Untitled+Community+and+Solitude


 * The Thin, Pixelated Line**

Through and throughout all travels through the world of video games, one has the potential to encounter any number of different individuals with any number of different goals, virtues, ideals and ideas of fun. The common ground here is that if you meet someone who is also playing a video game, the common assumption is that they also like video games. But Second Life is a perfect illustration of how this dynamic is changing. There are many users in Second Life who are not and have never been "gamers". What they are looking for are new experiences, and this is what being in-world can provide. The reasons people play Second Life are as diverse as the way these same people live out their lives in the real world (the term "play" will be used from here on out to describe the experience of Second Life for simplicity's sake, though some would object to the term being applied). Traversing Second Life, one has the opportunity to see landscapes and persons as diverse (if not more so) as the world that we all live in.

There has been a great deal of discussion as to the various kinds of barriers that Second Life involves. In this portion of our research, the goal is to clearly describe and analyze the boundary that separates Second Life from real life. At first glance, this barrier appears to be nothing more than a mental one. When a user sits down in front of a computer to log onto The Grid, he or she does not experience a magical sort of transport away to the far away land of their choosing in-world. No matter how involved a user gets in the world of Second Life, they must always continue to exist outside of it. So what conclusion can be drawn from this realization? There is also a physical barrier that provides separation of the user from the content of Second Life. This barrier is far stronger than that of the user's psyche, and as yet cannot be broken. So the user will always have a physical connection to real life. The level at which the user can ignore this connection varies from person to person and is very involved in how much the overall barrier can shift or weaken during time online.

So with the physical barrier between Second Life and real life remaining strong, we are left with the mental barrier and the possibility of overcoming it as a way to achieve greater immersion in-world. This is not as difficult as it might sound. The user need not take drastic measures. There is no need to press one's face up against the monitor, restricting the field of view to Second Life only. The mental barrier can be overcome or at least amended with nothing more than a little focus and concentration. The level of immersion into Second Life greatly affects the type of user as well as their observable behavior in world. These types and their effects will be discusses later on.

First, it is important to frame the topic of this research. It originally began after discovering an interesting trend in-world. There are what may (without much of a stretch) be referred to as "vacation communities" in-world. These are islands in no particular location that seem to have no potential for monetary gain for those who "inhabit" them. There is no potential for awareness on these islands. They are in look and utilization very similar to wealthy coastal vacation communities around the United States. There are a whole string of these islands and the slurls for several of them can be accessed in this journal page section. These vacation communities prompted a series of questions about the way that users choose to spend their time in-world, including whether or not the emulation of real life relaxation in world could have the same effect when simply acted out in Second Life. This led to another line of questioning entirely, especially after speaking with woman whose avatar was very clearly laying on a couch, "watching" television in a house on one of these vacation islands. You can find a full account of this encounter here, and there is a picture below of the island in question.



Not only was this avatar unwilling to answer any questions about how this property and spending time in it benefited her, she was adamant that no one trespass on her property at all. Even polite apologies couldn't sway her. This fierce protection of in-game privacy was what clued us into the possibility that many users actually identify their avatar as a separate entity from themselves, with it's own property and/or general set of rights. Having read //Fight Club// earlier this semester, the connection between users of this caliber and the multiple personalities of the narrator in the book seemed evident, though not in the same way. A heavy immersion into Second Life cannot ever break the physical barrier that the user always maintains with the real world, leaving the user with an inescapable eventuality, actualized by simple human needs like having to leave the computer to use the restroom. The fact is, though users may identify with and conceive of their avatars as separate entities from themselves, the immersion can never be complete, due to the physical barrier of real life. This led us to the conclusion that though there may be a few outliers, most Second Life users have a decent grip on reality while they are in-world. Of course, the user's ability to project a separate personality onto their avatar must vary by person, as shown above in the analysis of the mental barrier system and its variances on the personal level. However, either way this still does not place heavy restrictions on a user's ability to project their wants, needs, deep desires and fantasies onto their avatar (these are discussed in depth later on).

