..and talking of Shakespeare

I went to a production of 12th Night at the Globe Theatre yesterday.  What fun!  I know I struggle twirling myself round for a few seconds of machinima so I can’t imagine the problems these guys had to overcome.  I didn’t get to see it all as I had some technical difficulties of my own, and this was the last showing but bravo.. great to see Second Life being used for this type of production.

Hold the front page - Second Life in the news!

This is written in response to the media coverage of Second Life this weekend and in particular this article in the Sunday Times online.  The 300 character limit imposed on responses is really not enough

Yes, the first sentence said it;  it’s easy to make fun of things we don’t really understand.  Good to see too that we haven’t lost the ability to gather in the corner of the virtual school playground to ridicule others with the justification of cheering ourselves up.  That makes it okay, of course.

I’ve written before about how ‘real’ our interactions with people online can be so I won’t repeat myself; just to say…geez, we’re in the 21st century isn’t it about time we got over defining ‘real’ in such narrow terms.

I wonder if early adopters of the telephone were treated with equal scorn and derision.  I’m sure scare stories abounded of this new form of communication where the ‘geeks’ were able to talk to each other from the comfort of their own home.  Maybe people were appalled that people they knew spoke to invisible ‘pretend people’. Or maybe we were more open minded then and journalists properly researched their articles before attempting to draw their readers into the ‘normal’ us and ‘freaky’ them type of self comfort article.

I’m guessing the couple you ridiculed are not smokers as I’m sure this would have been included with obesity and ginger hair to form the holy trinity of acceptable demonisation embraced by the current mainstream media.  As to the criticism of everyone looking like gods and goddesses?  The irony is wailing like a banshee on Halloween!  When society, specifically the media, puts such a high status on appearance and mocks those of us who don’t comform to this image of perfection, why would we choose to replicate that in Second Life?   (Some people do, I know.. and that’s a whole other blog post

Like most articles about Second Life this one was written with the assumption that everyone has the dubious option of being able to ‘waddle down to the pub’.   I’m not even going to tackle the idea that the pub culture is the epitomy of human interaction but if you’re able-bodied try to imagine for a moment that in your ‘real life’ you’re defined by a disability before people even know you.  Imagine then, the feeling of empowerment experienced in an environment where that no longer becomes a factor, and you can also participate equally in activities that are not accessible to you in your ‘real life’ and be judged for who you are.

And yes, of course, some people may use it as a form of escape, very much in the same way that some people spend their evenings passively watching TV (do we need to drag them down to the pub too?)  Second Life is entertainment, but with an interactive, socialising, creative element.

Yesterday in Second Life - a virtual environment for over 18s, not a game - there was a huge influx of new registrations.  I’m sure most were disappointed that they were not greeted with a hot bed of writhing lust implied by recent media articles.   Of course sex exists in Second Life, it’s an adult environment and just like our lives outside of SL, for some, sex plays a part, but not the ONLY part.   Most of these newcomers will feel misled and won’t return.  Some though will stay, to experience the creativity, the excitement and fun.  Some will learn how to build or design clothes, start a business and make real money.  Some will watch a Shakespeare production or enjoy one of the dozens of live music events.  Some will join a writer’s group or learn a new language.  Some will increase awareness of their favourite charity.  Some will gain understanding of other cultures as they make friends with people all over the world.  Some will become fashionistas and start a blog.  Some will become Second Life mentors and give up their free time to help new residents negotiate this strange new world.   Don’t expect this to be reported in depth any time soon though.  It’s not news.

What is real?

I know that’s a little philosophical for first thing on a Wednesday morning, but I’ve been thinking about the use of the word real a lot lately.  To be more explicit, the ‘real’ versus the ‘virtual’.  Those thoughts were solidified by Yxes’ post about social media and this brought to my attention the almost apologetic manner in which we discuss our participation in our ‘virtual’ worlds.  Perfectly understandable given the criticism, implied and explicit, levelled against those of us who choose to spend our time at the keyboard, whether that be contributing to social network sites or exploring virtual worlds such as Second Life.  How many times have we heard words to the effect of “Why don’t you get a real life?”   So that’s my question.  What is reality exactly?

I was reminded of the superb YouTube drama The Guild, where the character of Cyd Sherman (played by Felicia Day), ‘addicted’ to a World of Warcraft type online game is accused by her therapist of being immersed in an imaginary social environment and questions her relationship with other players,

“Have you met them? Face to face?”

Cyd replies,

“I hear them…it’s good enough for the blind!”

