When does SecondLife cease being a game?
Friday, 29 February 2008
For many people Second Life offers the absolute best form of escapism that money and laws allow. Second Life is a place you can be exactly who you want to be, and do what you want to do. Without being constrained by all the stereotypes society forces on us. Within the hallowed walls of Second Life, you can be anything from a married housewife to a private dancer or even a top earning business man or woman. Male; female, human; animal, adult or child: really the choice is entirely yours.
However, when does Second Life cease to be a game?
For many people, that line is clouded by massive grey areas, where no-one actually knows. With real life media organisations adding to the frenzy, hyping that your Second Life experience is filled with sex craved lunatics waiting to murder their latest victim it would be no surprise that more people need to take a step back and examine when enough is enough.
Many people play Second Life to escape the constraints they face in real life. However, voice introduced a whole new dimension to the game play; you are a real life person talking as your avatar, combine that with real life companies flurrying in their masses to be part of Second Life, the edges become fuzzy. Stir in people forming relationships, moving across states and even countries to begin real life relationships you have a hot pot, seconds away from boiling out of control.
When you sign up for your virtual representation I would assume very few actually gave any forethought as to what will happen to you. Organising events in real life round your Second Life commitments and even falling in love are just some of the surprises that can be in store. I know when I signed up for Trinity Dechou I never gave any thought for the friendships and relationships I would build in world. The friends you make in Second Life are quite often as ‘real’ as any real life friends. How does the death of a friend affect you? You may not know that person in real life, you may not even know where they live or their name, but does that mean your friendship and your feelings should be lessened? Personally I feel a second life avatar is often an extension of a real life person. I may not look like Trinity but she is me through and through.
For many people, Second Life may start as a game but very quickly becomes much more. When millions of dollars are spent, hearts and feelings are broken or hurt; the concept of this being a simple game fades away.
While thinking about this subject I asked some of my friends: When does SecondLife cease being a game? From 6 people I got very different replies here they are:
“I think when real money gets involved”
“I think when you develop friendships”
“SL is a game? I "play" SL as an escape from reality but I don't think of it as a game. There’s no way to "win" SL.... no scoring points or defeating adversaries or however you wanna think of it.”
“I think sl is always a game of sorts because there's no face to face, I guess it moves away from that when you really meet...i mean people know there are real people behind the avatars, but still they don't treat people or act themselves exactly like they would rl, in general...i mean some ppl may be exactly to the dot what they say portray themselves to be on SL, but the majority come here to be something they cant be or find something they don’t have rl....so its always a game..”
“I assume you mean, when it stops being a game of fun. personally, I never treated it as a "Game" since I started here. To me, it's an "extension" to my RL. I have friends here, a business and career, an income. I have fun, romance and relationships. To me, it's a bad day when I do treat SL as a "Game" and stop being who I am here online, when I no longer care about things, or people online. I think it stops being a "Game" when you take SL too seriously. When your RL begins to suffer and you start losing your identity between RL and SL. When things in SL affect you so much (such as lost friends, lost loves, arguments and fights) that it affects your real self. When you have kinda crossed the line of virtual and real life, I think it's time to step back and re-evaluate things within your life and see how it's affecting your health and mental being. :)”
Personally I would suggest that there is a line between RL and SL: a very thin gray one. In an environment where you can build friendships, explore loves and build your dream house surely that gray line is only recognisable by logic. Logic suggests that when something is too good to be true it quite often is. The only downfall however, in my logic, is that for many people, logic itself can be on the other side of the gray line and just out of reach.
Very well put. The consequences of signing up can't be fathomed by anyone. In fact one could argue that the sign-up process should go along with warning signs similar to the ones one cigarette packs. "Warning - Second Life may endanger your marriage". "Warning - Second Life my take up a serious amount of your ressources". Or even "Warning - You can get scammed in here as much as out there".
When I signed up I was hopelessly naive. I would have used my real name if I could have, and even so I was rather univentive. I initially came from a business angle, but what made me stay were the people. I did not intend to find romance, but am happy that after romance played her most cruel card three times on my I was gifted to found a wonderful partner. She's as real for me as my RL partner. This factual bigamy is something people who only scraped at the surface of SL will never understand. But neither for me nor for my partner it's a conflict.
Being employed in RL I never intended to start a company in SL. And while in my country becoming an entrepreneur is ridiculously complicated, the easiness in SL simply made me try it - and very successfully too.
So on the scale between "player" and "lifer", between "immersionist" and "augmentist", I am pretty much an immersive lifer, taking the "second" in SL very literally.
On a cognitive level I know it's a game. But when I log in to SL, I pretty much LIVE there. I am sane enough to draw the thin grey line, and sane enough to know on which side of the line my blood flows and which side needs food and air. But on the same side, SL is not only escape but also therapy for certain issues. I would not want to miss it anymore.