Even with this realization about the validity and possibility of locating persons in-world who would at least partially emulate P alahniuk's narrator, the //Fight Club// narrative was pursued a bit further, but with few results. Through a series of interviews, available in full on this journal page, the following characteristics of Second Life were brought into the light. First, in no interview was the goal achieved to uncover a Second Life "Tyler Durden". This goal was non-inclusive of the subversive tendencies found in the character, but rather the simple second personality of the narrator, who in this case would be the real world personality sitting at the computer. No one who was interviewed could be considered to fit this profile. The language of this paragraph was not used, as trying to get a person, in Second Life or not, to admit to having a second personality outright is unlikely. Another obstacle to this line of question was involved in the geographical locales used for it. Because this comparison for multiple personalities was first encountered on one of the "vacation islands" more research was conducted on multiple islands, under the assumption that there would be more people with some or all of the same habits around. This turned out to be true, but this leads to a more general obstacle to research in Second Life. Second Life can be very empty at times. It is a vast world which no one is born into or forced to inhabit, all voluntary, including the individual's level of involvement and amount of time spent in world. It is never as populated as one would expect, even at campaign headquarters, memorials, exhibits, etc...

The following picture is of the first successful interview regarding the territorialism of some Second Life users, as well as a discussion of land ownership norms. This took place on the same island as the first bad run in with a user seeking to be alone in-world, just a few houses over. The contrast was stark.

The final obstacles were those of restricted lands and territorial users. When the owner of a piece of Second Life "real" estate (ha ha! no pun intended!) wants to keep other avatars out, or control the access so that only a few may enter a certain space, a restricting barrier can be put up. The presence of a barrier usually means that the owner of the space is in fact at least a little territorial, making these final obstacles interrelated. That one might want to keep others out of a space that they created or payed to have created when they are not around is understandable, but what about those who spend time inside these bubbles of isolation? What is it they are getting out of this alone time? To be in a game that gives users boundless opportunities for social networking and yet choose to be alone is a concept that still intrigues. The sparse population of Second Life cannot be blamed. Though it may be tough to find people you actually want to spend time in world with, it always possible to find others with a little effort. This led to the consideration of the possibility of a need for solitude that for some could not be achieved (or perhaps not as well or easily) unless they were in-world. So if solitude is a basic human need that can be satisfied in a virtual word instead of or just as well as in the real world, then what does this mean for the boundaries between the two worlds? For the remainder of this paper, these boundaries will be discussed as the "boundaries of needs".

There are other needs that can be fulfilled by the in-game experience of Second Life. The most noticeable need that users seem to have is that of acquiring material possessions. The term "material" is (of course) used loosely as none of the acquirable "things" in-world are truly things at all, while they usually cost real money and rarely retain a resale value. Much more about Second Life businesses can be found at the Lumpy Mumfuzz Journal Page. As the "vacation islands" of Second Life are what first brought these questions to our group, below are a series of pictures illustrating the range and level of possessions avatars surround themselves with.

Mid-January 2008

Mid-April 2008







Though the first picture is inside and does not illustrate this as well as might be hoped, the first picture is from mid January while the rest of the series are of the same island in mid April of the same year (2008). Not only does this series help to illustrate all of the materialism that is pervasive throughout Second Life, the island photographed has completely changed in a matter of months. The rapid turnover of land in Second Life is generally judged to be a sign of a shallower immersion into the virtual world. Wendel Berry discusses the ease with which some people seem to move from location to location, without a sense of home or belonging. The lack of a sense of place when it comes to one's virtual real estate signifies a lack of connection to the location and thus not qualms about drastically changing it or getting rid of it all together. This can be applied to the level of immersion of individuals in Second Life, as well as the related issue of different user types. The picture below illustrates the first user type encountered while researching in Second Life.



The above image is that of a man interviewed who up until recently attended Morehead State University. He has a small business in-world, buying and selling property as well as some items of jewelry and weaponry that he designed and scripted himself. This fellow fits into the first of three user categories. He is a For-Profit user. These users are defined by their appraisal of Second Life a tool for profit and usually little else. Social networking is typically based around the same goal: profit. He explained how one can make money off of Second Life without investing any of your own. Simple item design and basic scripting knowledge is all that is required. When asked if he got any special gratification out of owning the house and property depicted above, he responded that it was a good idea to have land that you can sell when prices go up or land to design a house on and sell for a profit: purely business.

