‘kay, I hope this is a good one.

We all know what Second Life is right? Virtual reality for the hard-core social networkers? Facebook for the nut-job? Some kind of crazy new media business platform? A high speed perverted database in which people can explore their darkest and most disturbed fantasies?  Well you’re all right, just settle down whilst we make some sense of it.

Last week I deleted my facebook account; I’ve written numerous times¹ about my displeasure with using the damn thing and so I finally bit the bullet and got rid of it. A girl asked me, no scratch that, she accused me of being a hypocrite last semester for still having it seeing as how I didn’t like using it. She was doing her dissertation on social networking and how people become dependent on it, she didn’t use the word ‘addicted’ but if she were writing for a magazine the column would be titled ‘facebook addiction with Pam Bustard’ - that’s her real name; she’ll never read this… Anyway, last week I felt that enough time had passed that I could delete it and not feel that I was doing it because Pam told me to. I really like twitter though.

Casey visits the aptly named 'virtual Spain'

I’ve tried second life before but not for very long, and boy how the world had changed. I don’t know if anyone has tried it before but it’s worth it if you haven’t, just for the experience. I’ve spent about five hours over the last two days walking around the sprawling virtual world and I’d like to share with you what I’ve found.

First off, I re-registered; this is exciting because you have to come up with a name for your avatar, or rather; a fake name for yourself. The system they have in place now means that you are given a short list of available last names to choose from so your options are limited somewhat. After some debate, I settled with the omi-sexual first name, Casey, named for Casey ‘Dutch’ Stengel who held the reigns of the Yankees in the 1950’s as they turned into the monster club they now are, and also because I liked the sound of it. Weirman was the most Jewish sounding name the computer gave me after three attempts, I thought it important to be Jewish in second life as I feel that I missed out on that opportunity in this one.

Next you have to build your avatar; if choosing a name was easy, I could do this in my sleep. Casey Weirman was born a six-foot-five, 220lb monster of a black man, in a black suit that fit like a glove. He likes disco and fried chicken as well as women and hip-hop. He dislikes war, ‘no-afro’ zones and, in his own words; ‘honkies’. With in a few clicks my Jewish, pro-choice, African American disco enthusiast was ready to face his world; and face it he did.

At the fresh new age of ‘one day’ Casey had a nose for the streets; we can only suspect he got it from his father, although he never knew his parents and was brought up by his grandmother in a project in East St. Louis². Heading to the alleyways of virtual Brooklyn where he’d heard that virtual gangs roamed up and down, shooting people at will. Alas, he was not disappointed. In the middle of the road lay the corpse of a virtual victim who’d evidently taken a shotgun to the chest. As a new born child, this was Casey’s first glimpse of mortality in second life, heck it was his first glimpse of anything. He had much to learn of a world where bodies lay in the streets of downtown Brooklyn, where people walked past without even regarding the blood stuck their virtual shoes. He thought that he must look the outcast, staring down in the middle of the street, trying to make sense of it all. Paying his respects and tentatively introducing himself to some of the locals who had been silently watching him since he got there, he left; not wanting to get shot in the stomach, frankly.

In second life you jump from world to world by ‘teleporting’. I’m not a computer programmer but it seems that every world has its own unique IP address and so you connect through different severs in each world you enter. There’s a hand search tool as part of the second life viewer so you can easily find what you’re looking for too, which is handy.

Casey looks around a house for sale

Still just finding his feet, Casey needed to work off the shock the morning had brought so he headed to a nudest beach. The rules of the one he chose suited what he wanted to see, hugging and touching was fine, but absolutely no sex. The catch was, you had to be naked³. Casey threw caution to the wind and stripped down with the intention to find some new friends. Among the beach-goers there were big buff looking guys, like Casey, beautiful women and inviable cloud like people. There was one girl who looked like the grim reaper but we stayed well away from her. As Casey went round introducing himself to people with is customary; “Hello, I am Casey Weirman.”, nobody wanted to chat, or entertain the tall black stranger. It became clear that the virtual social elite were not going to engage with one who was outside their circle, they were more interested in virtually kissing each other and taking Jacuzzi baths. On the beach there was very little dialog, but there was a wind-surf-board, so Mr Weirman had a go at that and rocked the crap out of it. With no-one to talk to, Casey returned to shore and teleported to a quiet forest for contemplation on his life, that was fast approaching a virtual puberty of the soul.

Flying is an everyday part of travel in second life, as much of the worlds are made up of islands it is possible to fly from one to the next. You can also fly way up in the sky and see the whole world you’re in and get to hard to reach places, like there’s a gate in one bit and Casey just flew right over the wall and shouted: “Hell yea’ I did!”.

The forest proved a turning point in Casey’s life; no-one would entertain Casey, the jive talking reject-turned-suit-wearing-business-man in this crazy virtual world. People here were only interested in out of this world fantasy types, characters so bizarre and amazing that they bounced right out of the second life viewer and set fire to your desktop. As he watched the festively dressed avatars holding, stroking and romancing each other under canopy of the magnificent enchanted forest by the lakes and waterfalls and magic swinging love seats, Casey, realizing that he was still naked, took the opportunity to change his appearance and character to make himself stand out more, so that he could better fit in with his universe. A wild paradox.

