be normal like in the episode of 30 Rock titled “The Tuxedo Begins?” The idea of being normal, otherwise known as “normaling,” to the gender-bending and kink-loving Jenna and Paul is a concept that encompasses the idea of using normal roles as a tactic to add another level to their kink and it made me realize that I haven’t really seen a group of people who were just normal, instead, they were usually the outliers who stood on the sidelines of a group of people. I decided to go into the Second Life universe and see if I could find a large group of people who were just normal. After doing multiple searches in the destinations toolbar, I came up short. In fact, the moment I logged on and arrived at the area where I logged off from yesterday, this small avatar was shouting and harassing other users, saying that she enjoys eating dead babies and other things that are too uncouth to say. 

Trolling for Responses

When I chatted to the group that she was disgusting, one user just advised me to ignore and don’t engage such an obvious troll. When compared to the beautiful beach setting the avatars should have stood out like a sore thumb in their Goth or futuristic or pixie dress, but in fact it was the normal setting which seemed weird. Maybe it was because users in Second Life that are looking for a normal life online could easily just shut down their computers and find one in their real lives. As Rupert Neate stated in his article for The Daily Telegraph called “Second Life’s Span is Virtually Over as Firms Decide to Get Real,” the worlds within the game are “still beloved by [freaks,] geeks and the socially awkward…it has been ‘virtually abandoned’ by ‘normal’ people and businesses,” a fact which is illustrated by a 4% rate of those with an account vs. those who log on in a week. Even the majority of the avatars who are in the safe welcome centers are mostly dressed in untraditional wear and it seems like everyone is a wannabe vampire.

I guess that I should have assumed that I wouldn’t be able to really find anyone who was seeking to be normal since everyone I have encountered so far has made a point to negatively comment on my outfit, a pretty normal outfit for a 22-year-old guy, but not for one in Second Life. I went to one of the spaces for new players called “London City Regent’s Park and SoHo” looking to find avatars like me, but unfortunately I couldn’t since most of the people were dressed like princesses, witches or exotic otherworldly beings; however, I did notice something very interesting here. 

Other Than The People

While the place was made to look very realistic, that was where the realism ended. There was just too much going on for it ever to feel real, and when I went into one shop there was a British radio station playing, but when I went out into the main park, there was American country music playing, something I would not ever expect in real Britain. I wasn’t sure how to reconcile this dichotomy, but it only solidified by assumptions that whoever designs these worlds aren’t attempting to make them extremely true to life, but are more interested in creating fun and interesting fantasy aspects.

Works Cited:

Neate, Rupert. "Second Life’s Span Is Virtually Over as Firms Decide to Get Real." The Daily Telegraph [London] 30 Mar. 2009. Print.

"The Tuxedo Begins." 30 Rock. NBC. 16 Feb. 2012. Television.

Taboo; or The Thin Lines Between the Virtual and the Real

As per someone’s recommendation during my précis presentation, I went ahead and watched the “Fantasy Lives” episode of National Geographic’s show Taboo. I wasn’t sure what to expect from it, as a show with the aim to expose other’s taboo habits is confronting the viewer with a specific angle; however, I went ahead with my mind open in regards to the validity of the show to find myself both appalled and entertained.

The show’s segment on Second Life involved the story of a man from Tampa, FL named Kevin Alderman who was addicted to Second Life and played it for many hours every day. To him, he described the show as just a “fantasy…a creative outlet.” Much like the man I encountered yesterday, Kevin is fully aware that he is just playing a game, but he enjoys it because there are “no rules, [and] no consequences” in the game. He also recognizes that he has a life that demands his attention as well, since he has a real wife and children. The show portrays as a good, regular dad who is a family oriented conservative; however, Kevin’s draw to the game is that he can be whatever he wants to be in the game, and he has chosen for his alter ego to be Stroker Serpentine, a self-deemed “sex god” where Kevin is able to “be sexy, [and]…salacious and do things that in real life would be frowned upon” since “nothing is taboo in Second Life” since it is a blank canvas which can be filled “with the paint of your choice that excites, compels and motivates you.” Much like my experience with the Second Lifers who are more into exploring the taboo and unrealistic aspects of the universe, Kevin proves that when you enter the universe of the game, you are merely a proxy version of the self, one that can be free from judgment and shame in real life, making one free to do whatever he wants. Kevin finds that his extension, is “more boisterous” than he would ever be, but he doesn’t really care, a similar attitude to the obese Goth I ran into yesterday, as both appear to be using their avatars to be exploring much more of who they are or could be if they were free from the confines of other people’s judgment and shame.