It appears flippant yet this statement provokes the question.  Is a blind person’s experience of life regarded in any way as not being ‘real’ because she can’t see the person she’s interacting with?  Does social interaction need body language to define it as real?

In our working lives we regularly correspond, email and phone people that we will never meet face to face.  Does that somehow undermine our relationship with our colleagues?  In my experience I’ve never heard criticism of a business because they don’t supply a completely face to face working environment.  In our society, at this point in time it is perfectly acceptable and yet similarly ‘distant’ but social interactions are often not as acceptable.

I’ve heard comments about relationships with online friends that include, “… but you can’t really know them.”  Of course, that’s true.  I may not know the colour of my friend’s eyes or even their gender, but I may know about a childhood trauma that they’ve never shared with their closest ‘real life’ friends or family and I may be able to predict, with some certainty, how they will react to any given set of circumstances.  How many times have we seen the news reporter interviewing the shocked next door neighbour of the newly apprehended serial killer and she’s saying, “I can’t believe it, he seemed such a nice/kind/ordinary/good to his mother/ kind of guy”.  How well do you know your neighbour?  In truth our ‘real’ lives encompass many, many superficial relationships and yet we don’t judge them to be fake.  Just part of life’s rich tapestry.  In some ways online relationships, because they can be more anonymous, allow us to be freer and maybe it is our ‘real’ personality that is able to blossom?  Maybe our ‘real’ life is the fake one in terms of how open and what we choose to share with others?  Now there’s a thought!

Reading books, movies and watching TV.   All of these activities could be regarding as not being ‘real’ (immersing ourselves in an imaginary environment?), however they are amongst the most common activities in the developed world.  Yet these are passive activities with no interaction or creativity as can be experienced in even the most basic of online environments.  Four hours every evening sitting in front of the TV or four hours interacting with real people all over the world in an online environment - get your reality monitor out, which is the most ‘real’?

It’s my belief that the people who criticise those of us that enjoy virtual environments and relationships are inexperienced, lack imagination or both.  In years to come, this kind of discussion is likely to be laughable and none of us will feel the need to defend our involvement as the perceived crossover from real to virtual will become much more blurry for most people.  In the meantime, in everyday conversation, I’m doing my best to avoid the terms real and virtual.  There are no robots involved in my life.  Its all reality, just different flavours.

Tags: reality, second life, sl, virtual

Fashion Victims?

When I first discovered Second Life two years ago I was excited. I naively thought this was a mini Eutopia giving us the freedom to express ourselves but without the pre-concieved prejudices that exist in the ‘real world’. After all, we arrive with a noob avatar into this Second Life and to all intents and purposes we all have the same blank slate to work with, to write our new life from scratch. I had thought there would be no gender, race, religion or age issues because who knew what was behind the avatar, we are all equal in the eyes of the great god Linden. Okay, okay…I admit, I was naive.

I think during my time in Second Life I’ve discovered a very rough life cycle that occurs if you arrive into Second Life alone. First of all the first couple of weeks are totally confusing and the thought occurs to you that this is such a complete waste of time. At some point during this period I’m guessing more than 50% of people log off never to return. The ones of us that persist have a blinding revelation at some point saying…this is so COOL! and with the heady realisation that OMG I can do whatever I like. Within reason. There are so many things to discover. We are alone. No friends or family approving or disapproving of our actions and maybe, for the first time in our lives, we have no peer pressure to influence our decisions.

For many women, and in my experience especially older women, the mix of anonymity and the tangible sense of freedom that comes from not having to fear physical attack can form a potent cocktail and lead to women expressing their sexuality in provocative and what may be judged, extreme ways. So you see the ‘free sex’ areas full of newish looking avatars playing with all sorts of sex toys and experimenting with things they may never imagined in their ‘real lives’ and many noobs take jobs as dancers in clubs or become escorts just for fun and well…because we can.

Then we make friends. This often changes the way we act in Second Life as peer pressure creeps in and we concur with our friends about which forms of behaviour and appearance are acceptable. I guess it’s human nature to find comfort within groups of like minded individuals; this sometimes moves on a step and we find common enemies in order to make ourselves feel safe and and superior. This permeates all aspects of Second Life and I have to say I find it depressing that we need to drag our prejudices into a virtual world and even more disappointing when elitism and snobbery rear their ugly joint heads.

As a clothing designer I’ve experienced this first hand from the ‘anti-Barbie’ brigade. These are the residents that rail against the idea of ‘perfect’ blonde avatar, who wears revealing and/or pink clothes. It always seems rather perverse to me that with all the extremes in Second Life that this particular genre of fashion/lifestyle is singled out for attack.

