Second Life Herald

Does Autism Speak in SL?

Metaverse is a battleground for Autism Speaks and Autism Speaks Doesn’t Speak For Me groups

by Violet McGinnis

There are two sides to every coin. Granted, you won’t often find the tails side of a coin loudly denouncing the actions of the head side; that’s where the analogy rings untrue, especially in the case of the heated battle between one national organization and it’s greatest detractor in Second Life.

Autism Speaks is an organization that supports research into the causes and treatments of autism, as well as finding a cure for autism. They’ve merged several autism organizations from all over the country and are heading up several projects. Some such projects are the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange, a DNA repository and family registry of genetic information, as well as the Autism Tissue Program, a network of researchers that studies brain tissue donated for autistic research.

Autism Speaks Doesn’t Speak For Me is an organization that believes that autism is not negative and not necessarily a disability. They state:

We know that autism is not a disease, and we oppose any attempts to "cure" someone of an autism spectrum condition, or any attempts to make them 'normal' against their will.

The autism spectrum they refer to ranges from high-functioning autistics (such as those with Asperger’s) to the lowest-functioning types at the other end.

Op/Ed: So Long - Thanks For All The Fish

by Ms. Penance Sautereau

So here it is, my last article. It's due today, and I still can't really think of a particular subject to cover. I've been sitting here staring at the edit page for an hour now I think. A few ideas have popped into my head, but most I dismissed.

I pondered writing about the good things Prok has done on SL as a follow-up on my last article. I decided against it. My little Anti-Fan Club here would just accuse me of pretending to care about her sanity to serve my own interests. (Though I really can't imagine what self-interest I serve by trying to help someone so universally loathed on the Herald.)

I considered maybe writing a third Religion in SL article. I never did get to finish my series. But the research was draining and I can't be bothered to write one knowing  the Herald loudmouths will just dissect it as an attempt to ignite debate. The point of that series was to try and showcase spiritual diversity and foster more tolerance. It was a point no one seemed to get, so it isn't worth a third attempt.

I thought of just asking Pixeleen to post that last fluffy "How-To" piece I submitted in November as my last article. But it'd be frilly and pointless, and I feel like I owe the whole whopping 4 people who like my stuff better than a canned fluff piece as a goodbye.

So I sat here. I pondered. I looked over my past submissions and read the reactions to them. I self-analyzed how I reacted to trolls, evolving from the angry bawing they wanted to just mocking how sad they are. I smiled at the 15% of comments that were nice, appreciative, and supportive. I laughed seeing old comments from people like Candy Lemmon telling outright obsessive lies about non-existent in-world harassment supposedly happening well after she was muted and forgotten. I grumbled at the Effite Diction robot's obsession with trying to fix my writing and ignoring the point of what I'd written. I smiled sadly reading comments from Artemis and D3adlyCod3c, wondering how different things might be if not for initial misunderstandings (Artemis) or if cooler heads had prevailed much sooner (Cod3c).

Why Griefing = Drama: Broken Immersion

A virtual “world” creates an environment where griefers can do the most damage

by Mudkips Acronym

[I recently invited the founder and retired leader of the notorious PN invasion/griefing group to write an expanded version of his recent thesis on the serious business of griefing. Here is his response - the Editrix]

“Griefing” takes many forms in Second Life, but the results are the same. There are dozens if not hundreds of “anti-griefing” groups, all devoted to filing abuse reports, I guess. Why does griefing and trolling ignite so much drama and controversy in online communities? And why do griefing actions get an amused or positive response from people not in those communites? The answer is simple: griefing exacts the toll that it does on Second Life for example, because it breaks the immersive experience users have - or attempt to have - in “virtual worlds”.

There are a few different types of immersion we should differentiate before proceeding. First off, a movie, game, or other “alternate-reality” has a set maximum immersion. For example, an action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger may be expected to have less immersion than a drama or romance film. We expect Arnold to be able to fly over tractor-trailers on a motorcycle, and we do not question this when it happens, even though the scene violates all we know about physics - and common sense! We can't get too caught up in this concept: of course, we can be “immersed” in this movie while still maintaining a suspension of disbelief. However, it takes much more work to immerse yourself in a medium where often events are surreal: I call this phenomenon absurdity. A film that is in a normally “serious” genre often has high maximum immersion, so if it does not deliver on its implicit claims to reject absurdity, the viewer will find the film laughably horrible. This is one of the reasons parody series, like Austin Powers and Scary Movie, tend to do well in theaters alongside the very movies they mock.

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Second Life has unwittingly set itself up for disruption

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How does this relate to Second Life? As a self-proclaimed and marketed “metaverse”, Second Life raises the bar on its claim to immersion. Expectations are high of an experience that parallels real life. With banks, land ownership, and many other institutions that exist in “meatspace”, Second Life succeeds in delivering on many of its goals. However, by attempting to parallel real-life and create a immersive experience, Second Life has unwittingly set itself up for disruption. As immersion increases, toleration of absurdity or surrealism proportionally decreases. Even more damning is that in games, users are much more disillusioned when confronted with the absurd, because they have put their own time and energy into constructing the medium. In movies, one is not an active participant, and therefore has much less to lose from the surreal.

Mony Mayfly: A Story of Addiction

by Sigmund Leominster

This night I learned a bitter-sweet lesson. I learned that five hugs equal one kiss. And one kiss equals goodbye. But this is not a story about me. It’s a story about an addict and, to some extent, about every one of you reading. You’ll recognize aspects of yourself in this narrative and if you’re lucky, you’ll avoid some pain and suffering.