Kevin is so wrapped up in the world of Second Life and often spends many hours out of the day away from his wife and children to spend time with his virtual wife and daughters. These virtual people are not just the online representations or proxies of Kevin’s real life wife and children, but entirely different people. Also, this is not a traditional relationship since Kevin alter ego has online sex with not only his wife, but also his daughters. However, Kevin sees no problem in this as he reassures himself, his wife (who has no problem with it) and the viewer that this is just a fantasy world and that none of this is real, but then he also adds that he cares for them and that he can find himself feeling real emotions like love for his virtual family, fear (which is an emotion I experienced while in the depths of NecronomVI,) and also that of violation (which was a topic explored in Julian Dibbell’s “A Rape in Cyberspace.”)

While all of these avatars are made and operated by adults who have to agree to the terms and conditions of Second Life (but actually does anyone read those though?) Kevin states that everyone is consenting. However, as Michael Bugeja states in his article “Avatar Rape in Second Life” that 40% of complaints on community incident reports “concerned ‘indecency: broadly offensive content or conduct’;…sexual harassment; and…intolerance,” which goes to prove that “harassment and assault are frequent infractions in virtual environs.” Taboo interviewed Princeton professor Peter Singer who stated that “you can…break these taboos…[without] harming anyone,” but statistics like Bugeja’s show that we need to fully understand how moral codes work in the world of virtual pleasure. Do ours carry over to theirs, or do we need to come up with a fully new set for the virtual world?

The program also interviewed Dr. David Morgan who stated that users can easily become addicted to Second Life and living in and exploring all of these different worlds and because “fantasy worlds have not been that available before.” The newness of Second Life makes it easy for vulnerable people to fall into traps because they are unsure of the extent of what they are willing to/can do with their alter egos in Second Life. It’s a doubly dangerous world since they can also get addicted because their real world might never, ever be able to compare to it.

However, while it does take a certain amount of skill to be able to spend the right amount of time in both worlds some people can do it. Kevin has made millions of dollars creating purchasable animation packages and sex-related furniture that he sells to other avatars in the game to make their sex lives more realistic and exciting. So to a few people with great time management skills, investing time and money into Second Life is more than just a hobby, it’s a way of life. However, while that is the case for Kevin and both his virtual and real family, through my travels in Second Life, I have seen many people who have difficulty between reconciling Second Life with the reality, as evidenced by people truly believing they are vampires and can harm me in real life, which I thought was simply ridiculous. The show stated that “by inhabiting a fantasy world, some feel more able to cope in the real one,” which may be true, but I also think that quote can easily explain why so many people are addicted to the escapist qualities of the virtual world and shirk their real world responsibilities. Maybe they should seek a psychologist instead.


Works Cited: 
Bugeja, Michael. "Avatar Rape." Insidehighered.com. 25 Feb. 2012. Web. 12 May 2012.
"Fantasy Lives." Taboo. National Geographic Channel. Television.

Is This Real Life?

After spending a lot of time traveling through different virtual and in-depth worlds in Second Life I’ve been wondering less about the avatars and the locations of virtual pleasure and escape, but of the actual people behind the computers and how much actual pleasure they’re getting out of the game. I decided to see if anyone was willing to reveal a portion of his or her real selves to me, a concept that I approached with some trepidation. Breaking the façade of the virtual is a risky process, as most people I’ve come across seem to play the game only in order to live out a fantasy or try something new and out of the ordinary – but it was worth a try.

I went back to Hapuna Beach since a lot of interesting avatars hung around there and tried to talk to a few people about their habits or reasons for choice of dress and most of them just responded that they thought it looked cool, but no one really was willing to commit to tell me something about their real personae. That was understandable, as I would not want to tell anyone that I was trying to talk to that I was a student doing a project on second life and pleasure, since that would ruin the illusion of leaving your real self at the door to fully explore the personality of the persona that you created.

