Blog temporarily stalled
As I am extremely engaged in RL activities news from the virtuality are rare from my side. So, this blog has been frozen for the moment and may take up more pace in the future.
Will you give up control, and your social net?
Yesterday, on a space station, I met a young girl who engaged there as a “full protocol latex bondage doll.” While the latex doll theme is common among fetishists, the level of control and restriction that this young lady imposed on herself is new. She was using a special version of the Second Life client known as RR Viewer, and with the implant that she was given not only certain actions were forced upon her. What amazed me that that both IM was blocked for her as well as public chat was clipped to 20 characters. Other actions such as teleporting could be added. Admitting that this kind of role play has a fascination to it also for me, also other scenarios come to my mind as well…
One consequence of her restrictions for me was that soon I ended the communication with her. It was impossible as everything I said was clipped to 20 characters. Intelligent communication was only possible by passing notecards back and forth.
Consider this: Technically, Second Life is a chat system with an integrated 3D graphics environment. Everything we do is only — communication. What will happen to her social life in the next weeks if these restrictions are not removed? Will her friends adapt to an SMS-style communication, or simply quit talking to her? What will happen if she is contacted by IM and she does not reply because she cannot? What if she is asked out to dance and she cannot teleport? Sure, she can re-log-in at any time using the regular viewer, but that would render the whole effort useless. Hmm.
Two gentlemen, and a question of values
Today, we encountered two gentlemen who materialized on the group’s ground, fully armed, and began to insult people. We asked them kindly to leave our sim, but they wouldn’t. Finally, we trapped them and … persuaded … them to leave us direction orbit while they were shooting at us. They kept coming back a number of times until we reached our sim’s owner who banned them.
I wonder what goes on in those people’s mind, same as in those gentemen who approach me in public with the fine-tuned, almost subtle “Hey, Smilla, wanna fuck?” (note the sophisticated, advanced spelling). Most likely, they use the anonymity that Linden Labs grants all of us for letting themselves. As Second Life clearly encourages this way thinking, e.g. by giving us pre-defined last names, my question arises: Which values should form the foundation of this new, virtual society we’re currently building? And how to enforce them, if enforcement is what we want? Now, no written rules exist except for a certain common sense. While Taoists belive that this is all one needs, is it enough for the Metaverse?
Back on-line
In the last few weeks my Second Life has changed a lot. After months of keeping away from SL, I have now found my way back. I played a lot with the idea of selling my island, but I did not take one fact into account: I have friends in this virtual wonderland who care. I was just clearing my island, disassembled my house, when my neigbour came across, asking what I was doing. In the end, I put up the house again. I just couldn’t leave. And now, it’s taking up pace again. More in my next posting.
Bona nokto, ĉiu
Welcome everyone to my blog. In this spot I plan to write about everything that comes to my mind when I wander in Second Life. I may write about the people I meet, the places I visit, or just Second Life as a phenomenon. Now and then I may also touch base with the Fetish scene, by chance or when I further explore my deepest inner. I invite you to be my companion on this fascination journey into the unknown.
Smilla's Snow House 