I didn’t use the word addict. My friend did. Mony Markova. Say the name over and over and it sounds like a murmuring mantra. Like all of us in Second Life she is distractingly beautiful. The trick, as always, is to peel away the skin and find the attraction beneath. It’s a shallow way to experience Second Life if all you want to do is read the glossy covers. And despite what people try to tell you, it isn’t a Game. It’s far more serious than that.

Mony wanted to tell her story to someone before she left. And she decided to leave because she had come to realize that she had lost control of her ability to stride effortlessly between the two worlds – Real Life and Second Life. She is not the only person to face this real and frightening problem.

On her last night, she came to me and I told her the first three lines of this article. I had suspected for a few weeks that something like this was about to happen and had already scribbled down those words.

“Noooo!” she said, “it is not that! U want me to cry?”

Religion In Second Life - Part 2

Judaism

by Ms. Sautereau

[Author's note; I'm having to submit this article as I've been unable to get anyone who identifies as Muslim to answer more than one or two questions. Since the theme of this series is intended to be Religion from the point of view of the people I meet who practice it, it's hard to write an article on Islam without a Muslim interview subject. So until I get more info to write a better article with, Im just going to skip ahead in the list for now.]

The first Article in This series, Christianity, covered that faith from the view of Ms Gynan Sanders, who, at that time, had been the only person who I'd contacted who'd gotten back to me. The comments section of that article however showed me more people willing to talk to me, and that's how I met Beth Odets. Beth is a loud and proud Jew, who has contributed to the creation of 2Life, a Jewish Magazine in SL, and an entire sim that celebrates Jewish life and culture. I talked to Beth during Hanukkah, in TMA located in Nessus, and asked her what it all means for her.

In-World offices of Jewish SL Mag 2Life

About 2Life

"Its the Jewish magazine in SL. Its about Jewish life in Second Life, the people, the places, etcetera. Its on the web. There are dispenser boxes all over the sim take you to the Mag's webpage."

Religion in SL - Part 1: Christianity

by Ms. Sautereau

welcome to the first in a series of articles exploring religion in Second Life. What's out there, who believes in what, why they built churches/mosques/synagogues/etcetera. For a game that's mostly obsessed with sexplay, there's a lot of religious areas to be found. Having a small temple for my own small quiet faith, I wondered what inspirations may drive others to represent their faiths in our virtual world. This week's article will cover Christianity and it's branches.

outdoor wedding chapel on Summergreen Island

As near as I could figure weeding through the search engine, there are probably more than 3 dozen good sized areas containing actively Christian/Catholic churches. Some I toured were small, humble affairs. Some were large and elegant. One was absolutely huge and the architecture was gorgeous, a build that must've been quite the undertaking.

The main problem I found with researching these articles was the lack of anyone willing to talk to me. I had IM'd 43 different people of different faiths requesting interviews about their areas, and to date only 3 have thus far spoken to me at all, and only one at any length. So bearing that in mind, the bulk of this article will come from the lovely and kind Ms Gynan Sanders, co-owner of the Yahweh's Truth Church in New Jerusalem on Summergreen Island.

What Scares Me In SL?

Players who treat others as toys

by Aurel Miles

dancing in fear

When I came to SL I assumed I was not afraid of anything here. After all, it never gets cold, you can't starve to death. You can look as you please, go where you want and nobody can injure you. Play lemming as many times as you want - not a scratch. The worst thing that can happen to you here is that you might have someone push you or get hit-up by some noobie jerk begging for money. Even if you die, you just get sent home. And you can fly. 


So what's scary in flatland? There’s the "I am Legend" sim where you can run around gnashing your teeth as an infected zombie/vampire or run around trying to avoid getting killed by packs of roaming zombie/vampires. There are the capture sims, where consenting adults do things to each other that I cannot bear to think about but that apparently give them pleasure. There are the diaper sims that scare me out of my wits and the kid themed sims that raise my hackles and turn me into a would-be Joan of Arc.

There are mazes and shooter games and possibly overspending. As a person who has a rule about bringing money into SL I wouldn't know about that but I have heard a few stories. And then there's sex.

I have been writing about SL sex long enough now that he thought of two people describing whatever they can imagine to each other over instant message no longer holds any mystery for me. Ditto the idea of cartoon avatars shagging in every position physically possible (and a few that surely aren't.) The act itself no longer raises an eyebrow with me.

I took a long walk around SL late one Friday night. I went alone and I went to the scariest places I could find.

So I'll tell you what scares me in SL. It's You.

Second Life as Prison Life

Podgorecki and the original Second Life

by Urizenus Sklar, post-Prokofy FIC watch bureau

You may have thought that Philip pulled the name “Second Life” out of the aether, and maybe he did, but he wasn't the first. Today I was reading about a Polish sociologist named Adam Podgorecki, and the Prok bells in my head went off. Here is why. Podgorecki, banished to Canada (can it get any worse!) by the Polish communists, did a study of Polish prison life, and he referred to the emerging prison culture as “Second Life.” So you see, Second Life was really prison life. But surely that Second Life was different from *our* second life! Well...

SL Relationship Ethics - Anonymity, Timezones, & Spybots

Ethics Roundtable Topic One

by Victorria Paine

Following the Op/Ed I wrote last week about appropriate ethics in our virtual environment, this is the first of an occasional series of articles focusing on one specific ethical issue at a time – something that I hope will allow for more in-depth discussion of each topic.

I've decided to start with the issue of virtual relationships, simply because they attract so much attention, both inside SL and in the various hot button debates here and in other blogs and forums. But before I start, I'd like to define what I mean by "virtual relationship". What I mean by that term is a relationship that began in the virtual world, and plays itself out in the virtual world.