I was about to give up on Hapuna Beach but then I saw this avatar who was morbidly obese, dressed in Goth wear and was talking to, or at least attempting to talk to, two women. They were blatantly ignoring him and he was resorting to running into them and trying to get their attention in other manners that were slightly more obscene. I went up to them and asked if he was bothering them, and one dressed in pink responded that he was and that he was “disgusting.” The man then asked me “Why do you care?” and I sort of played the part that I cared about modesty, decency and respect and he responded by informing me that “this is just a game, what does it matter what I do.” 

Only a Game?

Interestingly, this is the first person that used the idea of it being a game to totally protect any real world implications from lewd behavior. As Julian Dibbel stated in his “A rape in Cyberspace” article in the Village Voice, “the[re is an] ease with which very knotty metaphysical conundrums come undone in VR.” By fully separating the concept of who you are in real life with who you create yourself to be, a sort of freedom is achieved; however, this raises the question of can/should people be responsible for doing things online that would be frowned upon if they did it in real life? What if they realized that it was wrong and admitted to just doing it for fun, in a game, like this obese stranger did? Does anyone play this game in a way that is close to his or her life? These are just some of the questions I will attempt to answer in my next post.

Work Cited:

Dibbell, Julian. "A Rape in Cyberspace: How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database Into a Society." The Village Voice [New York] 23 Dec. 2003. Print.

The Truth is Out There Part 2

After I had explored the outside of Necronom VI and experienced being thrown into a fully immersive space/science fiction world, I was ready to explore the inside of the structure to which I teleported. I flew back inside and went down one of the tunnels and came across a note-board where I read this notecard.

To say I was intrigued would be an understatement. I was greeted with knowing that if I were to take a step further, I would be going into the generator of this expansive space station that has “fallen victim to the creature” that has take over it having been “brought aboard by traders over time.” People have also fallen victim to the influence of this creature infecting the ship as they “can be observed to slowly drift away, while they change into something different…by an extraterrestrial parasitic life form.” I not only began to fear for the livelihood of those that I met before, but also of my own.

What Was Taking Over?

Let’s take a step back for a second. See how into this I’m getting? The virtual representation of my exploration of a space station that I now know is infected by an alien parasite is just that – a representation. My conscious mind knows that none of this is real, but I’m still frightened as to what my virtual self, which I have worked hard to create and integrate into these societies, will have to face.  The feeling was one of unease, like my safety was potentially at risk.

As I was walking through these tunnels I felt like I was in the movie alien, every last detail was definitely put together to give this area an air of the spooky. There were plants growing next to catwalks and vines wrapping around railings. I even came across an egg that was just in the middle of a passageway.

Once I entered the main engine chamber I saw plants growing everywhere, definitely this alien parasite had taken over (well, more like had been designed to look like it had taken over) this area. This was obviously an area designed for intergalactic role-play since I saw some people having private conversations in corners and decided to leave them alone. 

In the Belly of the Beast

I took a few ladders up to the upper catwalks and passageways and I came across a room connected to the big space ship that I had seen earlier. I was very happy to see that I could, in fact, enter the ship. Once I did, the inside was disappointing since I couldn’t exactly drive the ship anywhere, but it did have a cargo hold and a pilot’s seat that I sat in for a little while, which at least gave the experience of driving since the outside was animated.

The Illusion/Animation of Hyperspeed Flight

After exploring for a little while longer, I figured that I had seen what was to be seen here but I was very grateful that I had experienced the eerie sense that I was not completely safe here and could be attacked by anything at any moment, even though I was safe in my room at school. Never before in Second Life has my real self been as attached to the safety and well being of my virtual self, but I now understand how many people who play this game can believe that their avatars are not just virtual representations of the real self, but virtual extensions.

The Truth Is Out There Part 1

Wow, well did I just come to find one of the most intricate and extraordinary places in Second Life on my journey through the virtual realm today. I wanted to go from my futuristic cityscape that I so enjoyed last visit to something a little more sci-fi and completely out there. What better way to find that than outer space? I did a search for Mars, Aliens and Robots and one place came up that seemed to be pretty popular – Necronom VI. It was rated Mature, but that didn’t scare me off, maybe I’d have an interesting story or two to bring back to the blog.

