Reflections

For a long time I have enjoyed participating in virtual worlds.  My first was Worlds Away, which was no more than a series of chat rooms with nice graphics, but I had a good time there.  I left when they began charging.  In those days, when the internet was a good bit friendlier and less commercialised, the idea of charging was one which made me take stock of what I was getting from the site, and what it was worth.

My second virtual world was Cybertown.  This was a world which had some of the trappings of self-government, and is why I always oppose any proposal for self-government in my current VW.  It is actually not safe to criticise Cybertown on the web, because they used to have a habit of contacting ISPs and threatening lawsuits – I hope that since those days they have become more moderate.  Anyway, in brief, after spending a couple of years there trying to work for change, I couldn’t stand it any longer, and left.

I went to Second Life, which was a wonderful discovery.  Unlike Cybertown, Second Life is partly a contiguous land, and not only can you make objects, you can build your own house too.  I have been there for over three years now, and have made some great friendships and have enjoyed the surreal conviviality of the place.

In the early days, the Second Life residents tended to be intelligent, liberal and imaginative.  The people who run and host the place, Linden Labs, kept a ‘hands-off’ approach, and in general things worked very well.

However, the world has become ever larger and busier.  The big change came when the virtual currency gained a real world value in US dollars.  The first result of this was the advent of the ‘land-baron’ – someone who bought up tracts of virtual land and sold them at a profit.  At least one of these land barons makes a good real life income from her virtual real estate. 

At the same time we saw an increase in various kinds of theft.  It is not difficult to steal objects and textures.  Second Life itself (the grid, as it is known) was brought down repeatedly by people who used the building tools to crash the servers.  Through all this, Linden Lab have kept up their ‘hands-off’ approach, even when this appeared not to be working.  Things are not right when you have an avatar whose appearance is a racial stereotype, who is free to wander round for weeks interfering with events and generally being a pain, and nothing is done until he finally launches an attack on the grid and brings it down.

There was a primitive kind of age-validation, in which to get any kind of account, you had to provide credit card details.  Recently, seemingly in an attempt to get more residents, Linden Lab removed that final restriction.  The result is that now when a troublemaker gets banned, all he has to do is to create an ‘alt’ – an alternative account, and return to carry on the good work.

There has been an influx of capitalists-manqués who are trying to mould the world into a market-driven commercial paradise, or at least their idea of one.  The most popular and well-paying job you can get is that of being a prostitute.  Con-artists and casinos are popping up like mushrooms.

There are still the art galleries, the live music performances, the wonderful and creative buildings, but it seems that the people who produce these are very much in the minority now.

I had originally planned to have a long article on my site (the link is unfortunately still there) in which I tried to encourage people to join Second Life. 

I procrastinated, and I don’t think I would wish to write that article now.  I wouldn’t like to take the responsibility of introducing other people to an experience they might well find frustrating and painful.  Hopefully the Lindens will come up with some way of improving things.  Listening to the concerns of their residents would be a good place to start.