So when I speak of "virtual world relationship ethics", what I mean to discuss are ethical questions relating to those virtual relationships themselves, and not the interface between these virtual relationships and any relationships that the avatar's typist may have in the material world. Those kinds of issues – such as spillover impact of virtual relationships on material world ones – are important, but are different from what I want to address here. Here I want to focus on ethical considerations intrinsic to the virtual relationship in itself, without regard to material world spillover concerns – a significant and important topic best left for another discussion.

I also think that many of the aspects of a virtual relationship – communication, honesty, trust, reliability, loyalty and the like – are essentially similar to what one might expect in a material world context, so I won't really be addressing them. Instead, I'd like to talk about a few areas that are particular to virtual world relationships to open up the table for a discussion about some of the issues presented by them.

Second Life as Temporary Autonomous Zone

By Urizenus Sklar

Coming on the heels of the Linden's recent excessively broad and vague definition of the "broadly offensive", the hand wringing about the Leather and Lace Ball at the Second Life Community Convention got me thinking about Hakim Bey's fringe culture classic, Temporary Autonomous Zones. Bey’s headline idea was how Temporary Autonomous Zones are liberated places where people can carry on festal activities so long as they occupy hidden cracks in the net. If they become too visible they are squashed out of existence by the State. To survive, the residents must, like nomads, fold up their tents and move on. The question is, has the Second Life Subculture become too visible? Will it be squashed out of existence? Will Second Lifers, like 21st century nomads, soon have to fold up their tents and move on to hidden corners of the metaverse?

The Bare Facts: Nudism in Second Life

by Lisae Boucher

[After the Herald's recent story on closer scrutiny by Linden Lab of images that might be considered "broadly offensive," we were contracted by Lisae Boucher (mentioned in the article), who asked to weigh in on a related issue: the practice of non-sexual nudism in Second Life. Here, she looks at how the virtual practice relates to the real thing, and bring up some cultural differences that prevail between Europe and America. Enjoy. Although not at work.
--Walker Spaight]

Let's start with one important quote: "Nudity is a taboo in America because we primarily equate nudity or nakedness with sexuality and we have taboos about sexuality," said Matthew Westra, a psychology professor at Longview Community College in Missouri. (All quotes in this article reference this National Geographic story. -- Ed.) "A lot of it has to do, I think, with the Puritan and Victorian heritage that we have, which says that any kind of temptation will lead you into hell." According to the same article, a recent national poll found that 80 percent of the U.S. public feels it's okay to have a nude beach, as long as it is marked by a sign, while 25 percent of adults polled said they'd gone skinny-dipping in mixed company at least once in their life.

What do these statements mean? And what do they have to do with Second Life? It seems that Americans value the freedoms to live your personal lifestyle but also the right to not be offended by other people's lifestyles. In addition, that's about about 75 million people in the U.S. who have had some nudism experience in mixed company. Which is quite a lot of people.

Considering these numbers, it is no surprise that you would find similar numbers in the Second Life environment. Actually, since Second Life seems to focus on a mature audience, the proportion of nudity and even sex is probably a lot larger than in real life. In the virtual world, of course, mature areas are clearly marked. But how could Second Life implement a safe area for people who simply enjoy the virtual nudist lifestyle? Would it be appropriate to have nudist areas in PG-rated sims, for instance? After all, in real life, there are many family nudist resorts where you would have many families including young children having the basic clothes-less fun. There are even a few teens-only nudist resorts which are limited for teens only. These are just like regular summer camps but without the clothes.

Philosophy of Second Life, Part 1: On the Origins of FIC Ideology

(FIC propaganda poster stolen from Flipper's FIC propaganda repository.)
Being Uri, there are moments when I look in the mirror and skeet. You would too! Imagine being a supreme visionary AND an alpha male (although ‘uberstud’ is the politically correct terminology I prefer). But then there are those days when I read my favorite philosopher, P. Luddie, and I think “I’m not worthy.” This is about one of those days.

There I was in Amsterdam chillin’ with the peeps at Submarine – those cross media Dutch masheruppers (them that brought us “My Second Life” and – even better – Lou Paradis) and the topic of virtual worlds and utopias came up. A vaguely familiar notion, I thought. When I got back to my crib in Toronto I dug through my endless pile of P. Luddie publications and found that yes! He had pontificated on this! Back when Philip and Cory were still in short pants, and due diligence requires that I say this: Luddie, you are such a freaking visionary!

What really smacked me upside the head though, was how Second Life’s central social conflict was predicted back then– the struggle against an H.G. Wells style “modern utopia” with its elite class -- its Feted Inner Core (FIC) -- with their technophile Jetsonian gadgetry and their total Lack. Of. Moral. Compass… its modern roots in the California techno-hippie liberatarian ideology, etc. (Luddie even used the word ‘fete’.) Well… how could I not share? I offer the following for your consideration. Please keep in mind that it was written in the Last Millennium if published in 2001. --Uri

Touching the Sky

By Prokofy Neva, Dept. of Worlds, Planets, Universe, Multiverses, Metaverses (Yes, There's More Than One) and Deep Negative Hyperspace

OK, so I'm clearing away prims in Neumoegen and suddenly I see Michael and Nigel Linden have a new train, a dark-red, old-fashioned beat-up one that I guess fits in with the hobo build in Calletta at the start of the line. I fly after it eagerly and select SIT and get RIDE...and away I go down the Linden tracks, clackety-clack.

So I settle in for what I imagine will be one of those bumpy but fun rides on the old SLRR. I realize it is hopelessly analog of me, and I know I'm supposed to teleport and p2p and skin off my hair, or strut around with AOs, but I still like riding the rails of Second Life. Maybe it's the old beta-era hobos I meet along the way, their hands stretched out over barrels on fire, fingers protruding from hole-filled gloves. Their hollow eyes tell the story. They've Been There. I spot an Asian build coming up and the train bumps and halts and starts to give me messages. Then it starts up again.

