Virtual Worlds and Morality

Well more so to make stuff worth something, no fun mindlessly breaking stuff if it's copyable.
So if weapons have to be made individually they would be worth more and use prims from the sim count of course

You talk about breaking stuff as if it were a bad thing. If we didn't break stuff, there would be no room for making new stuff.

Thank you for starting this thread Lindal. I haven't been able to laugh at so much overt hypocrisy, self-contradiction, sloppy thinking and empty rhetoric since that one about nuking the Gorean sim.

Pep (Some common sense and clear thinking, but that seems the exception to the rule)

Yep it's halarious what some people will believe when you are just blowing smoke.........................

I suppose it *was* Friday . . .

Pep (All day!)

Not if he spaces his Claymores properly.

And I don't think they are empty either, at least coming from Chris and what I know of him. I won't speak for him, but there is the saying "better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees." I am starting to subscribe to that more each day.

We have teenagers in RL among us too. I can't see a problem with being among teenagers in, let's say, Svarga.

The child av witch hunt isn't remotely related to RL kids being on the grid. RL kids don't use child avatars in SL because they want to appear adult.

Someone asked who would police the PG standards if the main grid was indeed PG. I said, we would. I just used child avs as an example for efficient self-policing (in fact, a way too efficient one).

Exactly why I prefer not to have them in SL.

Yes, but Chris has an advantage that you and I don't have - he lives in a hollowed- out island volcano lair.

True. I just have a big maple tree in my front yard.

I agree. 18 and 19 are bumbling and boors but I am concerned also with the 16 and that ilk. If we open ourselves to that uninspiring generation it will be a case of "apres moi le deluge".

I agree I am hard on them - I really am - but this is an adult world and adults dont expect to mix with teenagers in teh privacy of their real "downtime" when they are on sl. Let's be honest and state that the real reason there is a gathering concensus of opinion that we should have this extra population is because their will boost the economy. North American and (sometimes) European teenagers have cash to spend. The business owners can see these kids as a potential goldmine.

Morally and in every other way, I dont expect they will make a difference. The few 18 and 19 years olds are either so badly educated they cant speak or type coherently or they are so arrogant they are tire me out. Let them roleplay in teh worlds designed for them. I can;'t converse about my interests with them.

(By the way, Good Morning Brenda!)

This might be one reason but not the only one. The vast majority of people who never saw what SL is all about think it is a world "awash with porn and sex". Just look at the recent UK coverage. Since SL is actually "for adults only" one might wonder if that is true. We all know it is not. So why not open SL for all ages and finally make clear that adult stuff is only *one* part of it by designating a special and safe area for it? SL must get rid of that redlight stigma if it wants to be attractive for serious applications.

An interesting point and one which I tend to agree with. However, as you and I know there's no such thing as bad publicity.

BUT

I think the promotion of sl in teh real world is very poorly done. To get the "right" people means spending money on advertising in the right places. Word of mouth, coffee urn, "pass it along" advertizing simply doesnt work. If anybody did that with what I do I would be royally s***wed. No. To get the right people (who can be just as interested in partnerhips, sex, and roleplay) means appealing to the professional strata of real society, the academically inclined and employed and the artistic groups who can bring a fresh spirit into our virtual world. We havent got enough Free Thinkers and artists. We havent enough students and academics (although I have a "thing" about educators and schools, I admit we need them).

Now, I am NOT saying these will be morally uplifting types, BUT they may be more interested in the possibilities that a virtual world offers and less inclined to indulge in the "redlight" options. Our problems have been that computers are so much a part of the work environment or so little appreciated by many many people in reality that they simply cant see it as a relaxing home activity.

Finally, appeal to those who are isolated in their reality. I have options to be in cities and really have crowds of people around me - when I am in this real residence from where I often visit sl, I am the only person for miles and miles. I bet there are many like me who could be appealed to or tempted or charmed by an hour of intelligent conversation on a laptop.

One of LL's biggest failings in my opinion is their lack of promotion and sometimes defense of SL in the General Public. I stumbled across SL purely by accident, it was an obscure reference on some site, and out of boredom on a snowy day I tried it. I'm not a gamer, and don't visit other forums or read blogs, and I'm sure there are a lot of others out there , like me, that might like SL. Except for a mediocre CSI episode, there really isn't any LL initiated promotion. Plenty of bad press, and even there LL seems to just shrug it off and keep silent. Have they ever rebutted these "ZOMFUGELEVEN" stories, in a place where the same general populace can see them? Have they ever contacted one of these "journalists" who claim to only find sleaze, and say "Log back in and let us show you what else SL has to offer"? They can't even be bothered to put out a decent website and forum, a place where a lot of people may base their decision on whether to join SL or not.

LL consistantly relies on it's customers to do things THEY should be doing as the service provider. And they consistantly repay it with indifference, condescention, and sometimes outright contempt.

*Me doffs her coffee mug Jig's way.

And I doff back and realize I really wanna mug of coffee. There's snow on teh ground in my part of the world. I be back in a while

QFT

And what better company to morally pave the way for the rest of humanity to engage all people to an online virtual world that advances the human condition.

Irony can be ironic.......

See, it's this belief, the mistaken belief that virtual worlds "enhance the human condition" that makes me afraid for our future as a species. I'm far more scared of that future than the idea of an apocalyptic post-nuclear Mad Max nightmare world.

There is such a world. It is called Real Life and it works - as long as you don't get caught.

OMG! A Har sighting!

My guess is two-fold. The first part is lack of enough people to care enough to send in ARs. The second part is lack of enforcement. As more and more businesses and universities get involved in SL, the first part may change resulting in a change in the second part.

--Hugsy

I'm talking about a system where you place restrictions on yourself. Look at google search preferences. They have Safe Search Filtering with these options:

( ) Use strict filtering (Filter both explicit text and explicit images)
( ) Use moderate filtering (Filter explicit images only - default behavior)
( ) Do not filter my search results.

I'm talking about something like that for SL



We're all adults, but when it comes to the workplace certain standards should apply. When I'm demoing SL, I really don't want people seeing pornographic images or foul language even if no one's going to be shocked by it.



I agree. Once they leave the corporate island, all bets are off (unless there was an effective strict filtering mode that I think lots of people would use).

--Hugsy

NO Gambling either

That happened years later, after the Internet had already won.

In the 3d space, we're a long way from knowing what kind of model will win.