Category: In the Press

Second Life has been enjoying something of a positive resurgence in the media in recent months, and with May now passing us by, and June and SL’s 12th anniversary  sitting just over the horizon, it is inevitable that there will be more media coverage forthcoming on SL as the Lab’s media team crank things up.

One of the first out of the gate in this regard is an article in Altas Obscura, which describes itself as the definitive guide to the world’s wondrous and curious places. Penned by Eric Grundhauser, Forgotten Wonders of the Digital World offers a positive insight on SL with a novel twist.

Rather than asking a few questions of the Lab or relying on images grabbed from Flickr and cobbled together with a little staggering around in-world, Eric Grundhauser is, with the assistance of the Lab, able to gain none other than Ziki Questi, photographer and blogger (together with her partner Kinn), to act as his guide to all that is, and can be found, in-world.

The result is an engaging and informed piece which neatly encapsulates SL’s history, presents an assured view of the platform devoid of the usual clichés and asides, and which focuses on the rich tapestry of content which can be found in-world – role-play, art, personal spaces, with even the broader uses of the platform touched upon, such as the US Army’s use of SL (and OpenSim) to help service personnel deal with PTSD. What’s more, with some of the images supplied by Ziki, the article looks good as well (Mr. Grundhauser’s own snaps aren’t too bad, and kudos to him for taking them, rather than seeking to raid an archive from 2008 or so!).

Ziki and I are a lot alike in terms of taste, so for me it was good to see Roche,  A Petrovsky Flux and Haveit Neox’s City Inside Out referenced in the article, with Insilico, Kowloon and The Far Away – which Ziki herself rescued from oblivion and now curates – also getting a mention (and photographs).

Such is the impact of his time in Second Life exploring with Ziki and Kinn, Mr. Grundhauser willingly re-evaluates his thinking about the world, while remaining open and honest:

To be honest, when I decided to delve into Second Life, I half-expected to find a dying world of outsiders and bronies gleefully recreating pornographic impossibilities. But that simply doesn’t seem to be true. What I found, and mind you, I was only able to visit a strikingly miniscule portion of the available spaces, was that Second Life is still a fascinating and vital world that is constantly changing and pushing the boundaries of what a virtual space can be…

More telling I think, is the somewhat widespread perception that Second Life is no longer an active digital playground. The Grid is still a vital and evolving space that hundreds of thousands of users create and evolve each day.

Nor is “the sex thing” shied away from – kudos again to Ziki for being open on that subject as well, and the fact that – just as in the physical world and the Internet as a whole – there is an awful lot of it in SL. But as Eric Grundhauser demonstrates very ably – with or without established guides – just because there is a lot of sex in-world, it doesn’t bean it’s the be-all and end-all of the platform. As he notes when describing the diversity of activities and those using SL:

Doctors, universities, hobbyists, sci-fi fans, artists, and inexplicable curiosities can all be found operating in SL, by those willing to look.

Well done to him for making the effort to delve into SL and spend time exploring and getting to know at least a couple of residents, rather than simply taking the hoary old trail of slapping a few outdated headlines (and images) together in an attempt to underline a preconception.

All told, a good, light read.

Related Links

• Forgotten Wonders of the Digital World – Atlas Obscura

With thanks to Ziki Questi for the advanced notification that this article was upcoming.

Nalates Urriah pointed me to an article in Good magazine in which freelance writer Mark Hay discusses Second Life.

Now, before you start groaning, the piece is actually pretty good. Unlike wannabe writers of the Marlon McDonald ilk (whom I rebutted last year), Mark Hay has actually – shock, horror! – researched his subject prior to putting fingers to keyboard.  Not only that, he’s actually taken the time to comb through Flickr and found images that both reflect how Second Life actually looks today – so double kudos to him from the outset.

What’s more, while at a little under 1500 words in length, Second Life is Staying Alive may not be a in-depth piece of analysis, but it is a considered and balanced peace which offers a largely impartial and fairly accurate examination of the platform – and a thought-provoking one at that, and in a number of ways.

For my own part, what makes this article particularly interesting is the social bent it takes. That it does is not precisely the interesting point, after all, Mr. Hay has something of a background in sociology by education. Rather it is the views he offers up which may not only be eye-opening for those who have heard about, but not really looked at, but which also offer food for thought on a number of levels even for those of us already engaged in the platform.

Some of the latter may not be immediately obvious, and may require a second reading in order for them to fall into place. As such, they may not even have been intended at the time of writing, although I suspect some of the examples he cites are far from mere happenstance when one looks at the wider context in which SL is at times held within the media.