I ride without event out of Achemon -- or nearly so, when whoops, the land falls away to make a gulch. OK, pas de probleme, this is de rigeur. I zoom around looking ahead...and notice the land is dropping beneath me. OK, it will recover. It often does. If you ever watch it from the sidelines, it often jumps over sim seams.

Suddenly, I look out and realize we are aloft. No, we are not in Soho and no, this is not a project of Forseti's. We are in the sky. And suddenly, I realize I am in a living, breathing, metaphor for the game of Second Life.

Fiction or Documentary? Real or Virtual?

Over a year ago I met art/documentary filmmakers Alain Della Negra and Kaori Kinoshita (Dellakino Arizona and Dellakino Omlet in SL). Kaori is from Japan (Tokyo) and Alain is from France (Paris). At the time they were working on a documentary-fiction about people who played the Sims and TSO, but the project has morphed into a Second Life project (details here: http://avatars.blogs.liberation.fr). I don’t know how the project has evolved in the interim, but at the time they were doing things that blew my mind, in particular, interviewing people about their online lives, but stripping out all reference to games and the virtual. The effect was, fascinating, surreal, and compelling all at once. My thought was that their project was exploding the artificial distinction between the real and the fictional. A great example of this is the following interview.

They also showed some of the interviews in game, and the effect of avatars watching those interviews seemed to magnify the already mind-bending properties of the project by an order of magnitude. I’ve pasted an example below the fold.

Lindens Name New Sim after African Goddess of Lag

"she slows down the day and night, and everything around here happens in a time outside of time"

Special to the Herald by Economic Mip

As I was cruising the new continent, I had the misfortune of running across a sim named "Mbokomu" which certainly brought back memories. According to several African tribes, Mbokomu was the daughter of Ngombe. According to the Ngombe tribe in of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) she was sent to earth with her mother, due to the perpetual annoyance of the father. Also according to the Ngombe tribe, she was discontent with earth, and disliked all things green. (Some go so far as to blame her for all droughts, but that seems a bit harsh. Also, she found humans and the mortal creatures of the earth amusing, but was dismayed to find out they had such a short life cycle. She had a very unique way of correcting this problem...

Virtual Worlds 2007, Report #5: Venture Capital and The New School of Athens

by Urizenus Sklar

As I reported Wednesday, much of the Virtual Worlds 2007 conference reeked of the anxiety of marketing guys and gals trying to catch up with the next wave. The fear was palpable. Why else would those people be sitting in that auditorium taking notes like they were Gorean slaves pressed into service as scribes? And all they seem to want to know – at least all they wanted to ask - is this: What is the return on investment? How many eyeballs do we get? How long do we keep them? Are they the kind of eyeballs that spend money?

Thursday I lasted for about 30 seconds of that. I walked into the auditorium – steaming hot and stacked to the rafters with suits -- and the first thing I heard was the interesting factoid that when you create NPC salespeople you want them to mimic the animations of the customer. Psychological studies show that mimicking gestures is more likely to make the customer trust and like the salesperson whether an NPC or a human. And it only takes a simple script to do this! Joy. What a brave new virtual world we live in. Would someone please penis this event?

Usefulness Is Dangerous

Blingsider, Tard*Star, New World Goats Notes are completely safe

by Bayesian TextBot

be very very afraid of games - and the Second Life Herald

Roderick Jones recently posted an article to Counterterrorism Blog entitled "MetaTerror: The Potential Use of MMORPGs by Terrorists". The article is primarily about Second Life, and on the whole compliments Linden Lab on creating a versatile and useful space. Of course, usefulness might not be a good thing:

"While the makers of Second Life (Linden Labs) pursue an admirable utopian ideal these metaverse systems can potentially also be used by those seeking to pursue a radical agenda."

Note: this presupposes that "radical" is a bad thing, but let's set that aside and really get to the heart of what Jones is trying to say:

"Streaming video can be uploaded into Second Life and a scenario can easily be constructed whereby an experienced terrorist bomb-maker could demonstrate how to assemble bombs using his avatar to answer questions as he plays the video. Using the decentralized organization effect, already successfully used by SL companies, the bomb-maker and his pupils can be spread around the globe and using instant language translation tools (available in the world) could be speaking a variety of languages. "

Ludlow Joins Shirkeyjerk

Hotspur, Glendower, Mortimer and Worcester arguing over the future division of the kingdom at Bangor, in 'Henry IV'. Painting by Henry Fuseli.

Let's see if we can reconstruct what happened. First, there was all the fluff and hyperventilation about Second life having 100k then 1 million then 2 million "residents", followed by much ridicule in the SL Blogosphere. This was followed by Clay Shirkey coming along a year later saying there aren't really that many "residents." To which we said "no shit Sherlock" but of course Clay was then feted as the ubergenius of the new millenium by Dan Hunter and other Eggheads on Terra Nova. This was followed by cries of indignation from the SL Blogosphere and cries of hyper-indignation from Clay Shirkey, and then the heavy guns got involved -- as when Henry Jenkins, Beth Coleman and Clay got into a three-way convo about it. Apparently the debate is about played out, because Ludlow is involved now, in part two of an interview on Jenkin's Blog. A few excerpts are below the fold.

