Observations on Second Life

[cathawk]

I've been in Second Life for a little over a month now. I haven't had a lot of time to explore it the way I would like to. But a variety of thoughts about it have been swirling around in my mind so I'm taking a little time to put them down here.

What is Second Life?

• A 3-D virtual world. With islands, cities, zoos, parks, fantasy places and reproductions of real life (RL) places.
• A role-playing game. And also not a role-playing game: it's seems to be also a social-networking site and it's quickly becoming a platform for online learning, e-commerce, and artistic expression. Many universities are now holding classes there and companies (like Dell and IBM for example) are setting up places there. There's at least one practicing psychologist there.
• You can fly (cool) and teleport everywhere (very cool...always has been on the top of my list of things I would want to have from the world of Star Trek).
• It began as a game--and it will probably always be game. What intrigues many people about it is the ability to design your own environment (building in the simulator) like Sim City, I guess. But you also can create clothings, animals, art, etc. People who are really good at this sell what they've made to others. I bought a black cat (I know, big surprise) who walks around, meows, plays with his toy, and purrs when he comes close. That takes a lot of skill both as a builder and a scripter (animation building).
• It has an economy: as of yesterday 100 U.S. dollars would buy you 26,000 or so Lindens...U.S members get 250 Lindens free with a free account (this doesn't seem to be true for the international members though). If you get a premium membership (9.95 a month) you receive a weekly allowance of 300 dollars)


• There are ways to earn Lindens in SL. There are chairs you can sit in to earn lindens (helps to attract others to a venue if there are people around), for example, you can be a greeter at an event, a model, a reporter, a musician, an agent (booking gigs!), and of course you can build and sell things. Also, many clubs have "money sploders" programs that randomly award money to some random participant. I received $200 in Lindens at a club just being there and dancing. This, of course, is part of the strategy of attracting people to a venue.

A few of the things that I've done in SL:

• Dropped in on lots of "clubs" to dance to music by DJ's
• Listened to a myriad of live music concerts. Like much of the live music venues in RL, there are talented performers and not-so talented performers, open mike nights, etc. The live audio feeds do a great job of transmitting the music, so I've actually been able to enjoy some great live performers while my avatar hangs out, sipping coffee or champagne and watching the crowd
• Participated in a meditation, spirit guide group inside of a pyramid, sitting on colored crystals around a fountain. And I have to say I was surprised at how effective the group was--if you had told me before the experience that I would have derived some benefits from it similar to attending a meditation group in RL, I wouldn't have believed you.
• Went to the beach--and when I logged back into the beach now found that it was a nude beach. ;-) Got propositioned a lot (very nicely, though), something that doesn't happen to me much anymore, LOL.
• Rode a giant turtle over land and into the sea.
• Received a tour of the Spaceflight Museum from the director, an engineer (in RL) who I think works for NASA. The tour involved seeing reproductions of Saturn rockets, etc. But my favorite part was when we were beamed up to a space lab that orbits the earth and looked down on the earth below--truly awesome and incredibly realistic. And then were beamed over to a Mars surface simulation.
• Attended a concert sponsored by Kelly Services--they were recruiting for both RL and SL jobs.
• Attended several live concerts to support breast cancer research and donated to that cause.
• Checked out a sex club--that had a little bit of everything for everyone! This, by the way, was entirely by accident. One of my friends has a habit of dropping in on crowded places (you have a map of the world that will show you where there are people gathering) and will just teleport (tp) in. He discovered this place and IMed me to join him. I did, but I have to say, it was confusing to even try to look around while fending off all the people who were saying hi to me (one in French, no less--and I was actually able to type out a bit in French, back to him, including that I don't speak French well). I am NOT an experienced IMer, so this has been a learning experience for me (how to dialogue with several different people at once).
• Attended a live performance of the Second Life Ballet. That was pretty amazing--the cast and crew came from all over the world. To collaborate and rehearse alone required schedule coordination across many time zones. And I think there's a theatre group too that I will be checking out at some point.
• Took a balloon ride over some regions of SL
• Went swimming in a pool, down a water slide, floated around on an inner tube.
• Had a tsunami wave wash over me (tsunami exhibit at the NOAA island).
• Line dancing to live music...this was a riot to watch and also because the dialogue among participants as we danced was a riot--some great people hang out there.

Gender & Relationships in SL:

• The book on SL that I bought from Amazon (really helps with the learning curve) says that a significant portion of men go as women (but not vice versa, interestingly). I created both a female avatar and a male avatar (you can get two accounts for free) and while going as a male I got a few minutes of insight into the male world--some guy was really an asshole (demeaning) in an interaction with me--and I know that this interaction wouldn't have happened if I had been female. It was a posturing kind of thing: I'm better than you with an edge of hostility.
• If you're female you get approached more by men, and very little by women. LOL, I had forgotten what it's like to go around as an attractive young woman in some places. I quickly realized I needed to make my avatar look a little bit older (not easy to do without investing some money) and I got her a pair of glasses. And I stopped hanging out in the more "pick-up" types of places. Initially, I went to the feminist gathering place "Third Wave" just to get some relief from the pick-up scene. Eventually, I've found places where it's not much of a problem. These issues are pretty similar to RL issues for people--if you don't meet your friends at work or school, it's damn hard to find places to meet people that aren't meat markets.
• The good news about being female in SL is that it's safe--there's no threat of rape or violence. So I let total strangers into my treehouse (it attracts a lot of curious travelers) and have no fear about doing so--I've met a lot of interesting people this way.
• It's possible to get officially partnered in SL--you pay a small fee (10 Lindens I think to partner...another $25 to "divorce").
• If you're willing to reach out a bit in a crowd you can meet some interesting people. For example, I noticed that a woman at a concert had an interesting group name and started a conversation with her about it. The next thing I knew I was invited on a tour of her house, and then the Space Flight Museum

People seem to come at the experience differently:

• Most "newbies" I've met are quick to try and find out something about the person behind the avatar--who are you really? where are you from? how old are you?
• However, as I've met more established SL residents, this issue comes up less--these are people who have fleshed out their SL identities. I'm assuming that at some point they find out more about the people they interact with a lot, but they don't seem to have the questions about who I am that others do.
• Some people work hard to get their avatar to look like them. Others have fun being different-whether it's being a furry, having wings, going by a different gender, or just looking different from RL.