Looks Like I Took the Red Pill

The moment I teleported there I was impressed with the design and they layout of the introductory space. There was a rain of green text, so very The Matrix like and as I explored the intro area I bumped into two people. Both of them told me that it was their first times there, and one even explored with me for a little while. I complimented the other on his outfit, which looked like a martial arts instructor from the year 3000, and he said that it was a free outfit from this market and was nice enough to even give me a landmark tool that I could use to teleport to it in case I wanted to pick it up as well. I said that I wanted to find something edgier and he replied that I’d definitely find something more edgy than the intro clothes that I had on.

After I was finished talking to these few people in the introductory area, I decided to find my way outside and explore the exterior of the building before I went into the multilevel structure that I could tell would hold many secrets. I was disappointed the first time that I left the building since there was nothing that I could see. But after I went back inside, I decided that I should fly around the top since my travels so far in second life have proven that only the true explores go far in this world and I’m so glad I did.

Apparent Space Sphere and Spaceship

Once I flew up I was greeted with a space ship that I unfortunately could find no way to enter. However, right next to it was a sphere depicting outer space that really solidified how well designed this place is. 

The beauty of designing and being a player in a futuristic and sci-fi themed place is that there is nothing else to compare it to, so whatever you’re experiencing you’re also taking in with an open mind and not comparing it to the real New York or the real London. Once I entered this sphere, it looked like I was thrown into the true middle of the universe. There were stars moving all around me and I couldn’t see the boundary. It was like I was transported to a completely different world and I was incredibly impressed with this entire realm. All of this made me even more eager to explore the inside – a journey I could never have imagined.

Boundless Space

To Be Continued…

Welcome to the Future

As I was logging on to Second Life today I decided that I wanted to go take a trip into the future – or whatever type of future those who design these second life worlds believe the future to be. While doing a search to find future lands, I didn’t see many good options. Most were marketplaces to buy futuristic or fantasy sci-fi themed clothes and hair. There were two places that were more destinations to explore and see what the future would be like, so I decided to go to the one that was more popular in hopes to talk to some interesting people who might have something interesting to say about these worlds. I decided to go to a place aptly named, “Future City.” When I arrived I was met with the tagline, “Future City – Together building a promising future” – a message which had classic sci-fi future state written all over it.

As I walked around the city to see what there was to do, it looked like a very fully imagined and well-done vision of the future. There were cars and what could be a road or a race-track, a mall to buy hair and clothes, an area to purchase real estate in the city, an ocean, something that I could only describe as a sky-island hovering over a dance floor called “Elektronic Club,” and an open space where different avatars just were hanging out and talking. 

Sunset Behind Sky Island

While there was nothing too strange about this universe to make it futuristic like aliens or robots, there were a lot of neon and bright colors, electronic patterns and edgy stiles that made me imagine a world that is not too far from our own today.

The Creator

I ended up finding someone who was hanging out near the center of the open area space and started talking to him. His name was Shab and it turned out that he was the creator of this entire area. He told me that it has been open and active for almost a year, and that he has been running and perfecting it since. Once I told him that I was interested in getting a glimpse into the future, he told me about all of the things that he has tried to do to make this a good representation of his vision for what the future will look like. 

Hovering Above the Dancefloor

He said that there are a lot of people who come to this city looking for the same things, and that when he talks to them, they usually compliment its “very fantastic design.” He had an air of overconfidence maybe, but he was very proud of his design, and having spent over two months and a lot of Second Life money on it, I think he has all the right to be proud of his creation that is so popular among Second Lifers.

While those visiting this area might not be identity tourists in the way that they are manipulating the vision of who they are in an explicit manner, as I did not see many people pretending to be from the future, there is a big aspect of tourism in this land. By being involved in something which you have little to no conception of what it is really like, one has to try to blend in while they are visiting Shab’s vision of the future, for it would be no fun if they stuck out like a sore thumb. Like Nakamura states about the virtual realm she visited, much like Second Life, it “represents a…phantasmatic imperial space…which supplies a stage upon which the ‘grand dream of a successful quest’ can be enacted.”

Sources:

Nakamura, Lisa. "Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on

the Internet." University of California, Irvine Department of Humanities. Web. 11 May 2011.