Donning a skin-tight white latex jumpsuit, Casey Weirman, a jive talking intergalactic traveler from the planet Weirman, was born. He would ask more outrageous questions to all he met; where were they from? What did they eat? Whom did they love? He would keep asking until someone had a conversation with him, or asked him to leave. First though, fluffing up his afro, he thought he should gear up just in case he did get shot at by anyone who didn’t take kindly to his virtual pestering.

Casey the jive talking alien traveler from the future

Weirman ended up at a freebie store; in second life you’re supposed to buy objects with linden dollars, Linden Labs being the company that designed the program. In a freebie store though, everything in a box is free so Casey had at it. He took clothes, mustaches and even free vehicles as you never know when you’ll need to use the Batmobile in second life. There were a vast array of ’sex toys’ there too, one in particular called a ’sex bed’. Seeing that a fellow avatar was eying up a box of beds Casey inquired; “So. You thinking about taking some of those sex beds?”. He received no response. Armed to the teeth and ready to ask a bunch of stupid questions, Casey went to seek out the one bunch of people who were most likely to answer.

Much to his disappointment, when he arrived at the Star Trek themed Starfleet Command Headquarters world, Casey found that the place was empty. Using the lift he began to explore each floor of the freakin’ huge building. In second life, people have spend vast amounts of time building real and fictional locations and putting in controls like lifts and even art work. The Starfleet Command building is a really impressive example as each floor caters for several huge rooms where people can take part in role play games as if they were really there. The sheer scale of this virtual phenomenon is just mind boggling. About to leave, suddenly Casey spotted two avatars entering the building on the bottom floor and immediately went to greet them. I’m going to use a scrippet here to show you what happened:

It turns out, 'soulios' was waiting for a hooker

Casey asked about a replica sailing ship outside that he’d seen from one of the windows but felt that Roxy wanted him to leave so he thanked them both and did just that. He had learned much from Roxy and Snuggles⁴ but the young buck still had more to experience in the next couple of worlds he explored. All of them Trek related. Meeting a Mexican Trekie, Casey was amazed as second life’s built in translator allowed them to communicate effectively, then as he walked around the Star Trek Museum of Science he met one of curators⁵ and had a conversation about jet skiing. This was where ‘the Weirman’, from the planet Weirman, was most at home and the Trek people accepted him for who he was, a crazy curious time traveling space alien who asked too many questions. His most fruitful encounter was yet to come.

Casey the jive talking alien traveler from the future

As he slept beside a log cabin having been moved on from the main terminal of Bay City airport, one of the largest info-hubs on the main island; Weirman dreamed of a home of his own, and more friends than the blues musician he’d met at his new, more friendly info-hub. The next morning, young man Weirman went looking for a place to call his own; perhaps a boat on the sea for L$100/month or a plot of his own for, get this $250 - that’s real world dollars! And that was a shitty plot! Maybe Weiman could afford a one off payment for a house in a developed part of the universe which could only mature in it’s value anyway right?

Casey set off to a densely populated island on the world map and ended up in a dance club. The people their were friendly enough and invited him to dance but he was on a mission, politely refusing, despite his love of disco, he ventured on, past the magic ball soccer game⁶ and on to an unoccupied residence to take a look around. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be there at all though. The house was nice enough, wood built with two stories and a lovely deck area out the back that was half covered. It must not rain, Casey thought, as a grand piano sat out in the garden at the full pleasure of the elements. It was charming but lived in, and not for sale. Across the lake Casey could see some more up market housing, something that better fitted his tastes.

Having finally broken in to the giant castle and deciding that there was no-one else in, Casey was approached by two virtual dogs. Instead of eating them, he opted to pet them. One was called Dusty. The castle stretched out on either side like a stately home would. In the center of the lobby there was an enormous red carpeted stairway that provided access to the rest of the mighty building; on each side of the lobby there were two reception rooms. After carefully exploring one, Casey found the other occupied by a tall blonde in her underwear. Casey wasn’t supposed to be here but he was never asked to leave. He complemented the semi-nude female avatar on her dwelling and she accepted. In the back of his mind he was wondering what the girl must have been thinking; having this big black dude wandering through her house, every now and then shouting how nice the drapes were even though he though he was the only one there.

After outstaying his welcome, Casey took a walk past a bunch of show homes waiting to be bought. Round the back of one, he found three avatars painting the side of a house for money. Getting no response he decided that these were members of mainstream second life like those at the beach the day before. They wouldn’t talk to naked Weirman the business man, why would they talk to latex Weirman the alien? The traveler worked out that the more they painted, the more money they would earn. Casey hadn’t even thought about how he would get money for a house and this threw his plans of homeownership to the dogs. One of which, he assumed, was called Dusty. Also, the painters didn’t seem happy, surely they could talk to him for a minute, it couldn’t be too much to ask to have a chat? The young Weirman was learning fast about the society, he thought that these people wouldn’t tolerate him in their neighborhood anyway. Perhaps he should look elsewhere. Deflated, he teleported over to Starship Alpha; a space station located in deep second life space; surely the sci-fi nerds would understand him?