Bearded Eggheads Talk about Virtual Journalism and Stuff

Henry Jenkins just posted part one of a two-part interview with our own Nutty Professor -- Peter Ludlow. In it Ludlow has some not very nice things to say about the Avastar, and some marginally interesting things to say about civic responsibility and virtual journalism, and also where the Herald fits in the magic circle ("on the circumference" it turns out), but what might be discussion-worthy is this:

The more interesting question is why people keep repeating "“only a game"” so much. If you google "“only a game”" and “Second Life” together, you get nearly 12,000 hits. It is like a mantra that people keep repeating to keep some thought or idea at bay – and I think the dangerous idea that Second Life shoves in your face every day is this: our wealth is virtual, our property is transient, and our social lives are mediated by technology, nomadic, and often fleeting. I think that when people keep saying “it’'s only a game” they are really saying “the rest of my world isn’'t like this: my wealth is tangible and permanent, my friendships are unmediated and also permanent.” Saying “it’'s only a game” is like saying “this isn’'t how things really are, this is just a bad dream.” People need to pinch themselves, because this ain’'t no dream. This is reality; deal with it.

more quotes below the fold:

Ageplay in Second Life: Interview with Jailbait Manager Emily Semaphore

In real life, Emily Semaphore is 35 and works as a librarian. In Second Life, she roleplays as a 13 year old girl. Together, with Ian Manray (her real life husband, who she met in SL!) she manages Jailbait, a Second Life club dedicated to age-play – often involving cybersex between the participants. In this interview, we ask her about ageplay, her job as manager at Jailbait, what she considers the psychologically healing aspect of sexual ageplay, and what she sees as the troubling aspects of ageplay and society’s reaction to it.

Valley-Meme and the Crashed Drawing-Room

A pointy-eared polemic by Prokofy Neva

Robbie Dingo's Whisper Box Near Magellan's Crash

While it seems like a credible concept, the good professor's "new media" concept reveals too much Chomsky-reading, and not enough McLuhan. Far from having a new streaming interactive pushme/pullyou immersivia to replace the old one-way pulp-and-electron media, we have something far more broken and dangerous nowadays: an unaccountable archipelago of amateur egos scattered across the budding Metaverse who are all playing a grand game of Gossip. They flash memes picked up from games forums and group IMs and speculative blogs and amateurish podcasts and mash them into approximations of news stories as fast as you can push Blackberry buttons. In the name of this indy corrective to another evil -- concentrated media corporations -- they scorn the basic methods of investigative journalism and editorial accountability. This isn't just Wikiality; this is Wikiality 3-D, streaming, and with the power to fill your world with red ban lines and self-replicating prims as well as reiterating reputation-damaging falsehoods.

The little salons of 40 intelligent and sage conversants lovingly imagined by Urizenus would be a wonderful thing if they really existed in SL -- but they are more likely to be replaced by griefers crashing the neo-18th century drawing rooms and making coherent discourse impossible. And these illegitimate claims of "trolling" and "spamming" in fact are about an often viciously rigid orthodoxy that brooks no dissent, and takes any kind of principled position as a "troll" and any kind of self-affirmation or consistency as a "spam". Ever wonder why you can't post comments on Valley Wag and can't even find the button to register? They have a creepy Friendster or SLOG-like system of only inviting their special friends to post -- and their special friends who are confirmed. Nice way to get an echo chamber!

The Return of the Salon and the End of Mass Media

Pointyheaditorial by Urizenus Sklar

Denizens of the internet have long noted that many online meeting places have served roles like those of the literary salons and coffee houses of the 18th century. Online conferencing systems like The WELL and Mindvox, MUDS and MOOs like Xerox PARC’s LamdaMOO and MediaMOO, and graphical social spaces like The Sims Online and Second Life have become places where robust and innovative political, social, and artistic ideas have been discussed and debated. In this essay, I will say a bit about why such “cybersalons” are important, raise the question of whether they are endangered, and ask whether there is anything we must do to preserve them.

Spotted in the News: That Other Book on Virtual Worlds

The Economist gets down with Ted Castronova this week, calling his new book an "illuminating guide to these new synthetic worlds." We agreed back in October. If you haven't already bought your copy, now's the time -- you only have three more months to read it before the Doomsday Book appears.

Book Review: Synthetic Worlds

Author Ted Castronova demonstrates approximate size of words used in his new book (photo by Cory Linden)

Run, don't walk, to Amazon.com (is that even possible?) and order your copy of Edward Castronova's Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games today. For anyone interested in deeper thinking about MMOs than just whether the latest patch nerfed your favorite class in your favorite game, it's a must-read.

While Castronova doesn't write with the same juicy style that we all know Herald readers prefer (he writes for a more sober blog, after all), he does deliver just as many thought-provoking ideas, and has a lot to say about one of our favorite subjects: where these things we call virtual worlds may be headed in the future.

Castronova's view of VWs is deeply influenced by his being an economist. But he is just as deeply an MMO player, and he draws freely on his experiences in EverQuest and World of Warcraft to illustrate his arguments.

His perspective is very much his own, though, and not one everyone will agree with. For instance, use of the word "nigger," in Castronova's view, should always be a bannable offense. While it's reprehensible in most cases, I'm not sure all VWs should be so constrained. Such speech is not always a crime in the real world, after all. But then, we're not talking about the real world, are we?

That's an interesting question. Castronova is one of the staunchest supporters of the preservation of play spaces as removed from the real world (thus he's more or less anti-RMT for most VWs). Yet he also posits a scenario in which MMOs can add to people's real-world income, as already happens in some cases. For that to be possible on any large scale, though, game worlds would have to become work worlds. When it becomes more or less easy for many people to earn a living in the world of swords and spells, won't that world become as drudge-like as the world of staplers and sales meetings? At that point we'll start looking elsewhere for our entertainment.

