SL on the road to YosemiteLand?
by Pixeleen Mistral on 22/10/06 at 2:52 pm
First Person: Second Life
by Fiend Ludwig
The metaverse meets Yosemite
How do residents describe Second Life to friends and family? I recently asked a random cross-section of SL citizens. Chaylon Voss said, “I tell them it’s something I enjoy and there are lots of opportunities here too, to make money, etc., if you seek them. Learn to animate, or design clothing, or build. And it’s a damn sight better than hanging out every night in some bar, but not necessarily less expensive unless you are wise.”
On Info Island, librarian Inda Graf says, “lots of people ask me about [SL]. I play other online games – not Second Life normally – and I just tell them it’s a social networking tool with more things to waste money on. But there are a lot of questions about it from people who [don’t participate in] online social networks…a real desire to understand.”
I say Second Life is a place where there is no food required. No rent. No death. No taxes. No cutting the grass. No picking the kids up from school. No commuting. No fee. Free!
But are these descriptions are accurate? SL residents need a decent computer and high-speed internet access – a metaverse family car – to get anywhere. In RL, your car can take you to Disneylandor to Yosemite National Park. But only one of those places is “free”.
Second Life is presented as the Yosemite of the 21st century. When the park was created in 1890, Yosemite Valley was a pristine wilderness. A natural architecture on which could be transposed any number of futures. Sound familiar?
Today, Yosemite is choked with traffic and over 3 million clueless tourists. Many of those visitors pass on through, never to return, leaving with only fleeting glimpse of that vast place. Some stay. They build businesses and provide services. They teach and explore. They litter. I understand there are RL furry bears, but that’s another story.
Yosemite had its champion once too. John Muir spent much of his life advocating for the creation and protection of this wonderful place. He fought long after to preserve and expand the protection if afforded. His final battle, to save the nearby Hetch Hetchy Valley from the devastating effects of the O’Shaughnessy Dam on the Toulumne River – designed to provide a water reservoir for the city of San Francisco – was lost in 1913, when the bill permitting the construction of the dam was signed into law by US President Woodrow Wilson. John Muir died the following year.
John Muir
Is Second Life being steered by a John Muir or a Woodrow Wilson? Are the pressures of the modern outweighing the traditions of the old? Is Second Life destined to become a mélange of slack-jawed yokels in meta-Reeboks, or the glistening jewel in a crown of ‘verses?
Philip Linden
To describe Second Life, maybe it is easiest to follow the lead of resident Tony Lee who said, “Like most folks, I call it a game.”
By the way, Yosemite ain’t free any more.
Urizenus
Oct 22nd, 2006
I think the answer to the question is obvious. Would John Muir advocate turning national parks into vast immersive 3D adverts for GM, SONY, and Adidas?
I think that there are still Yosemete-like locations in SL, but they are endangered, and we need to work to preserve them if we don’t want this to turn into a wall-to-wall corporate focus group and marketing data mining exercise.