Comments | kestrell: Accessibility and democracy in Second Life

kestrell

Accessibility and democracy in Second Life

Apr 17, 2007 12:12

Kes: Note how the article on accessibility in Second Life unpacks assumptions about who is playing MMOs and thereby adding some more questions to the connection between online personae and identity, particularly in relation to feeling included within or excluded from communities. These questions are becoming more important as other sorts of social ( Read more... )

participatory culture, virtual worlds, accessibility-second life, cory doctorow

Comments 5

cvirtue April 17 2007, 16:23:12 UTC

Interesting -- thanks for posting.

One minor quibble with the quoted article: there aren't really facial expressions in Second Life. One's avatar can be made to have a facial expression, but it's very awkward, so mostly the avatars cycle through stances and facial expression with no basis in what is being said/expressed.

steepholm April 17 2007, 17:01:33 UTC

I was interested in what you said about the age-profile of Second Life users. I can't use Second Life myself, because its memory requirements make my computer come over all weak and wobbly, but I tried to join IMVU, and I couldn't help noticing how difficult it is to make one's avatar appear anything outside the range 18-30. With no children and no grey hairs it looks like a gated community for the beautiful people - even besides other accessibility issues.

This may not be true for Second Life, though I'd be interested to know.

cvirtue April 17 2007, 18:34:52 UTC

You can choose to have grey hair, wrinkles, be fat, and other non-beautiful-people features if you so wish, in Second Life.

Someone who wanted to get around in a wheelchair or on crutches could likewise make those things. I sometimes wear my own adaptive technology in Second Life, even though in SL, I don't need it! (That being glasses; I'm 20/400+ without.)

kestrell April 17 2007, 18:35:34 UTC

cabell and I touched upon a related subject recently when she wrote this post ( ... )

steepholm April 17 2007, 21:41:55 UTC

It is possible to create gimpy-looking bodies in SL. Amanda Baggs writes about her desire for non-normative avatar in her Ballastexistenz blog. The first version looks most like her RL self: fat, bald, White, seated woman. A second version was a pearshaped Tom Bombadil, down to the yellow boots. The latest version is a fat cat vrooming around in a kitty wheelchair.

Jesse the K