Synthetic Worlds also has a lot to say about the potential of game worlds to improve the lives of their residents. Castronova even envisions a mass exodus to game worlds, should many people start to prefer them to the real one. That's a pretty dark vision, if you ask me. If the only thing you're getting out of the real world is food and shelter, there's something deeply wrong. Game worlds certainly have huge potential to enhance one's physical existence, but I'd argue that they will never become a substitute in the way that Castronova's book seems to hold.

At one point, Castronova claims that NPCs with exceptional AI could provide emotional experiences that might be harder to get in the real world. But while they could certainly provide simulated experiences of whatever sort, the mere fact of interacting with an NPC changes the experience. No one mistakes an NPC for a real person. If the NPC has been programmed to admire or respect your formidable deeds, you still know it's an NPC; that takes away from the weight of that interaction. That's why fighting another player is a totally different experience from fighting a computer-controlled character. There just isn't another person on the other end, as good as the simulation may be. And it's the other people that make these places special.

There's a lot to debate in this book, but there's also a lot to think about. Significantly, Castronova tacitly challenges Richard Bartle's contention that virtual worlds are all about identity. To Castronova, they're about economics and the joy of acquisition; fun equals getting something you desire. But what if the thing you desire is a gripping narrative that unfolds over months or even years? I'm not sure the economic explanation of virtual worlds can contain that motive. The economic explanation of the real world has enough trouble with it.

The great thing about Synthetic Worlds is that it attempts, for pretty much the first time, to take a comprehensive look at these things we call virtual worlds. Hopefully it will be read by more than just the people who already know and love these places. So buy it now and start reading--especially since you'll have to finish it by the spring so you can start reading Only A Game.

CmdrTaco takes on Blizzard.

There is an interesting story in slashdot, by one CmdrTaco, who was forced to change his WoW name by the game owner Blizzard Entertainment. Why? Because 'Cmdr' is a title he hasn't earned. Never mind that "Commander" isn't even a title you can earn in the game and never mind that CmdrTaco is this guys screen name from the dawn of time. CmdrTaco has lots of interesting things to say, but my favorite passage is this:

I don't think I'll quit WoW over this, but I will take away some lessons. The GM I talked to had a nickname of something like Lathanian. I found this disconcerting. If you were arrested by Officer Snuggles or found guilty by the honorable Judge Lawtron, it's hard to take that seriously. In this case 'Punishment' is being dealt. A real human is wearing a shroud of anonymity and handing out the bitchslap to a total stranger. That really makes the whole experience even more dehumanizing. In a massive virtual world, we're still people.

You don't see names and faces, which is why you'll see a 60 corpse camp a 30. When you don't see the real person on the other side, the tendency is just to forget. You expect it from opposing factions- but it feels different when it's the GM.

Herald Pundits Give Rise to Intellectual Hand Wringing

You may recall that some weeks back we reported the EVE Online heist in which a guild was infiltrated and $16K US in assets were ripped off. All legal in the game. Heartless Herald Editor Walker Spaight was overjoyed: "it doesn't get much better than this." But former Herald reporter Neal "Love Beast" Stewart wasn't so sure: in the comments to the Herald article he worried that some real life betrayal had to take place to make this happen, not unlike the old SSG infiltration jobs.

Now the eggheads at Terra Nova have taken up the question, framing it via the two positions staked out by Heartless Walker on the one hand and Neal the Love Beast on the other. Which side shall prevail?

Illuminating SL's Spiritual Side

story and photograph by Buttery Shortbread

Avatars of all denominations and spiritual beliefs have a new place to worship in Second Life, at the Interfaith Temple, built only about a month ago by Athel Richelieu, who is not yet out of his teens in his first life (though old enough for SL proper, to be sure).

The beautiful, pure white marble monument he built rises from the sim of Ambulyx. Inside this simple yet very functional worship center is the Ray of Golden Light, which, to myself at least, symbolizes universal spiritual illumination.

I observed out loud that it seemed a bit unusual for someone so young to be so involved with religious pursuits. "I feel more and more in my age bracket are becoming open to spirituality and bringing it into their lives," Athel said, "though yes, perhaps it is unusual in the United States."

When asked whether his temple was geared toward the New Age movement, Athel said, "Ahh no, not New Age. I would consider it to be for all faiths, though I would say there is an emphasis on mysticism and inner peace. Mysticism, finding God or Spirit within, is a part of most all major religions and cultures. Hence the meditation pillows, and such."

"My personal spirituality is very open," Athel continued, "though right now I feel my personal spiritual teacher and Guru I am following is Mata Amritanandamayi or Amma, a worldwide recognized Saint in the Hindu religion though embracing all. She has spoken at the United Nations, and has followers such as a former US Senator and Yolanda King, Dr. Martin Luther King's daughter. I would say my life centers quite a bit around spirituality. In my first life I have an altar in my room."

Athel estimates that the temple receives perhaps several visitors a day, but he is currently not often at the sim. "I am surprised by the interest it has received in such a short time. I will come here randomly and it seems like people visit often. There are some who like to stay and just feel the presence." One avatar who was visiting during our interview, FarindaFlyingdove Talamasca, mentioned that she likes to visit the sim several times a day.

Athel says would like to be able to hold daily services, though realistically his goal is set for three or four per week. He does not preside over the gatherings except to lead prayer and moderate to keep discussion topics on track. He considers himself as much a visitor to the temple as any other member of SL.

Given those ambitions, I asked whether he hoped to expand to building other churches in other sims. "I do hope to possibly build shrines in the future in other sims," he said, "but these will most likely be focused on more my personal spirituality and things I feel need focus, rather than Interfaith."

The temple is also available for weddings, committment ceremonies, memorials or candlelight vigils for peace, you name it. Those who wish to book the site can bring their own items for and someone to conduct the event, or request Athel's services. There is no cost for that or for use of the sim.

