Second Life
At first glance, the world of second life was confusing and hard to imagine. I then did a quick search of youtube to give a summary and visualization on how Second Life worked.
After watching this video, the world of SL became clearer to me. The authors of the article focused only on the gender differences that were portrayed in the game. The first aspect of their study that stuck out to me was their fear when choosing characters. They were right to assume that choosing a certain gender and how it looked would potentially affect the way others interacted with them. Since SL is a role playing game, the situations that happen are based on real life situations and can be more amplified than reality. Another aspect that jumped out at me was how sexual that game is. It is true that sex sells, and the developers must have felt a need to implement such sexual features in order to reel in more users for the game.
All in all it seemed as the research team learned a lot on how well role playing games mimic reality. The interactions in the game are at many times so real. Or maybe, they are really real….
Jossshhuaa
Hello Mr. Joshua!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the video! As, always, I look on your blog after reading the readings for the week, in order to get an understanding of them because I am usually so lost! What you write always begins to clarify it for me so thank you and thank you for the video, I would have been totally lost without it!
The concept that you wrote about sex sells on Second life was interesting to me because that is a concept of real life. Gender roles are going to be even more defined since the avatars are more exaggerated on SL. Reality is that even though this is a virtual world, it is going to have many influences from our society today, including women image issues. I’m glad that there was a study based on this because awareness is the first step to change.
Hi Josshhuaa,
ReplyDeleteThe video you posted helped me a lot. I never heard of Second Life before this course and didn't know what in the world to expect. It was nice to finally have a visual, to see Second Life with and through my own eyes. Still, it's not as complete a perspective as it would be if I was a Second Life user, I doubt that's going to happen.
Sex sells and sex sells well, anyone and everyone knows this. The makers of Second Life I guess felt that this idea needed to be capitalized. Who knows if this is what made/makes Second Life that much more appealing? It couldn't have been an accident. Nonetheless, they are only using what society, we have given them. SL is based on the real world no matter how imaginary or abstract it is. SL stems from reality.
Thank you for sharing:)
ReplyDeleteHi Joshhuaa,
ReplyDeleteYou video helped me as well. I find it sad that the second life has to create gender differences that are stronger than real life since this encourage our world outside the internet and games to be as the "second life". I find it useful that people are reflecting on this issue since it might change how we create our avatars. Seeing all these naked girls that are being created will eventually affect women's self esteem. Since everyone can be their own author with some knowledge I think it is important that everyone take responsibility to be more aware of what is being posted or created online.
That video certainly cleared a few things up for me. I had once heard of second life, but I had never taken it upon my self to learn more because I simply believed that living in a virtual world seemed boring. At least that what I believed. Learning now that it exists to essentially amplify gender differences in an artificial setting is a bit off setting to me. Though I do feel that with things like this people are given the opportunity to act in ways they would otherwise be scrutinized for. Which can be both a good thing, or a bad thing…
ReplyDeleteGreat video, Josh. It really is cool how some of you guys ad further understanding stuff. What the video mentioned that the article really failed to touch on is the way companies in real life are setting up shop in 'Second Life' and peoople are spending actual real money in these virtual worlds for virtual goods and services. The Lindex Exchange System, wow, what a trip that Linden Dollars even exist, let alone actual companies like Adidas that are smart enough to harness income out of a gaming industry like this. Very cool right up, Josh, and great comments everyone!
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