Nu Vibez and Roleplay Guide Magazine - August 2014 | Page 31

More than A Game - Virtual Rela onships with Real People- p2

More Than A
Game – virtual
relationships with
real people

which involves interac ons with other
residents according to some mes
prescrip ve and some mes fluctua ng
rules that regulate behaviour. These folks
are more likely to be the ones that have
avatars displaying their fantasy realm of
the moment, vampire, warrior, animal,
fairy and so on, at least most of the me,
if not all the me.

By HillarySwi Resident
Second Life (SL) just celebrated its
eleventh birthday, and some residents
have been around since the beginning
and have seen it grow and transform over
me. But what is 'it” that the residents of
SL are involved in? Is it a game, an
environment self-contained separate
from real life (RL), or is it another version
of RL using technology to communicate?
How we sit on this issue is likely to
influence how we relate to each other in
the SL world and how we interpret the
interac ons we experience.
A quick internet search for the defini on
of a game produces two main contras ng
meanings: A compe ve ac vity played
according to rules, or an ac vity one
engages with for amusement. These
seem adequate for our purposes and
nicely direct us to the two main ways
people see SL.
There are certainly residents in SL that
see it as a role play (RP) environment

The other major group are those who
choose to create avatars that are not RP
related. These vary in the extent to which
they resemble the human that created
them and they also vary in the kinds of
environments they choose to patronise
and the rela onships they choose to
engage in. They vary from people whose
avatars are created to closely resemble
themselves in RL and they use SL to do
much the same things they do in RL, such
as have a house, go to shops and social
events. Then there are people whose
avatars are completely different from
their RL selves (including being the
opposite sex) and they do things that
they never or rarely could or would do in
RL, such as explore Bondage Domina on
Submissiveness/Sadism and Masochism
(BDSM), and pros tu on.
There are also complex combina ons of
all three kinds of 'lives' in SL, which just
reflects the plurality of humanity and the
mul ple ways humans have found to
explore and enjoy the SL world.
Nu Vibez Magazine - August, 2014 - 31