Well, I am going to let you in on a little secret… I am a huge fan of The Sims (although I think I’ve only be able to play once since I started school 3 years ago!). And as such I have been intrigued by the concept of Second Life, though I've never tried it. Even in the Sims I enjoyed making my characters look good and have nice things. Although in Sims I had the advantage of the cheat code to give me plenty of “Simoleons” to use as I please. With Second Life you either have to work at it or shell out your credit card info. Regardless of how users get the money, I can definitely see how the materialistic world within Second Life has developed even though there is no fundamental need for various outfits, fancy homes, etc.
Particularly, if people are not so well off in “real life” they could view this as their chance to really change things and experience stuff they'd only dreamed of. One user said she enjoyed using Second Life because it let her “do anything and be anything” she wanted and totally “abandon” her real life (Note that when listing ideal occupations Vampire and Stripper came before Teacher... Just wanted to share!).
Despite the fact that some people's interests within the game may be a little off the wall, I can see the advantages of this form of social networking. I like the use of the avatar to attempt to give the sense of a face to face meeting in the virtual world. However, I can’t help but wonder what affect this would have on people… It seems very easy to get caught up in and carried away with this escape from the real world. Would they lose touch with reality? Also, similar to what was discussed in our class debate on Wednesday, I wonder, what affect does this have on their interpersonal skills? Well I actually found an article discussing some scientific research that concluded that Second Life actually helps improve said social skills. Interesting.
Post MBA - what's changed
15 years ago
Hmmm. Social skills and vampirism. Don't go together too well except at vampirefreaks.com a facebook like site for the Goth subculture.
ReplyDeleteSims is an outlet. Second Life is an immersion. I have played MMO type games myself and I actually have sworn them off a - too addictive and they became work. Leisure time should be leisure time. I understand many will claim SL is leisure, but I contend it is another full time job that will ultimately take its toll on the real you. One must interact with SL in moderation.
I agree with you both. The way Second Life is currently set up it takes a lot of work (and sometimes money) to interact at a level that would be "fun." Also, I understand the concept of getting away and building an avatar to be someone else for a while, but what would happen if this really did go mainstream--would it be acceptable for businesses to represent themselves differently? Who would know and how would we attempt to control major scamming? This then takes me back to the first point of SL being work. I think Second Life needs to try to decide on a direction and pursue it if it wants to survive in the long-run.
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