The conclusion I have come to is that one of our most common ways to assert our importance in the real world - money - is not quite so relevant in Second Life; after all for a couple of dollars we can all drive round in a virtual Porsche. So style and in particular, wearable fashion has become extremely important for a section of SL society who feel the need to push themselves to the top of the virtual heap. Attacking virtual ‘barbies’ is a way of bolstering the collective self esteem with a feeling of self satisfied superiority.

Personally, I’m proud to be supplying fun and sexy clothes to the SL community. I see only good in women experimenting with their sexuality in a safe environment. The idea of attacking this or any lifestyle in Second Life could be considered even more ludicrous given that another common component of the SL life cycle is the realisation that maybe it was sometimes more fun to ‘play’ Second Life minus the peer pressure.   Along comes the secret sexy alt and the excuses - “I’ve been busy in RL” and hypocrisy is alive and well and living in a Second Life near you.

Feel Fine

This is an amazing site.  It tracks blogs where the writer has mentioned the word ‘feel’ then it grabs the feelings and pulls them together in a visual way.   I’m struggling to explain the concept but go check it out and have a play.  I feel lucky to have found it :-)  www.wefeelfine.org

Perusing Profiles

Having a surreal day today, making wedding outfits and checking what the weather’s like in the Bahamas. ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder’ is a great cliche and has never been so true.

During a typical day in SL I open up a lot of profiles, particularly these days with SL misbehaving and outfits not arriving and I find them intriguing. This unique little space we have to reveal ourselves to the world I’ve often thought must be of great interest to psychologists; here we are cloaked with anonymity and able to shoot out a quick message to the SL community. Some are empty of course, a typical alts profile will have very few groups and yawning gaps in the personal information areas. Others are empty for different reasons; hiding info from RL friends or relations, paranoid that their activities in SL will be discovered or in other cases totally cleared out after a painful relationship break up. I know Second Lifers who haven’t updated their profiles in 2 years and others that update on almost a daily basis. After conducting a seriously flawed and unrepresentive survey it appears that profile readers are mainly women, few men it would appear are bothered to read profiles on a regular basis.

Some profiles are sweet, full of inspiring thoughtfulness and love for friends. I’m often moved to drop a line to someone who’s written some profound truth that has touched me in an unexpected moment. There are others though that are full of bitterness and bad language - you know the ones I mean….mess me with and you’ll (insert empty* threat of painful method of death here - *this is Second Life after all). All well and good to be nasty, its their choice after all but the reality is that there are probably less than 1% of SL residents who would even think of ‘messing’ with them and remaining 99% of us just come away not in awe of their ‘hardness’ and clever use of the word ‘fuck’ but thinking this is someone we’d rather not have any sort of relationship with.

Some time ago I used to say if I EVER put song lyrics in my profile please kick me - hard. Well that came back to bite me in the bum and I succumbed, but I’m pleading mitigating circumstances; they’ve only been added in a loving way not the mournful angst ridden pleadings after a broken relationship. So here’s my latest, if I ever feel the need to tell the world how hot and sexy I am AND I combine that with how fucking tough and bitchy I am..feel free to dig out your Doc Martens.

Slwoes

At the time of writing the sidebar over to your left is full of downtime and database connection problems in SL. I’m not sure what’s gone on but this is becoming more and more frequent and having an effect on sales all over Second Life. Added to that I just love to get up to a fistful of IMs when people haven’t received their outfits due to some database screw up. Sigh!

Touchy feely

Boy, are we in trouble when this technology is developed a little further and hits SL!

Broken Friends

Are you sick of your friend’s list not working correctly in Second Life?  You know the sort of thing, they don’t load or worse still it tells you someone is offline when they’re on and vica versa.  Well this isn’t exactly new because i’ve been using something similar since shortly after I joined SL but this particular version is a neat little utility.  Its a HUD that sits in the corner of your screen, you tell it the names of your friends, it finds their UUID and displays their online status.  Simple and effective.  Green for online and red for off.  You don’t have to use it for just friends either, it will give you the online status of any SL resident whether they’re in your friends list or not.  Very useful.

New toy

Have I had my head buried somewhere for the last couple of months?   How did I not hear of the uber cool ipod touch?  I wasn’t sure I could justify buying yet another ipod…but when did justification ever come into buying new toys?  The real decider was that the BBC Iplayer works so beautifully with it.  After a couple of false starts the BBC have definitely got this one right…I’m addicted (only available in the UK at the moment unfortunately) and combined with the touch I’m imagining balmy summer afternoons in the garden catching up with Newsnight (ok ok Eastenders).