The next type of user found in-world is that of the Communal User. This type of user tends to peruse Second Life leisurely, taking in the sights, sometimes with friends and sometimes not. These users will usually not attempt to make any substantial profit in-world other than occasionally "camping" to earn a very small amount of Linden$. These users are typically in-world to learn about or try and participate in events that promote a political agenda or a type of awarenessin general. The Communal User is usually at a higher level of immersion than the For-Profit user, but still has a firm hold on the real world, mainly due to the real life issues that they use Second Life to experience or promote awareness about. The goal of creating real life change grounds the Communal User well, maintaining the mental barrier. The third type of user is however the kind who may really need the physical barrier maintained by their body to stay grounded in reality, especially during long sessions in-world.

This type of user is the Projecting User. The user projects his or her wants, needs, fantasies, etc... onto their avatar in-world, and using this shell as a starting template, they can actualize their need to feel, look and behave differently than in real life. This is the only part of the original research idea that still compares to //Fight Club//. This in not a mindless, out of control use of the avatar to experience all things that make the user uncomfortable in real life. The norm for the third user type is not to become totally hedonist at the moment of logon, though this does go on, especially in regards to sex and in-world experimentation. This final type of user is the most fully immersed in Second Life. They tend to collect high volumes of material possessions, have extensive social networks (though usually not those which work for change in real life) and on top of this are the closest we were able to find to Second Life "Tyler Durdens". These users, while they do exist, are few and far between. They are typically not as willing to share about themselves, as a large and meaningful part of their lives is lived out online. Through gentle prodding, one in depth interview was conducted with an avatar who referred to himself (his avatar name) in the third person (?) and once he was told that the interview was for an academic project he refused any pictures and requested that the name of his avatar not be used. The interview was mostly characterized by descriptions of his avatar's huge network of avatar friends (also spoken of as actual people, not people logged on as alter egos) and his avatar's material exploits. This is the most effective example of a user who's barrier of need is completely fluid between Second Life and real life. Those needs that he feels in real life, whether or not he could actually achieve them there, are projected onto his avatar in Second Life, where they can be attained more easily and to greater extent. His avatar even seemed compelled to "eat" as though it were in the real world.

So what can be concluded from this foray into a brave new online world? It seems that no matter who you are, the barriers that surround Second Life (and those that are present within Second Life) affect all users who choose to log on. We all carry the three barriers discussed here with us when we enter into Second Life. Individuality plays a huge role in determining to what extent we allow these barriers to affect our behavior while in-world. Whatever the total extent of crossover of need between Second Life and real life, it is clear that we all have the capacity to exert our real life needs in Second Life. Even this research project serves as an example, using the grid to extend the reach of our research into the political and social interaction of human beings. The mental and physical barriers serve each of us in a unique way and the ratio will be different for each person. For example, a paraplegic may feel physically liberated when logged on instead of feeling tied to the real world. Escape is a natural use of Second Life, as it is for many forms of electronic entertainment. But the barrier of needs remains the most constant for each and every one of us. That we may at any time increase of decrease the level of our utilization of Second Life to fulfill needs not met in real life is constant for all users. Our group even picked up a few flashy material possessions on the way, but nothing so fun as the pony at the bottom of the page :)

Mastodon, Hadley, Clementine

Not my little pony.

__**Bibliography**__


 * Wiki Pages (linked in the text above)**

__The Untitled Misfits Journal Pages__ http://ps545spring08.wikispaces.com/lumpy_journal http://ps545spring08.wikispaces.com/Hadley+Kiergarten%27s+Journal http://ps545spring08.wikispaces.com/Mr.+Dumpling%27s+Journal http://ps545spring08.wikispaces.com/ClementineJournal http://ps545spring08.wikispaces.com/MastodonMorningtonJournal

__ Ech0 Tereshchenko's Journal Page __ http://ps545spring08.wikispaces.com/Ech0+Tereshchenko

__Outside Sources__ Palahnuik, Chuck. __Fight Club__. New York:  W.W. Norton & Co., 1996 Berry, Wendell. __The Unsettling of America__. San Francisco.

Sierra Club Books, 1977

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