Snow Crash and Second Life!

I wanted to know what you guys think about death in both the book Snow Crash and in Second Life. I think you should be able to die in SL, like in snow crash. What do you guys think? Namely on the differences of death between SL and the Metaverse.

Well.. I don't know. That's a deep issue there.

If one "could" die.. how would that be dealt with?

As it is now.. when you *die*, you're TPd home. What else could be made happen and be fair also? For paying and lifetime customers, any sort of suspension from service other than for TOS reinforcement should not be allowed.

Now, if you somehow want to cancel your account.. there's something you might be able to work on. But then again, you're probably not online when you cancel. So you just never *wake up*, like silent deaths.

It is an interesting topic.

I never read the book. How is death portrayed in it?

Right now, dying in SL is abrupt and not even clear that one is TP'd home because they died. I'd like more theatrics. Flashing lights even. I remember the first time I "died." I was flying towards a building and then was suddenly TP'd back to the Welcome Area. Nothing. So boring.

Didn't they all end up eating each other in Snow Crash? If so, then yes, I can see the parallels between it and Second Life.

I agree, there should at least be some gushing blood and maybe a sword somewhere. It isn't fair, really it isn't.

Have I ever told you how beautiful you are, Lo?

In regards to other ways to handle death... In Sociolotron, there are two forms of death. One is where you just come back and retrieve your things and keep on going. You also have the option of PERMA-Killing another player. In this instance, if you prevail in combat, the other persons character is totally wiped out. If thay have heirs, they can assume that character. If they have no heirs, they have to start a new character completely from scratch.

One additional note. IF you DO perma-kill someone, you spend two weeks in "prison".

Patrick Playfair

Death in Snow Crash is portrayed (in the Black Sun) by a user's body being swept up by little cleaning demons and taken below the "floor" of the club. Or so I remember.

Oh, so you like swords too?

*

Yes, I think I recall you telling me so in another thread. Thanks again

LOL Ingrid... IMSMC, that was Alive. There was, in all fairness, a literal snow crash in that, so it's not too far off the mark.

Cannibals in SL?

Call Gen Grace, she's wanted and on the loose...

*dies laughing* i was all "eating each other????"

why would I want some one else to be able to preeminently delete my account? This would just increase negative social behayour.

btw in snow crash when your killed you can't log back in till the demons clean up all the peaces. So if you exploded into a million little peaces it take longer to log back in. And if some one was to say hold onto your spleen. You wouldn't be able to log in. I have no interest in that happening.

Well the thing in snow crash was *spoiler*












there was a virus that was uploaded that would fill the user's screen with the static that you see on blocked TV channels... a literal "Snow Crash." However, when a person looked at that "Snow Crash" they would die... I forget how exactly...

My preference goes to either thunder from above, à la "Colère des dieux", or the Monthy Python Foot alternative.


This is no death, it's a "teleport agent home" with a custom animation That's what happens when the snow-crash equivalent of a land owner "kills" (= kicks out or bans) another avatar.

Interesting question.

There were at least 3 different forms of death that took place in Snow Crash. Which are you referring to? What happened with the duel in the Black Sun was basically just a game subroutine, where the loser was disconnected from that particular space. We do have games here where a similar thing happens, and certain areas where that behavior is actually allowed.

Later in the book, the Metaverse is used as a metaphorical space for the hacking done by Hiro and Raven, where what was actually happening was both parties were using their programming skills to attack each other. "Death" in this case occurs when one succeeds in knocking the other party offline or blocking their access to the 'net. We have seen scripters (and the occasional geometric oddity) capable of doing that here, usually by causing an entire sim to crash. This is against the TOS.

The third form of death seems rather unlikely at our current stage of development (SL) or even at the level portrayed in Snow Crash. That was the actual Snow Crash virus, which was capable of "crashing" the actual brains of hackers. Before that type of death becomes available, I think things would have to advance to the level shown in Ghost in the Shell. Certain people, such as those prone to epilepsy, might be vulnerable now.

The big difference I see here is that SL is a private, controlled domain while the Metaverse was a free-for-all, metaphorical means of accessing the entire connected data and communications net of the planet.

In a Virtual World, "death" is pointless - except for locations where it is served as a feature, such as a game.

Death should not affect you on the general mainland as a whole, as the mainland is general-purpose oriented.

SecondLife handles it pretty well by allowing users to enable this feature in specific restricted regions such as parcels. Unfortunatly, the execution of Death in SecondLife is lacking: You get sent home. I would personaly prefer to be able to set a respawn point in the same damage-enabled plot instead of going trough a teleport procedure.

Just my 2 L$.

Thank you Ananda Sandgrain, for so elequently answering his query =P

pbbbbbbbbbt.

I think it would be cool if instead of getting merely teleported, the Graveyard Daemons came out and sucked you under the earth like Snow Crash =D

Then you get teleport home after hehehe

If you 'die' in SL, a blue ghostly outline of you should be left behind when you TP home. The outline would only last a few seconds, tho.

you should leave a glowing skeleton behind with a surprised look on its face.

LOL...well there has been gush and blood...if you know a creative scripter and animator and sound person...or if you happen to be proficient in all three....LOL...I cant remember his name now...but there is an alien dude that has this fish bowl globe thing over his head. He had this great set up where he would fall over and his space helmet breaks and his head distorts and he gasps for breath and then dies....kinda a spin off from Total Recall....we make life and death and there inbetween...we are the puppet master and thats the fun of it...we are our own GOD. I love that feeling...lmao....but we are the controller of it all...you want death...make it happen then gimme a shout so I can check out your handy work.

hugs
jj

The only online place I know of with true death was (is?) A Tale in the Desert. The entire world voted for one person who could kill another player. Some people campaigned on the platform that they wouldn't do it. If they chose to do so that player and their ip was banned from the game forever. This is all from memory, and quite a while ago so the details may be a bit off. Also I think the number of players they could kill off was limited to one, or once a month or something.

ROFL best idea yet! I am definitely going to have to make something now hehehehe

EDIT: Great thread btw

Off topic, but speaking of 'death scenes'.

Anyone a Terry Pratchett fan as well?

"REMEMBER ME?"

Oh oh...