I just want to break the narrative here and tell you that what I found at Starbase Alpha was even more weird that the rest of second life. I spoke to this one dude who’d just ordered a virtual prostitute and I introduced Casey, he goes; “new to the game I see?”. This prostitute was another person somewhere else in the world who’d logged on to have virtually prostitute themselves. These people are odd. I talked to another one who claimed to be a secret police man, but we weren’t allowed to talk about it. He seemed nice enough but when I told him that the whole thing was unusual he told me it was “giggle tits to the max”. I don’t get it at all. In Alpha you pay the guy who coded the thing for a space dock and you can either have one of his ships or he’ll import a ship for you; if Casey was ever going to settle down in second life he would park his space ship here but I don’t have the time or patience or, in fact, the money to make that happen. Second life is a crazy ass place. Where were we?

Casey makes sure people know what he's all about

Perhaps Casey didn’t need to own a home, as a traveler, tasked with exploring the virtual worlds of second life, perhaps he needed a crew; rather than a home. Down the Star Trek search list there was a vessel named USS Apollo and it was here that Casey finally felt accepted. Teleporting onto deck 20 of this pretty amazing creation, Casey had a good look around. There was one avatar on the map and Casey set out to find him/her and ask a bunch of unusual questions. Using the fully working turbo lift to get to the bridge, our traveler admired the coding of the main viewer, the captain’s chair, ready-room and even the detailed briefing room. Casey got down to main engineering when he was intercepted by the Captain and First Officer⁷ and he managed to introduce himself.

The Apollo was built, piece by piece over three years and serves as an RP platform for her crew. Casey was amazed at how detailed the whole ship was and how the small group who play games aboard were committed to having fun. At one point the pair used mics to talk with each other and Casey realized that they were from different parts of the world, one being American and another British. ‘Captain’ Michael took Casey on a tour of the ship and flew him around outside in a shuttle craft. The pair were keen to show Casey the inside and out of their vessel, their virtual home. They were quick to answer questions, and they made Casey feel like he was welcome.

When it was time for Casey to leave, the Captain invited him to join their crew, saying that Casey the time traveling alien was welcome back at any time. That’s an offer that Weirman might never take up, but he’ll sure wish that he does.

Captain Michael never explained the tux

So what did Casey learn? In his first two days of life he learnt a great deal about the virtual world he inhabits. Casey learned that money isn’t everything in second life, although if you want a home it is; he learned that as in real life, most people won’t say hello to you, and people tire quickly when asked a series of fairly stupid questions, especially when they have no answers but most of all he learned that even in virtual society you have to aboard a space ship before people will take a jive talking black Jew seriously.

What did I learn? I enjoyed my time on second life, and although it was unusual, I’m sure I could grow to enjoy it. I have several reservations, including issues of how second life and the real world are separated; I came across many avatars using the phrase ‘first life’ meaning their real lives which kind of weirded me out. Second life is geared highly towards promoting consumerism and many places you go you are prompted to buy things; real people use second life to create virtual business presence including one lady I met called Casey⁸ who ran a store in second life called ‘Casey’s Creations‘ which I went in - that’s a link to her blog. I’d read online last week about people making their first million dollars by designing and selling houses on second life. Maybe I’m not being progressive enough but the lines between first and second lives seem clear to me but, I feel, not so clear to some, as one girl wrote on her second life profile:

wat u get in 2nd life is what u get in 1st life with me. Im the same x x x

The words first and second seem to me to be suggesting towards a third life too; which I can only imagine will be full virtual reality. I was saying to Mark the other day, when we get to the stage where we can have a Star Trek style virtual holo-deck where all your needs are catered for, what’s the point in real life? I don’t know the answer, and equally, virtual reality might be the way forward, especially if we destroy the planet, we can all live underground in huge virtual reality suites, living out our days in bits instead of breaths⁹.

For me though, second life is strange but fairly harmless. Over the last two days me and Case’ have had loads of fun, adventures and we’ve both grown. In many ways I see him as a child. If you haven’t tried second life, try it tomorrow, its an excellent medium to get addicted too and its a bunch of fun to be anonymous like Casey was, free to explore the online interaction between people in a virtual world.

Casey - I mean, Ben

1. countless times, depending on your numeracy skills [↩]
2. that’s what Peckham would be if Tarantino built it [↩]
3. or as he later found out, in a bathing suit [↩]
4. I think that was her name, I never wrote it down [↩]
5. I think [↩]
6. he did have a kick of the ball though [↩]
7. Who’d actually built the whole thing [↩]
8. I’m not making that up! [↩]
9. does that work? Sort of. [↩]

January 27th, 2010 | Tags: ben, casey weirman, casey's creations, facebook, interactivity, linden dollars, linden labs, scrippets, second life, social networks, sociology, spaceship alpha, star trek, star wars, time travel, twitter, uss apollo, virtual reality, virtual spain, virtual world | Category: off-topic, playing catch-up, scrippets | Leave a comment