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Here is a link to my research project page

01/28/08 - 0137 Well, here's my journal page, finally. Not really sure what to write at the moment; most of my SL experience has been a lot of frustration with the interface and not being able to navigate to anywhere cool. Whatever. I'm sure I'll get it, just need to spend a little more time on it. How 'bout Obama in SC?! Am I right?

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03/19/08 - 2000 As promised (quite some time ago) here is a directory that will remain at the top of this page for easy navigation. First, a link to the group page of The Untitled Misfits, for ease of navigation. Also, there will be an archive section for easy navigation of the journal, located and the top of the page.

Below is the slurl for a moderately private island I stumbled upon. It's called The Outer Banks, and I'm thinking of "retiring" there ;) http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Outer%20Banks/196/126/26 The interesting thing about this island is that is seems to have absolutely NO earning potential or statement (political/ethical etc...) to make. It appeared to be an island filled with "vacation homes," much like one that I've been to in South Carolina, or pretty much any other vacation community you might find in the United States.

Here's another shot of some of the properties.

I ventured inside one of the properties, and found two lovely ladies who were willing to talk about the island I was on. They said they were friends of the owner, though come to think of it, they never said if there was one owner of the island or if there were multiple plots for use by different parties. Picture below...

The interesting thing that I learned from my talk with the ladies in the above photo was this: one warned me that she was fine with me coming in to her house, but that other inhabitants of this island might not be. True to their word, just prior to this encounter I had approached one of the few people on the map, who happened to be in a structure. She was extremely upset and accused me of "trespassing!" I was taken aback, as I had planned to ask her a few questions, and had not as of yet come across anyone in SL who was so territorial. The amusing portion of my encounter was when I first spotted her through an open door. I had landed on her deck and was walking into the room to talk to her. She was laying on a couch WATCHING TELEVISION. I did not have time to tell her how funny this was to me, but it may go along with Garbage Dumbling's desire to research the increased or decreased feelings of isolation while in SL. I personally don't see the appeal of sitting on a virtual couch, pretending to watch TV. As she did not appreciate my presence in her house, I did not take her picture, and was very lucky to find other's on the island who did not mind posing for me <MM

3/24/08 - 2014 I found several other vacation properties in SL. I thought it would be prudent to locate more than just the one, proving it more than a fluke. The setup of these properties is very similar to the other I found. Again, just houses (quite nice) for leisure. I assume someone is making money from leasing the land, however the owners of the houses are unlikely to benefit from this in a real-world sense unless they are subletting in some way or another. This example serves to further illustrate the part of the culture in second life that seems to enjoy "vacationing" in-world. While this intrigues me personally, out of a lack of desire to imitate this behavior, it also brings up some interesting questions. First, please keep in mind when considering this for yourself that it is tough to find large numbers of people actually "vacationing." However, the presence of this behavior at all begs several questions. These primarily consist of what sort of enjoyment SL players derive from this kind of activity and what relative degree of enjoyment this entails. Also, the frequency of use of the these vacation areas does matter, as well as in what context players engage in "vacationing." For example, if I myself were to do this, it might be the result of the need to do something else at my computer, but imagine that I didn't want to log off of SL quite yet. I could simply teleport to my vacation home and lay on the couch until I was ready to continue. I might also engage in this activity in a joking manner. Again, imagine I am waiting for several friends to join me in world so that we may go somewhere together. Rather than meeting at the terminal slurl, I might message all of them to meet me at my house. They would arrive to see me laying on the couch, "watching TV." A good laugh would be had by all. These are simply two examples off the top of my head.

There is another slurl below. There will be more to follow. Keep in mind many areas are walled off, and if they are open, please exercise restraint when entering the properties as people really do treat these areas as though they were their actual homes.

[|http://slurl.com/secondlife/Vacation%20Island/93/89/72] Vacation Island

On the above island, I met a gentleman who attended Morehead State until recently. I spoke with him about the topic I mention above. He recounted several experiences where he encountered the same thing, but seemed much less shocked than I was. I asked him about his property and basically what he gets out of it. He replied that while it is nice to have a place that is yours (whether you design it yourself or pay for it) but for him, this is an investment the same as any real estate investment one might make. If you buy a plot of land and build/design a house on it, you can sell it for a MUCH higher price than you paid for it. The house you build on the land is free if you can do basic scripting, just as with any product or object that you design in SL. So basically, in my quest to find another person who enjoys living out normal day-to-day activity in world, I instead found someone who basically matches my take on land and leisure in SL. He was nice enough to let me take a shot of his house (and other material possessions), the pic is below.

