Playgrounds of the Mind Made Real - Virtuality Pt. 3

There are people in the world with whom I am friends and who know me predominantly by the  things I say and do.  That is sort of nice.  There is no physical bias because of what I look like.... because everyone looks pretty much the same unless great effort is made to appear distinct.  It is good to be judged on the nature of of one's character.

There are environmental groups, political groups, artists, groups who practice languages they are learning, book discussion groups,  and really just about any interest you may have you can probably find a group dedicated to that interest in the virtual world.  Lots of folks do role play and if you have any interest in a particular historical period, literature genre, or game there are groups of people in the virtual world who share your interest. 

Thought I would share a few images of people I collected from semi random
travels around the grid.  The first two I've included are meetings I attended.  The first is a planning meeting for International Human Rights Day observances, and thesecond is a Linked In group meeting, an international theatrical presentation that included live music, choreographed dancing, and a light show, 

  

Here an audience is gathering for a live broadcast of Virtually Speaking, an interview show that is streamed live from SL.  

This image is from an international performance of live music, choreographed dance and light show. 

Here's an author I met at Burning Life, Second Life's take on Burning Man.  


The last one is of me giving a talk. 

Playgrounds of the Mind Made Real - Virtuality Pt. 2

I'm a major proponent of the healing aspect of virtual worlds and even online games.


Yes, yes, I know, the internet is a cesspool and all these horrific scary things are on it waiting to rip you limb from limb and eat you.   But come on... really, is that any different than physical reality?  Like anything else you do you have to be mindful of what you are doing.  You don't let your 7 year old go out into the world unsupervised, do you?  So why would you let your 7 year old go out into the even wider world of the internet unsupervised?  You might let your 9 year old walk to the bus stop or go to the corner market by his or herself, under certain very specific guidelines.  Those guidelines can be translated to the net.  Living in the world is a serious responsibility. 

You wouldn't normally walk into to neighborhood that looks like this:














if you didn't know the area and were by yourself, would you?

Well then don't do it in a virtual world unless you know what you are doing.

On the other hand, this place:

This place seems a bit more developed, friendly, and has academic or corporate overtones, no? This is the NMC campus area. 

The only thing to remember about virtual worlds is that there is a real person behind every avatar and it isn't a game.  Don't do anything you wouldn't do normally, at least until you are well acquainted with the  neighborhood.

I started out hanging around campuses, libraries, museums and upscale shopping neighborhoods when I was new to Second Life® just like I would in regular life if I was traveling. 

Of course you can't tell a book by its cover...   but some things are obvious; such as "me" in one of my more eclectic outfits. 

And yes, there are places with lots of people around.  More on that next time.

Playgrounds of the Mind Made Real - Virtuality Pt. 1

I was a kid who played with dolls.  My imagination knew no bounds.  Being the only daughter,  being at least  9 years younger than any of my siblings, and living on a farm with no other kids near by meant I had to play by myself.  My mom also kept me out of school -- a lot.  I constructed Barbie space stations out of cardboard and aluminum foil and sky walks between platforms that would take over  an entire room in the house.  I'd move all of Mom's houseplants together and create a jungle and have my Barbies go "National Geographic" with only a piece of cloth wrapped around their hips.  Mom squelched this scenario and insisted on clothed dolls.  Boring!

But, anyway, I immediately realized that virtual worlds such as Second Life ®, when I first logged into it 5 years ago this month,  in June 2006, was the portal to recapturing the sense of imagination and world building that I'd lost when I discovered dolls were for babies and boys were for girls.  I quickly found my way back to the world of play and invention in the virtual world.  I needed it.  I had not played for years.  I played with my daughter,  of course, but she had friends to play with that were more fun than Mom.  Moms in her world were caretakers, food makers, singers of original bedtime songs, readers of books, and Girl Scout Leaders and Soccer Team Coaches.

I decided to have my avatar (my "physical" self) look a lot like Barbie. Most avatars do.  At least the female ones do. Most of the male avatars look like a cross between Fabio and Don Johnson.   I encountered the world of cyber-sex, peripherally, and decided that wasn't for me.  I also quickly determined that playing dress up wasn't really my thing, and just like in the real physical world, all you really need is good hair and good shoes.

What I spent most of my time doing was learning to build.  Space stations and jungle scenes did not really enter into it.  I built houses, stores, furniture, appliances, and very simple clothing for the first couple of years and I spent a lot of time meeting with people from around the world who were active in the peace and justice movement and promoting CODEPINK.

I learned to create textures and how to do all sorts of graphics,  and I moved on to creating islands and landscapes.  But it was prohibitively expensive on a small scale and scaling up would have taken all my time.  So I began looking at other platforms such as those offered using the Open Sim software and grid.  The grid is just the map of everyone's areas. I have only a tiny bit of a presence left in Second Life ®.   I have an island connected to the Open Sim Grid.  I am trying to decide whether to just let it all go.  It is difficult.  My avatar represented a part of me that isn't as fully expressed in my day to day life as it is in the virtual world.

The photo I use here on blogger is of my avatar.

I just realized the other day that I had created almost everything in the picture.  The building is one of my creations.   The cup of coffee and the espresso maker are mine.  I sell them online.  The t-shirt is a CODEPINK t-shirt I made and one of many that I sell.  The table and chair are my builds and use textures I created using Gimp.

I will write more about this decision, one I have to make in the next few weeks, as to whether I'm staying virtual for the next year.   I will also write about the wonderful experience of being able to build your dream house, learn new skills, and develop parts of yourself that cannot easily be expressed in real physical life.