Medialoper

We're Not Who You Think We Are

Second Life

Second Life and the Fourth Estate

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Adam Reuters and copyright violations.

We aren’t doing this not to be noticed.

This stuff, what I’m doing at this moment. Writing. Online. Not me, not Kirk or Kassia or Jim or Roxanne or anyone else in Team Loper’s extended tail. We want to be seen. This is not to say that we aren’t doing it for the love of the words, or because we aren’t genuinely interested in the culture on which we report. Those things are all true.

But we aren’t exactly anonymous, either. All of us want to be recognized to as writers (though I suspect we all know better than to adopt such a lofty title based on blogging). We have bylines because we want you, dear Loperfan, to know who said what, and so we can get that thrill of me! i wrote that! while cringing at all the typos we didn’t catch before going live. I’m one of the worst, both in typos and because I haven’t been able to breach the ego barrier and simply use my first name. Heavens no. That’s not good enough. Has to say “Sherilyn Connelly,” lest someone think Sherilyn Fenn wrote it. (I see Roxanne also keeps the Irish surname visible. Power, sister-in-law!)

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Second Life, Snowballing and Solstice

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Vaal goes splodey.

I like the Harry Potter novels. I can forgive most of their flaws and holes, but the presence of Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter takes me right out of the narrative. Yes, of course, I realize those holidays are pagan in origin, and it’d be different if the characters were acknowledging them as such, especially since the strange customs of the non-magical world is a running theme. But, no. It’s Christmas and Easter and Halloween and all the stuff the readers can identify with.

Ay, there’s the rub: enough of Rowling’s world is cribbed from other sources make-believe that keeping in such recognizable holidays helps keep things grounded for the younger kids. Not to mention the older ones. And can you imagine how much more flak the books would get from Fundamentalists if Christmas was replaced with Saturnalia or Natalis Invicti? As it is, probably the worst influence the books have is introducing children to faux Latin.

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Second Life, Activism, and the Digital Arena

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Winners don't forget real world drugs.

Someone always has to harsh the mellow, don’t they? If it’s not grey goo (ding! ding! ding!), it’s do-gooders like the World Development Movement. Yeah, I’d never heard of them either, probably because they haven’t been adopted by Bono or Sting. Their big move is to place a counter in Second Life which ostensibly keeps track of the (estimated) number of children who’ve died from poverty and other preventable causes since the virtal world went live in 2003.

Unfortunately for the message, the counter is in fairly small type at the bottom of a large, underdesigned billboard which reads DON’T FORGET THE REAL WORLD. A valid if admonishing message, as is the counter, but what exactly are they expecting? That Second Lifers will see the billboard from afar, decide for some reason to come in for a (much) closer look, see the counter, then have an attack of conscience and do something about that world with its children croaking like clockwork?

An argument could be made that if it makes just one user, like Aimee The Scary Blowup Doll, get off their Frito-enhanced duff and do something—”something” probably meaning making a
contribution to the WDM—it was worth the effort. I guess, but even if Second Life shut down tomorrow, social conditions in meatspace would not improve. I’m reminded of the arguments against NASA and space exploration: we should take care of our problems on earth before we go into space! Yeah, well, if NASA was dismantled, the money would not go towards feeding the poor or educating children. When Napster was shut down, I kept an eye on the Billboard charts to see if Metallica albums would shoot to the top of the charts. Never quite happened.

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Second Life, Sony, and Suzanne

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Suzanne Vega, Journey, and Aimee the Scary Blowup Doll.My initial reaction was you have GOT to be shitting me, followed closely by huh. that kinda makes sense. That’s been my chain of response to most everything about the online virtual world thingy Second Life thus far, from the basic concept to its immense popularity to the gazillions of dollars spent on it daily to the notion that for many users it’s just high-bandwidth cybersex to the fact that major brands are establishing a marketing presence there. That it even qualifies as a “there” is troubling, but according to consensus reality, it exists. And where people go, they will be sold to. Certainly advertising in video games is nothing new, dating at least back to the Marlboro ads in Pole Position II. The blatant promotion of cigarettes to ten year-olds (as opposed to the comparatively more subtle Joe Camel approach) has that certain early-eighties charm, doesn’t it?

So after a momentary incredulousness, I realized the lack of shock value that the allegedly beleaguered music industry (whose tolerate/hate relationship with the internet is probably the most well-documented struggle since World War II) is attempting to get a piece of the virtual pie’s very real money, in such forms as the imaginatively named Sony Music Media Island. In Second Life parlance, an island is the same thing as in meatspace: a mass of land surrounded by water. The owner can do pretty much whatever they want with it, allowing for the fulfillment of more than a few fascist fantasies. Rule your vampire clan while sitting at your computer in a bathrobe! We may not have flying cars, but the Future’s still pretty great.

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More Politicians In The New World

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It’s no secret that we get really excited about the little things here at Medialoper, especially the bright and shiny things. So when I caught wind of potential presidential candidate Mark Warner (he’s now running the State of Virginia) appearing in Second Life, my first thought was (and I quote), “Huh?”

It was quickly followed by “Hmm, interesting.” Things moved rapidly to “Cool!” before I had a chance to refill my coffee. That’s the Internet for you, always moving at the speed of the mind.

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