There was one part of the island that was also not restricted. Below is a picture of this property, although there was no one there for me to interview.

3/31/08 - 4/12/08 Today was the first day that I've experienced true frustration with not the project in general, but specifically the line of research that I chose. Trying to get people in SL to explain their motives for in world play is extremely difficult. Those who have given it thought don't seem to want to talk about it, sometimes as though admitting to the behavior they are so obviously exhibiting is the actualization, rather than the behavior itself. Those who have not given thought to the kind of behavior they exhibit in SL are either reluctant to consider their own behavior or in open denial of said behavior. Just to be clear, these behaviors range from a business/investment perspective about material possessions in SL to a full blown, actual SECOND LIFE. And yes, I know that's sort of the point, but the rewards of vacationing in SL are still unclear to me. I am trying to remain objective and not judge, but I have been as delicate with questions regarding this type of SL experience and when people remain firm in their resolve not to tell me about it, it becomes frustrating.
 * Back logs from previous research - Compiled post from the range of dates below**

4/17/08 - 1019 - Final Post Having outlined the difficulty experienced over the past month with my little corner of our second life research, I feel that more complaining is unnecessary. The summation of the work I have done can be more adequately expressed the final research post/paper (click here) but here is a final encounter that deserves a record in the journal section of my research. Several days ago, I spoke with a woman who also had a "vacation"property. She gave me what I consider some of the most valuable information that I have gathered throughout the entirety of this project. She refused to let me use her avatar name in my paper and was also adamant that I not take any pictures of her or the surrounding property, which she claimed to own. I considered taking a few pictures after she left, but in the spirit of the project I decided not to. Suffice to say, it was a very similarly designed island of houses as are displayed in several of the above pictures. Our discussion focused almost entirely on the privacy issue that I have come into increasing awareness of as this research has progressed. It was her opinion that people want not only anonymity from SL, but actual in-world privacy. This may not seem that strange, but consider that the type of games that SL is most closely comparable in the traditional video game world is the genre of MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). These are extremely social games, requiring high levels of cooperation and teamwork to accomplish objectives within the game. This cannot abide idle social networking and lax attention to meeting times, but instead encourages a strict set of group rules, teambuilding practices and exercises and often times a social hierarchy, usually based on seniority within the game. While SL lacks the specific, game developer-defined objectives, SL does include the ability to network and interact, and instead of developer defined objectives, users often project their RL aspirations into the game and onto their avatar, including the acquisition of "material" possessions and social status, which because of the lack of culture obsessed with "leveling up" or captaining a guild, is often based on those very material possessions. The final and more comparable facet of SL culture is that there are social circles where the commitment to the game can be a way to advance one's social status, something also found in the MMORPG universe.

So, though SL has much more potential for social networking, due to its extreme flexibility other in-world needs can be fulfilled, including the high life solitude that some SL avatars seem to crave. I must add that the ability to be alone in-world is related to my greatest disappointment with SL. Second Life is empty! Unless you are looking for people just camping for Linden$, it can be very hard to find more than one or two people per area. Even political or awareness exhibits have no one manning them, utilizing the networking power that one can wield in SL. It's true that awareness exhibits like the one that Clementine Ballyhoo speaks of in her journal don't need anything but to be seen by visitors, but I was extremely disappointed to find no official representatives of the campaign areas I visited.

All in all, SL is a fantastic world, but not because of its networking capabilities or the ease of various sorts of in-world experimentation. These seem to be fairly underutilized. SL's potential really shines when you fully realized that it is a world that you can make in your own image; literally. This is a wonderful opportunity for people to live out their fantasies that no one designs traditional video games around. The emptiness of the world is not always bad because it affords additional opportunities for those who do not wish to participate socially (at least not all the time). I think the only shame of the social part of the world is that it seems to be art imitating life; just not the good parts of life. When one uses a virtual world to escape troubles in RL, one thing they should be able to escape from is the drive to acquire //things//, that goal which we are at all times bombarded with in the real world. This will most likely continue to be a problem in SL, though the benefits of such a world far out weigh this and other negatives.