Philip Rosedale says: "I think Second Life is a kind of a Wild West"

Oh wash your mouth out with soap, Blade Runner might be a great film but it's based on a story by Philip K Dick and as we all know "dick" is a very rude word, if "Gothic Lolita" is offensive then "dick" must be much more offensive.

And Philip K Dicks title for what became Blade Runner was " Do androids dream of electric sheep' and we all know the friggin mess the Electric Sheep guys made.

And I am sure taht both Claran and Laval must mean something offensive in at least one of the 2,000 or so languages spoken on Earth...

Indeed (great read by the way). Also sheep could be linked to furries and we all know that's immoral.

Actually"Minority Report" is a film and story the Linden's should be taking in, because a lot of this nonsense is going down the "Minority Report" path!

oi! Be nice lol!

Funny thing, but once the Wild West was tamed by law, order and at least an outward appearance of morality it eventually grew into what would be the 10th largest economy in the world if it were an independent nation....

Actually you hit something on the head. SL is not really like the wild west at all but more like an independent coutry coming to grips with its new found freedom.

I know this would never happen but I would love to see it just left alone by the lawyers and the govenments (which have outdated laws and such to begin with with dealing with internet matters) and see what would happen.

Would some sort of government start on it's own in SL? Would the various people from around the world actually be able to agree on such a thing?

From a social science POV it's all rather intersting to watch.

It's definitely a frontier, and happily one we are not wresting away from someone else who happened to already be here first.

I see the whole internet as a wild frontier, actually. Lots of outlaws in the form of hackers and spammers. And deeds of virtue perhaps tend to go unsung in the hustle and bustle of it all.

And computers are in their stone age, whew.

-Fo

I don't know. There are some here who feel "Their" SL is being taken away from them by the masses that have been flocking here in recent months.

Well, they're the ones that are looking for reasons to complain.

Honestly, the "corporate plastic world being forced on us" thing is a crock. Last time I went to IBM island it was empty and I haven't seen any RL corporation's presence since then. The people that really want to be in the warm, moist womb of RL corporate media don't have to go to SL to do it!

Being a concept that has never been executed at this magnitude, SL is going through a series of growing pains and isn't likely to stop for a while if they want to be on the cutting edge of virtual worlds. It's the nature of innovation.

Age verification will be ironed out eventually (maybe years) and SL will eventually find a balance between the wholesomeness that LL and watchdog groups want and SL's seedy underbelly that the sexual and social deviants create. Then there will be something like internet earnings taxes or requiring business licenses (or whatever) and THAT will have to be ironed out all over again.

The problem is these growing pains are magnified by the fact that this company is run by creative people with little or no business sense. Idealism isn't good for business.

IBM, AOL, NBA, Pontiac, Toyota,American Apparel,Coldwell Banker, The Weather Channel, are ones that come to mind that I've seen mentioned. I've only stumbled across the Coldwell Banker one while helicopter flying myself. *how I wish my ship was armed.*

Being armed wouldn't matter since those areas were most likely empty or had new people! Shooting n00bs in a barrel??

Yeah, the only RL corporate presence I think could potentially cause harm would be Playboy...although that could act as a gateway for more sex addicts so SL's sex industry could get a much un-needed boost!

Otherwise just about everyone you mentioned will most likely fade in a year or so when someone notices that they could save a couple thousand a month by getting rid of their stupid island.

From what I read a while back IBM is already starting to rethink their SL presence.

Oh well. So far none of these RL corporations have anything to offer as far as competition for my attention anyway!

I'm with you Squeezer. I have no interest in them here, and would be delighted if they packed up and went back to RL.

Since you're the vocal voice of the majority right? I don't recall being forced to go to IBM island or Circuit City

I only speak for myself, voicing my opinions. I definitely recommend ignoring what I say.

How could we ignore you Brenda?

BTW, I am still trying to figure out how to slip the strawberries past the censors.

That's because you haven't heard about the AWESOME deals you could get on a washer and dryer unit for SL!

Yes, as long as your neighbor is just "saying" what they believe and not "demanding" that you also believe what they believe! When you neighbor starts demanding you adhear to his/her believe or move, then its time to fight back and kick his/her butt out first! Ben Franklin made some comment about freedom once i think... perhaps more people should look that statement up?

Well, to give you some history, the idea of government has been floated before - see the various arguements for and against in the old Political Science Forum
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That being said, LL has always told SL residents to bring the things they wanted in-world, which included government. To a degree, that is exactly what happened, but not in the way people think. SL does have government, they are called Dreamland, Caledon, Azure Islands, etc... You abide by the rules there or you get shown the door. It is the mainland that has no government and never will. Those that wanted a controlled environment (government!) fled to private islands a long time ago and there is a reason why there is a waiting list to get into most of them. The mainland will always be a sort of wild-west because it is impossible for any one resident to control it, even those who own all of the land in a given sim don't get the same type of control that an estate owner does. If you want to see what would happen without rules and structure, you need look no further than the mainland - which is a both a good thing and a bad.

For the sake of amusement, I just did a little tour of some of the corporate sims. Yawn. No wonder they have no traffic, there is next to no compelling content and reason for people to just hang. They are beautifully built, but sterile. The only place with any action was the Skate Park and a public sandbox. I crashed twice on the IBM sims....

Then the answer is not to censor thought or speech but never allow any group the ability to have the power to force you to conform to their beliefs.

My favorite Franklin quote is "Those who will trade liberty for security will soon have neither."
Or words to that effect.

Or "We have given you a Republic, if you can keep it." To bad we didn't.

"We must hang together, or we will surely hang separately." is another good one.

Maybe if you call them LindenBerries? But Mr Hack may be right. I am posting too much. I'm beginning to agree with Squeeze a little to much for comfort......

You are kidding right?

Playboy is so tame compared to a lot of the stuff that goes on in Secondlife, anyone who tries SL for it will seem almost as niave as the SLirgins.

What I'm saying is that Playboy would most likely lead more people to the rest of SL's pretend sex industry. LIke a "gateway drug" if you will. Observe...

Regular Guy: I like Playboy. What's this Second Life thing they started? I should go see...

the next day: this is pretty cool...cartoon boobs are pretty awesome.
the next week: too bad I still can't touch those cartoon boobs...I wonder what else they have in SL...
the next month: the Crackhouse is AWESOME!! I wonder what it would be like to pretend to be a girl and do all that...
two months later on the forums: LL IS OPPRESSING OUR FREEDOMS!!! WTF IS UP WITH ALL THESE UPDATES AND CRASHES, TOO!?!?!?!

Another satisfied customer!

you are either joking - or this post is just stereotypical nonsense.

Don't hate just because you're a customer, too!