This really kicks-in after he gives a very short potted history of some of the platform’s highs and lows and the apparent loss of interest in it that occurred within the wider world. Here he points out that despite all the claims otherwise, the platform does continue to enjoy widespread use around the globe with average monthly log-ins not that far below those enjoyed during its “peak” popularity. from this, he offers his own explanation to why this is the case: the ability to socialise and create / join communities in which those who are otherwise globally dispersed to engage with one another and create environments for that interaction which go beyond anything achievable through other mediums.

Not only does Mr. Hay offer an interesting and thought-provoking take on SL, he also takes the time to search through Flickr and locate images for his article that offer a fairer indication as to how the platform can look, such as with this image called “Give Us a Kiss, Dear”, by Serena Snowfield on Flickr

OK, so for those of us within SL this may generate something of a “no s*** Sherlock,” reaction; we are, after all, seeing this on a daily basis, either directly through our own involvement in the platform, or as a result of our travels within the platform.  However, other than the “fnar, fnar” finger-pointing or feigned outrage  at “the porn”, the ability for SL to provide a means to generate such societal interactions and ties seems to be something that has gone right over the heads of most of those willing to comment on the platform. Thus, Mr. Hay’s view is a timely, and welcome counterpoint to the frequent negatively which accompanies public mention of Second Life.

But this isn’t the sole thrust of his thinking. as he points out, the ability for SL to generate such social and sub-cultural networks and groupings isn’t actually new; it’s actually pretty much the way in which the Internet as a whole has grown. What does make SL unique, however, again as he identifies, is in the manner of the depth of creation and tangible persistence it offers all these various groups and sub-cultures, something what hasn’t previously been found within digital mediums and which has thus become the reason why many of us keep coming back to SL.

In this – and while he doesn’t point to it directly, but rather references it obliquely in mentioning attempts to bring the likes of the Oculus Rift into SL – his piece also highlights another potential within Second Life. Because it it can and does present the means for the creation, growth and sustained use of sub-cultures and societal interactions and structure which might not otherwise exist, it stands as the precursor for things to come in the promised VR revolution over the course of the next decade. Hence, his reference to Tom Boellstorff‘s seminal Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human, although offered in a broader context, is both unsurprising and entirely appropriate.

But even without all of this deeper ponderings, which as Mr. Hay correctly states, are all part of the future, his article neatly encapsulates why Second Life has endured and will likely continue to endure for the foreseeable future, as he points out in his closing statement:

For now all we can say is that Second Life is not as dead as many think. It just wasn’t the world we thought it was half a dozen years ago. Rather than a place that would reinvent everyday life for the masses, it became a place for the gathering, manifestation, and expression of societies and ideas that might not otherwise get to exist. And as long as it fulfils that purpose, it will most likely not fade away any time soon.

If you haven’t done so already, go read what Mr. Hay says about Second Life, and if you like what you’ve read, Tweet him. Better yet, get your SL-dubious friends to give him a read, they might just change some of their perceptions.

Related Links

• Second Life is Staying Alive – Good Magazine Online
• Mark E. Hay website

Sarawak by Loverdag on Flickr, one of the images used in my rebuttal to Marlon McDonald’s article on SL

On Friday, November 14th, erstwhile contributor to Moviepilot,com Marlon McDonald wrote an article about Second Life which, is to say the least, predictably one-dimensional.

The item in question, entitled These Strange Stories Prove Second Life Isn’t The Dreamworld You Believed… takes as its rather predictable focus, the subject of pornography in Second Life. It’s lead to a fair level of upset among SL users – and rightly so; Mr. McDonald goes to considerable lengths to make his case by apparently passing on the opportunity to try the platform for himself, and instead dig through Google searches for articles that are anything up to seven years old (and none more recently written than three years ago).

There is much that is wrong with the piece; not only does it present a one-side view of SL, it’s clearly intended as clickbait – if not for Moviepilot.com directly (although it doesn’t hurt them!), then certainly for Mr. McDonald himself, a regular contributor there, Most of what is wrong is easy to spot and cane be said through a comment on the piece. However, I opted to present a more direct rebuttal to the article through Moviepilot’s own pages, in the hopes of also reaching Mr. McDonald’s intended audience and perhaps persuading them to look on SL differently.

You can read the article over on Moviepilot.com.

I don’t usually ask for page views – but in this case, I am. Not for myself, but to help the article get right up there alongside Mr. McDonald’s piece and truly give Moviepilot users an alternative point of view on SL. So please, if you wouldn’t mind, follow the link and have a read, Or if you’re tired of my writing – just follow the link and go make yourself a cup of tea / coffee!