Does SL have classes and levels after all?

/me hates to admit it but she thought that book was awful.

There's being in a class and then there's HAVING class, and they don't always coincide.

It's terrible in the middle. Made me appreciate some little touches in SL when I read it again and went 'oh yeah'.

And Brenda has outed me as being just as uncouth as I am. D'oh. PENGUIN!!!

How very true.

PENGUIN... Personally, I like PIFFLE.

/me thinks Cherry is a pretty classy broad. BURMA!

Will SL one day have class wars like many countries has have already? Choose your side now!!!!

There are no classes in SL unless you impose them through your own biases. People have tried to start class warfare in SL. A notorius gadfly pontificated endlessly on these forums about how entrenched and popular content creators were colluding to oppress "the little people" - that they only got where they are because of Linden favors - that new content creators couldn't break into the marketplace because everything is stacked against them - yada yada yada, ad nauseum. Absolutely none of it was true and this person ended up permanently banned from the SL forums for their constant harassment of everyone they considered part of this imagined cabal. For all their endless vitriolic screed writing the ideas never gained any traction (except as a joke) with anyone but those who like to imagine themselves as victims, and the endless stream of new and successful SL businesses has proved the theory wrong over and over again. Some people seem to need a persecution complex. Some people need a "them" to rail against. They only succeed in marginalizing themselves. Most people aren't here to join someone else's self-pity party. There's too much fun stuff to do and cool people to meet. Since SL has no built in narrative there will always be those who try to create one by dragging their own real world biases into SL and projecting them onto everyone else. It never sticks. Everyone's too busy making their own (usually far more creative) narratives.

When I was a newbie, walking the grid as a highly modified Ruth, I was constantly offered clothes (though I was already wearing non-linden clothes), and people often commented on my avatar (mostly positive comments). Then I got a custom skin, prim hair and paid-for fashion and accessories. And now nobody pays me any attention.

So, in leveling-up, I reduced my social contact

Just to clarify, the original author was using "class" in the MMORPG sense of the word - in a MMORPG, your "class" doesn't refer to your social class (upper class, lower class, etc) but to the general type of character you are (for example, "fighter", "wizard"; or perhaps on Second Life, "furry", "designer", "artist", etc).

The "upper class/lower class" as it's commonly used in English, in the terms of level of achievement or privilege, would correspond to what the original author was calling "level".



But that's the paradox - doesn't that very treatment show that the person in question wound up in a "lower class" to the successful people?

(And, I don't disagree with your comments that the FIC theory was untrue, but I should note that saying "there are many new and successful SL businesses", while true, isn't strictly a good data point because for every one that succeeds there could be a hundred that fail and are never heard of.)

Kind of like RL

There are no FIC.

*shifts eyes*

Rare for me to disagree with you Desmond but on this one I beg to differ.

In my day job (of which you are aware) a strong degree of independence together with targeted objectives working by yourself is usually far more successful than team playing, in fact partnerships are the exception rather than the rule at my level

Within WoW I have mostly solo gamed. I am now up to level 49 (Night Elf Druid) and am nicely placed to leverage that to around 55. (Tip for WoW people here) Go to Fellwood when you hit 46/47. Kill wolves and collect tainted skins. When you hit level 48 do two quests, one allows you access through the tunnel guarded by Bear type things and then build reputation with them as they sell you rare things from their (hidden) vendors. Also do the quest that turns tainted skins into salves, which you then use to repair plants. Open each plant as you mend it and you get a buff that increases critical hit by a massive 70 and all other attributes by 15 (lasts for one hour) There are loads of plants to mend, each one gives the buff so you only need to find one per session and there is no limit to repairing them again and again. Knock off high level mobs especially those that help with the Bear things in the tunnel. Do not do this in groups, as the rewards are diminished.

Oh yes, save up your gold and buy unique/rare weapons and/or armour. That also pays as it enables you to win one-to-one battles with mobs at up to 6 levels above you, they drop well too -

@Capella: I SO agree.

@those who were so nice about my earlier post: I should have stopped there and never posted again, lol, ty!

@Yumi: thank you so much for starting this thread! The original article led me to one about the gadfly Chip is speaking of, and the hilarious theory of the FIC!! Which predates my SL life.

(FIC = "Feted Inner Core" for those who like me had no clue). I just have to say about that theory that most swiftly growing businesses have Customer Advisory Boards to help them keep in touch with their customer base, and board members' various opinions are indeed somehow taken into account in forward planning. These folks are of course compensated for their time and expertise. The fact that any resident was able to spread the FIC theory so widely is a graphic illustration of how even the spectacularly naive can exert influence in SL's (still) fairly flat social structure.

The problem with the FIC theory is that it exists in multiple different forms, and the person who originally wrote it tended to switch the meaning around a lot, and was also prone to launching random nasty attacks on people when discussing it, which didn't help anyone understanding it or wanting to understand it.

The idea Chip presented, of the FIC as a uber-powerful conspiracy of creators who deliberately keep others out using Linden ties, isn't true - although there were some aspects of it around, at one stage. Like, now we have the "developer's directory", where you can sign up to be considered for RL jobs in SL - but that didn't always exist. Before that, RL companies would approach LL directly, and LL would refer the RL company to whichever SL creators they thought were good and had heard of; which is fair enough, except that the "and had heard of" bit doesn't scale (nobody, not even the Lindens, could possibly know the names of every single good creator in world). It was commonly believed, although not necessarily true, that the Lindens created the developer directory in response to the FIC theory. So, out of evil came good.

However, FIC as what's implied by its name - a group of residents who are central to a community ("inner core" and are lauded by that community ("feted" _does_ actually exist, simply because it is human nature for such a thing to happen - it's what is otherwise known as the Pareto principle or 20:80 rule - although there isn't just one FIC (as the original poster thought) but seperate ones for each community on SL. Go into certain communities and you'll hear the same names over and over again. And while they may not directly keep others out, it's another part of human nature that some people will just choose not to get involved when it seems like the kings and queens are already crowned. And I think it was actually correct, and interesting, to ask if LL or the world as a whole have to take steps to counteract either of these two parts of human nature in order for SL to remain open as a creative platform. (As it turned out, however, SL's development had to be turned towards a more business oriented direction, and capitalist business absolutely supports the 20:80 rule, because it represents efficient resource allocation.)

I'm not looking at SL from a builder's lens, any more than I look out at the real-world with my real eyes. I only use building as an example, because it’s what my SL ego does “for a living.” And from my experience, and in my opinion, if I was to label the “lower class” it would be campers.

Try to understand, one can label, and at the same time place no judgment. It is a fine line, but nevertheless, possible.

The middle class (just like in RL) are these credit card holding consumers you speak of. I completely agree. They are the masses, and just like the topic at hand, can be “labeled.” Let’s for the sake of argument, label them “blue collar” or “middle class.”

I know there are a myriad different types of people—but just like in RL, a breakdown of occupation and attitude can be developed.

Michael, I liked seeing you in "I, Robot." Good work.

Sonny--the robot in iRobot--was a HAV 2 unit--I, on the other hand, am a HAV 3 unit.

However, Dr. Alfred Lanning designed both units--good call.

But that's the most humorous part of it. He didn't. He's a very successful land baron with a thriving rental business. His success or failure in no way depended on anyone else's approval, and that success deserves to be lauded. All his theory succeeded in doing is alienating him from those who otherwise would have had no issues whatsoever with him. His success despite his tireless efforts to portray himself and others as victims of an entrenched oligarchy is deliciously ironic, and itself perfect proof that his theory had its genesis in self-imposed bias rather than in reality.