After this week’s theme relating to Second Life, it really got me thinking about this game. Initially, I just thought it was one of those virtual worlds where people would go to create avatars and just roam around and maybe playing games or something to own points. From a different perspective, I also thought it could be a place where friends would all make avatars and communicate with each other in this online world. At least from what I read from the article, “Sex Lives in Second Life,” man was I wrong.
I never really believed that online games that consisted of avatars also had sex lives. I knew it was going on, but not on, what seems like, a fairly popular “game.” It is just so bizarre to me that people would build like lingerie stores and photo places where female avatars can take pictures, mostly nude. Another part that was very bizarre to me was the fact that once you engage in any type of sexual activity; you can’t leave until it was over. A common topic relating to these issues and happenings in Second Life was rape. On the discussion board for class, the majority of people who wrote about Second Life wrote about rape. The main concern was that if rape is illegal in the real world, what makes it legal in the virtual world. I just find it very disturbing that some people want to rape other avatars, and get away with it. For some people it could be very scary for your avatar to be sexually harassed.
This leads to my next concern of identity. I’m pretty sure that you do not have to have an avatar with the same sex as yourself. With this indication how many of the really slutty female avatars do you really think are females? Probably not a lot. In class, some survey revealed that the age range for Second Life players were fairly old when compared to the age range for people who play Facebook games. With this in mind, do you really think Second Life is full of old characters? Probably not because that would make it less fun. So in other words, is Second Life full of perverted old dudes? I guess we would really never know.
Due to my limited exposure to this game, my generalizations may be false. However, from what I've read and heard about in class, this is what I got out of what this game is all about, and it doesn’t really interest me. So I don’t think I will be partaking into this game anytime soon.
