Recently browsing through my list of blogs in NetNewsWire I came upon an article about Second Life, the virtual 3D on-line world where you can literally act out another life. You can go shopping in a mall, build a house, meet people, go to clubs, have a job, start a business, make money and even have a second wife. This is exactly what Ric Hoogestraat does in Second Life (SL) as described by Alexandra Alter in The Walls Street Journal article titled "Is This Man Cheating on His Wife?"I have always wondered what people find so interesting in SL. For me it seems a bit too boring. I would rather play GTA: San Andreas where I can at least blow something up and generally run amok in a virtual city carrying out missions for mobsters - now that's fun entertainment. But in SL people generally don't do that. It's a community that mimics real life and you are expected to behave in an orderly fashion. This is why I have never actually tried SL (although I should try it so that I know exactly what I'm writing about) but the hassle of registering and creating an avatar seems too much work for me.
Enough about me, let's get back to Ric and his second life. Ric's case is interesting because he is actually married in real life but also has a another "wife" in the virtual world. It's illegal to have two wives in real life but nothing is stopping you from having a dozen in the virtual world. This may all seem like a harmless game but if you spend more than 6 consecutive hours a night (or even 14 on weekends) in the virtual world it should no longer be considered just a game. Especially if you start taking the virtual seriously. It's no surprise that Ric's real wife is not too happy about the virtual competitor:
You try to talk to someone or bring them a drink, and they'll be having sex with a cartoon.I think the above pretty much sums up the essence but as Ric has never actually met his second wife in person nor talked to her on the phone it's hard to accuse the man of anything other than lack of attention.
The article about Ric and his second life was very intriguing for me because it explains why some people like SL and what they actually do there. In the virtual world Ric is a successful businessman and can act out his fantasies. He can have new friends and be married to the girl of his dreams... he can even have his own island. This sounds nice and all but what do you really do with all that? Here's another excerpt form the article which made me question the point of the whole thing:
Dutch drinks a Corona, Mr. Hoogestraat's beer of choice in real life, and sits at his desk. For a while, Mr. Hoogestraat, sitting at his computer, stares at an image of his avatar sitting at his computer.I have come to the conclusion that people who get hooked on SL might have some sort of social disorder in the sense that they are not happy with something in their real lives and would rather live in a crude graphical imitation of the real thing. This leads to a whole bunch of questions... But if it makes them feel better then why not? What kind of positive or negative consequences could this have on the community as a whole? Maybe these people are pioneers for a "new" way of life we should all be enjoying in the future?
Needless to say there is a lot of unknown territory in exploring this subject and it's quietly becoming a very hot topic in the field of academic research. Sci-fi writers have long pondered on this subject but thanks to technological development the possibility of living out your life in a virtual environment is already now becoming a reality. In the end there is one question that scratches my brain the most: should we be afraid of these new virtual worlds? For now, I'm sticking with the real thing.
Picture taken from the WSJ article.