And with the holidays just ahead, Athel hopes that Interfaith Temple will serve to host a number of celebrations of all manner of spirituality. Be sure to get your reservation in soon!

Big Brother Linden is Watching You!

Big Brother -- more demonic and horrifying than even Orwell could have imagnied. (pic stolen from Pirate Cotton's site)

There’s been some buzz on the forums lately about the extent to which the Lindens monitor convos in SL. I’ve always just assumed that in-game communications are unsafe, but perhaps that is a bit of paranoia I picked up on TSO. Meanwhile, former Herald prodigy Neal Stewart has blogged the issue, and as usual we have ripped off his story and reposted it here. Read on for your latest dose of Neal.

"He's making a list,
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out who's naughty and nice.
Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!"
-- Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

During a casual conversation in Second Life recently, a friend told me something which strikes me as, well, a pretty big deal.

I consider this person to be a source you can rely on. Their claim is something that I have never actually heard another resident suggest. If they're right, the implications seem to change the face of what law, privacy and government mean in Second Life. Will privacy advocates wring their hands in mass hysteria and reach for their tinfoil? Will griefers and criminals across the grids tremble in fear?

The claim is this:

Every word you speak in Second Life via chat or instant messages, is logged by Linden Lab. Not 30-minute logs. Not day logs. Logs that go back at least as far as last year. Possibly further.

Now, it may or may not be true. Although it's incredible, it does seem logistically possible.

So I posted a Hotline to Linden question (note: the resident I mentioned in the question is not the friend who made the logging claim). Robin Linden replied: 'Logs for chat and IM aren't permanent, although I can't say how long we keep them'.

You can't be certain whether Robin physically doesn't know how long they keep them or whether their policy prevents her from revealing it. I think it's safe to assume the latter. Policy-wise, there's obvious reasons why they won't be specific.

Less firmly, my friend also suggests that Linden Lab may log even more detailed information than just chat. Possibly everything from object rezzes to gesture triggers. The works.

To my mind, the first claim seems plausible but the second beggars belief. In any case, it presents an interesting opportunity to think about what these could mean for our second lives and the future of the metaverse itself.

Privacy
=======

Section 8.2 of the Second Life Terms of Service:

"You acknowledge and agree that Linden , in its sole discretion, may track, record, observe or follow any and all of your interactions within the Service."

Whether we're pottering along at Tringo, slinging arguments at a Thinker's discussion or trying to find a pair of sunglasses that will go well with our dick, we're always vaguely aware of that privacy clause. We know that if we were somehow to stray into CS/TOS-violation territory, that a Linden might materialize behind us with their x-ray vision or that an employee at their desk in San Francisco might receive an IM and invisibly bring up our account details.

In the privacy debate, the naysayers argue, "If you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about". But I wonder if other residents would be at least vaguely disconcerted at the thought that every single utterance they have made in the past 8 months for example, is nestled away on a storage medium somewhere, in an office, like a fly frozen in amber? All trivial fond records, an indelicate joke about nuns, a whispered aside about how god-awful your best friend's new dress is. But the serious stuff too: Personal confessions, double-lives, revelations at an in-world alcoholics anonymous meeting, a RL affair, a tearful dislosure of childhood sexual abuse, embarassing medical problems, intimate exchanges, shared Real Life phone numbers, work and financial details. All frozen in time.

Is SL any different than the rest of cyberspace in this regard? How so?

Whatever the answer, as a hypothetical it's interesting to ask yourself if you would be willing to sacrifice your privacy if it meant that every act of harassment, every Terms of Service violation, every act of fraud and real-world crime could be traced and examined with almost God-like precision. Griefers, copyright-thiefs, con-artists, paedophiles - the whole spectrum under complete scrutiny. Would you make this sacrifice in Second Life? Are you already making it?

Crimes and Evidence-Gathering
=============================

Suppose that my friend's second claim is true - that everything from object rezzes to gesture triggers are logged. Imagine that Linden Lab were to investigate the virtual-world equivalent of the Kennedy Assassination. In their God-mode recreation of the event, they can determine the timings, they can tell you what the cloud coverage was like on that day, they can tell you where the sun was, the wind velocity and direction, the ground height and slope. They can tell you the exact color of the bullet, and can give you a complete account of the physics that took place - velocity, mass, gravity, energy, the list goes on. And that's just a tiny sample of all the relevant information. They could close the case on the chat-logs alone.

That's just a hypothetical example. There's a slew of real ones available. The really virtual and the really real. Everything from allegations of in-world Nazi death-camp re-creations, to TSO's virtual child prostitutes and RL physical abuse, virtual child porn in SL, the recent client-side hack and 2 alleged land-ownership group-dispute/scams (1 and 2).

With its limited knowledge, the public (myself included) has never shied away from making its own rulings on these controversies. But would it change things if we were to learn that Linden Lab was infinitely better-informed about abuse and TOS violations than we had previously thought? That perhaps they have ruled on a hundred decisions already, the ones above for example, with 20/20 hindsight, never once revealing the extent of their evidence? Would residents actually welcome our new elephant-memory overlords?

But what about the blindspots? Private emails and forums, IRC and instant messenger sessions. Are these significant enough to be worried about? To what extent is griefing possible outside of the Second Life client itself? And if so, is it even a legitimate area for LL concern? It seems apparent that if extensive in-world logs do exist, the Lindens would not trawl through them to investigate every single abuse-report. The limited time available, and the sheer volume of information, would make this prohibitive. But will the knowledge that it is technically possible, strike fear into the hearts of griefers and criminals in Second Life? If so, will they shift their tongue-forkery off the grid and into the spaces where LL has no jurisdiction - instant-messenger programs and IRC? And will they meet there the paranoid, refugee champions of privacy and free speech? Or just all the residents taking advantage of SL-denied communication features like temporary-group chats and stealth settings (offline status)?

