SecondLife, a real new world: life, business and toxic immersion

Second Life: a real new world life, business and toxic immersion Daniele Montemale University of Copenhagen 16 jan 2007

Second Life (SL) is the closest thing to a parallel universe existing on the Internet
It was made publicly available in 2003 by San Francisco-based Linden-lab
SL can be accessed for free
SL is a MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online Game), “a place where thousand of users interact with one another in the guise of video game characters, on a persistent basis: many hours a day, every day, all year around.”
(Edward Castronova)
WHAT IS SECOND LIFE?

Users in SL are called “residents” and exist in SL with the use of an avatar, a graphic projection of themselves.

Naturally Second Life is not the only MMO. There are a lot. some examples:

World of Warcarft

NORRATH

EVERQUEST

All these MMO are Synthetic worlds : “an expansive, world-like, represented graphically in 3D, large-group environment made by humans, for humans, which is maintained, recorded, and rendered by a computer” (Edward Castronova)

Other synthetic worlds generally are fantasy or medieval genres, alternatively Second Life is

A muLTIUSERS SOCIALWORLD

Where the people live on islands.. this is only the center of the world (map)..

WHERE..

..You can edit your avatar, then yourself..

..or create objects!

Second Life is a synthetic world with its own currency: the Linden Dollar

The Linden$ behaves like a real monetary system and exchange rates fluctuate on a daily basis. The Linden$ can be traded with US$.

US$ 1.00 = L$ 268.00

So, is there business in SL?

A LOT!

date_14-01-07

You can buy..

Islands…with a discount for educators and acadamic insitutions (e.g. universities/school) or no-profit companies

bracelets

hoop earrings

clothes ..

Cafè furniture

buildings

On eBay, the category 1654 is for internet games where the users can buy or sell items for games..the last year there was over US$ 100 millon traded in games..

But you can buy also..

..a big penis

Yes! Because in SL you can..

..go to the university for a presentation on avatars..

..and meet a girl..

..dancing in a disco..and at least..

..have sex!

“ Ok, but it is only a game in virtual reality!”

A game? I’ m not sure.. In SL you can..

..do “real” or synthetic politics..

..watch a CBS synthetic news..

..or watch a movie..

..or a conference from the “real” world..

..and naturally, use the internet (version beta).

Do you want to play? OK..

Chess..

..or hockey?

And what about the real companies?

They are in! Some examples

adidas

IBM - last month invested US$ 100 million to develop their company in SL

Nissan. You can test drive the new Nissan Sentra

Apple opened some Apple shops

SONY-BMG opened a media island to claim their real and synthetic singers

Reteurs – the agency opened a virtual news bureau the last October

“ Ok this is not a game but it is virtual, that is not real!”

Yes it is! But it is synthetic.

Between the world and the synthetic worlds there is a barrier!

The name of this barrier is the Membrane

“ The Membrane can be considered a shield of sorts, protecting the synthetic world form the outside world. This membrane is actually quite porous…people are crossing it all the time in both directions..as a result, the valuation of things in cyberspace becomes enmeshed in the valuation of things outside cyberspace”. Castronova

Ohh..so, but how many people in the world are in these synthetic worlds?

From Synthetic worlds, Castronova, 2005

Castronova says: in 1814 everybody was on foot in 1914 they were on trains in 1940 they were in cars in 2040 they will be 100 million avatars in the synthetic worlds.

It will be more soon! - SL was created at the end of 2003. - October 18th 2006, the population of SL hit 1 million residents . -January 14th 2007, the population on SL was 2,573,932..

With this speed of growth in 9 years, there will be 100 million people in the synthetic worlds due to the popularity of SL!

But is it not dangerous?

It should be!

a Toxic immersion happens. “This occurs when people voluntarily spend all of their time in these worlds .” Castronova

A study on Norrath- 2001- Castronova

At last, my idea:

It is certain the coming of synthetic worlds.. Governments, companies and people have to work to create a good membrane between these worlds for a future co-existance.

Contacts: mail_ daniele . montemale @ gmail . com Blog_ viralavatar . com Video of my exam: http://one. revver . com / watch /144246 http://one. revver . com / watch /144259 http://one. revver . com / watch /144269

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SecondLife, a real new world: life, business and toxic immersion

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