An Article On Second Life - Some What Creppy...

As did I, Chip. He had me at "building monuments to our passion". I'd even go furry for a guy who thinks like that

Well... eventually. Maybe.

If you read all the article he said he was 14 in 1979...

Best outsider article I've seen. Author "gets it".

This is the best thing writen about Second Life ever.

It's true, the article states in Second Life there is total freedom, and you can see the sometimes unusual results of complete freedom gone wild.

You can.... But should you?

Overall a good article but let's face it... the Disney reference and kiddie porn innuendo was just creepy!

One thing he didn't touch on nuf for me is the importance of relationships and how the lines between RL and SL are intertwined. SL is much more about relationships than sex for me n most of the people I know. Sex can certainly be a byproduct of a special relationship but if I had to either give up sex or friendship and love... it wouldn't even be close. Friendship and love are what makes me log in-world, not sex.

oops!
sorry. that would make him older than me, and that's old indeed.

still, not right about punk IMO though.

I did read it all, but I skimmed some of the slower bits, and the way he coded it cut off half of the first column of text in my browser, so I could have missed some stuff.

.

Hey, now! Watch your step, kiddo! You're on thin ice here.

But don't ask me about punk. During that period of my life, I was looking for less angst and more synth... not to mention a certain lyricist who could work a reference to Nabrokov into a top-20 tune.

Guess I was never quite angry and alienated enough to "get it".

To me, SL harkens back to the "do your own thing" vibe of '60s street art and performance. There's a magical quality of independent creativity to it, and not much of the nihlistic rage that fueled punk.

I would posit that Joseph Campbell and C.G.Jung are spinning even faster than Freud.

I know an English major-turned-journalist when I read one.

What a disjointed romp through the realms of pop-culture. By and large, an interesting article, though.

(P.S. Have I committed some kind of egregious SL gaffe by not offering men [male avies] penises? Just wondering)

yes! Ill expect my free penis forthwith.

I like the fact that he captures the essence of that side of Second Life. I find myself more and more using SL as a place I can relax, let my true feelings come out, and it really helps me cope with the mundane stuff.

haha my first penis was payed for by a lady, almost a year past before I had an opportunity to wear it. They don't even sell that brand anymore. Four SL subversions later and the thing still worked; I was throughly amazed (and so was the lady who decided to spam click it causing it to cum; was kind of embarrassing, was in public).

But on the flip side I've helped many a lady find suitable outfits and bits.

There aren't so many horny bunnies in SL as yiffy foxes, but i do suppose yiffy hasn't made it's way into the venacular.

If i had to sort the catagories by population...
Fox
Cat
Wolf
Equestrian
Dragon (i don't care that they have scales)
Dog
Mephit (skunk)
Bunny
Hyaena
Deer
Birds
Care Bears
Aquatic Creatures

Hmmmmmm.

'Suitable bits'? Sounds so much like a breakfast cereal. How, on earth, could that ever be bad?

The best part are the cherries

This thread is rapidly devolving into TMI

suitable bits, now with more frosting!


and you know you love the TMI

Chip is right! Shame on me for stepping in the TMI!

In the spirit of "Fridayness," I suppose that 'bits' are a better gift than, say, a mullet. I used to give away mullets. I couldn't think of a better way of saying, "Boy howdy!"

From now on, nothing but 'bits' for me!

This escapist magazine is impressive! I agree the write up on SL was joy to read, I am reading the other articles now, extraordinary prose and perspective for geeky stuff!

I totally agree.

That is why I felt the voice of the article was younger in that they seemed to buy into the more modern notion of "punk" being just about any loud youth band.

I listened to Kraftwerk and OMD in the late 70's (as much as I could without the folks finding out), and almost anything electronic in the 80's, but I enjoyed the 60's vicariously through an older sibling as well.

I believe the 60's/70's period was a special time, never to be repeated in fact. Those that would have us believe the so-called rebelions of todays youth are the same thing dont have a clue IMO. If they took a bit more capitalism out of the mix, SL is kind of like that same spirit.

PS - Dont worry about your age, I have a thing for older women.

I think even the commercialism has its parallels. While there was a lot of spontaneous, free creativity in the '60s, there was also a raft of Madison Avenue types looking for ways to package it and put it on the shelves for mass consumption. That wasn't always a bad thing, but it tended to promote style over substance.

I don't worry about my age. I have two adorable lifemates that routinely make me feel very young indeed

PS - I can no longer listen to Kraftwerk without thinking about Sprockets. Would you like to touch my monkey?

I like to think of SL as being, in a way, something of a re-imagining of the original freewheeling spirit of the pre-Web Internet/USENET. Except even more so.

SL is Dr. Hook's "Freaker's Ball" come to life; here you can have a TSO mafioso, a wildly creative scripter, a furry, and an BDSM enthusiast all chatting happily in the same room.

Sometimes they're even the same person.

Well, guess we are lucky that YOU don't get to choose our freedoms.

Mmmm. I love my Sugar-Frosted Chocolate Suitable Bits!

IMO, the author gets half of it, attacks his point very well, and knows how to write. At the same time, he leaves out several important aspects of Second Life in favor of blanket "this is all about hedonism." Money politics comes quickly to mind.

It's certainly an interesting take, though. It's like Sigmund Freud talking about the Internet.

Well, he was focusing on the *interesting* parts of Second Life.

And I don't think he was necessarily simply "All About the Hedonism, Baby". He did point out a lot of the surrealness of Second Life. It is a world where daydreams can come true...and just because we adults have 'adult' daydreams sometimes doesn't detract from the very real outbursts of beauty in-world.

And about the Disney as adult fantasies portion...I'm sorry, but you can't tell me the animators of such characters as Ariel, Jasmine, and Esmarelda (the only female character in Disney history to do a poledance) were *accidentally* making these characters sexy. Sex has been a silent part of the Disney empire since Annette Funicello grew breasts on The Mickey Mouse Club. The author is right: kida will perceive things as kids, and adults will perceive things as adults. There's nothing wrong with that, IMHO.