Government Law and Order
========================

One of the most hotly-debated topics among Second Life residents has been in-world government. Residents ask whether Linden Lab can accurately be described as 'the government' within Second Life. They discuss whether residents might play a role in a global, in-world government or whether they should they look to ways of forming their own. And they wonder whether these resident-based governments could actually have any clout.

A few of them also wonder about 'resident review panels'.

'Resident review panels' are an aspect of the Second Life legal system that have been announced publicly but are shrouded in secrecy. You can read a bit about them here. In brief, LL chooses 25 active residents at random and sends them the anonymous case-history of an alleged serial offender. The review panel lets each resident vote yes or no on whether the offender should be banned, and provides them with a blank line in which to write a comment. LL reserves the right to overrule the majority decision and panel participants are asked not to share the details of the case with others.

One of the concerns I have often heard from the few people who actually know about these resident review panels, is that the alleged offender has no chance to present a defense. LL's response seems to be that the facts of the violations themselves are not open to question. All they're interested in finding out is whether the residents think that the violations warrant a permanent ban. But some residents clearly see in these review panels the seed of a complete Second Life in-world legal framework - one that involves greater resident participation.

But this new claim regarding Linden Labs' evidence-gathering powers, casts all these law and order questions in a new light. Is a complete legal framework with judges and juries, prosecutors and defense attorneys, any longer necessary (if it was before)? On the other hand, isn't it true that court trials are not always about disputing the facts but disputing the interpretations of those facts, and the relevant laws? If so, how often might these trickier ones actually occur in Second Life?

And in any case, is a global, resident-involved legal-system an example of 'taking the whole metaverse thing too far' or will they be a commonplace feature of the virtual-worlds of 2015?

Robin Linden recently posted:

We believe that police are not the preferred solution to the elimination of bad behavior and intolerance in Second Life. The mechanisms are in place for dealing with people who are infringing on others' rights. Be sure that we are continually refining them and looking to find ways to make them even better, but adding police isn't the means we are considering. First, it isn't scalable, and second, we think that top-down solutions from Linden Lab are not in the best interest of Second Life.

Give us suggestions for ways to improve the abuse management system, or to improve land control tools which will ensure griefing is either unprofitable or no fun.

OK, you have my vote but...

/me edges towards Yahoo Messenger.

Commodify Me! Chapter 2

Thanks again to Clickable Culture for reporting on this little gem -- A breakdown of the way Massive Incorporated's in-game advertising works. Seems that not only are the ads placed in the game, but the marketers collect information about the amount of time the ad is viewed by individual players, the size at which they view it, as well as the angle it is viewed from.

Now I'm sure there will be a chorus of "screw me harder" gamers saying if we don't like it we don't have to play, but this "love it or leave it meme" limps as badly in MMOs as it does when we talk about nation states. It cannot be emphasized enough that this is precisely what Lawrence Lessig has been warning us about for years, especially in his book Code as Law. In virtual worlds we are effectively engineering certain values into the world. The question is, are we going to engineer in values and principles of freedom, privacy, and liberty, or are we going to surrender all of that as our lives continually move online? It seems we are on a trajectory in which we are gladly surrendering our liberties to despots with benign sounding titles like "Game Maker." But strip away the friendly title and we don't find a kindly toymaker like Gepetto, or even the Wizard of Oz, but something much closer to Big Brother.

Uri Chills with the Salonistas!

A Future Salonista shows us what we will all look like in 2020.

Last night’s Future Salon had its usual share of technical snags, but it was interesting – more interesting for me perhaps, because I had an opportunity to be on the other side of the discussion. It certainly gave me lots to think about in terms of using SL or any other 3D graphical environment for holding meetings. Obviously there is a lot of potential here – one can imagine far flung business execs holding meetings in these spaces, not to mention classes and, well, discussions of emerging technologies. But from where I sit we are a loooooong way from this being a viable format for exchanging complex ideas in a rich and meaningful way.

update: Zero Grace/Tony Walsh has his take on the event here.

Apart from the audio issues – I was on a cell phone and had no sense at all if anyone could hear a word I was saying -- there was the issue of the 1-2 minute lag between when I said something and when the audience heard it. This meant that any typed feedback I received from the peanut gallery was very late, and also out of context when I received it which put a heavy processing load on me while I was talking. It amounted to a kind of weird double tasking in which I had to keep up my own thread of conversation, while remembering what I said 1.5 minutes ago and then reading and processing the comments relative to time t-1.5. It was like joining a conference call from the moon.

Zero Grace (aka Tony Walsh from Clickable Culture) makes a statement.

This magnified another problem that I found with the format, which is that there is no way to read the audience. I don’t know how many thousands of hours I’ve logged in classrooms and in talks in places ranging from Bulgaria to Princeton, and I’ve always been able to read the body language of the audience pretty well. Oh sure, in Bulgaria a nod of the head means no, and a smile in Princeton means “I hate you”, but you can at least tell if the audience is paying attention, tired, distracted etc. Here there is really nothing.

Pathfinder Linen targets Prokofy Neva with his deathray eyes.

This problem requires reflection. I know that several friends of mine in psycholinguistics are currently doing eye tracking experiments and they are finding that being able to track the gaze of your discourse partner is extremely important in many forms of communication. I don’t know what the remedy is, but that is a problem that haunted this meeting for sure.

Robin Linen in a reflective moment, in which she asks herself: "Why oh wh