Sex, Money, Fame & Glamour in SL
Virtual worlds fill the gaps our real lives leave behind.
Now, before everyone grabs their pitchforks and torches, do a little examining as to what baggage you’re bringing to that statement, because in truth, the statement is neutral. I don’t know anyone who has a perfect life. Even people who have “perfect” lives have moments where they wish something were easier or somehow different.
If you ask people why they maintain Second Life accounts, you will get as many different answers as the people you ask.
However, they all share that one commonality: Second Life allows us to do things that would be physically impossible, logistically difficult, and/or financially prohibitive in real life. What those things are, why they interest an individual, and why they are difficult in real life varies, but the principles remain the same.
That’s not a value judgment. It’s an observation. Put your torches down.
Several articles have come out recently talking about how in the past several years, Second Life has been actively courting corporate and other real world business concerns at the expense of the majority of residents (account holders) who are primarily there for play and entertainment, to the detriment of the user base. I can see that argument, and I don’t really think it’s largely untrue.
I think that the powers that be at Linden Lab (who own Second Life) were trying to ensure (perhaps misguidedly) that those same residents continued to have an ever-evolving place to be entertained, due to the influx of cash from big business.
Unfortunately, as Linden Labs has learned, with money from big business comes strings, and with strings come more and more restrictions as to what is acceptable and what isn’t. With an entire platform devoted to not only unlimited creativity but unlimited freedom to do as you like (again you can’t physically hurt anyone — there’s no way to permanently “die” in SL unless your account is deleted), these restrictions haven’t been met positively by the user base.
