The Perils of AFK
Call it Bebop Reality at its most embarrassing: in Second Life, when you loudly announce you're going away from keyboard, chances are pretty good your nearby friends will improvise silly and inventive abuse on your avatar, then take screenshots for future blackmail.
At my mixed reality party last week, for instance, while I was idly chatting on a terrace in Manhattan, Hamlet Au got bombarded with garbage bags, roaches, and that was only the start-- Bettina's polka dot lampshade and leopard skin skirt were soon to follow, too. (Since
they quickly removed the evidence before I got back, I didn't even know about those follow-up humiliations until days later.)
But as Alicia Chenaux reveals after a party on a basketball court, I got off pretty easy: "It's just common knowledge you can't go away around any of us without us doing something crazy to you," Alicia announces sweetly on her blog, while unveiling her friend (who'll remain nameless here) dancing away oblivious in full AFK glory. Words for all of us to live by, actually.
Oh, dear God. LOL. I didn't do any of these things to you, Hamlet! I just *photographed* them. :/ I never would have even shared the pics if you hadn't gotten that ball rolling. ;-)
My thing is to nudge AFK avs into strange places, but there was no place to steer you to in that penthouse.
My point is... we are already operating at the speed of light, what with 5 simultaneous IMs, local chatter, etc. To have to do this simultaneously in two different realities (SL + RL) is simply too much to ask of any one person. I thought you handled it really well, all things considered.
Posted by: Bettina Tizzy | Friday, May 02, 2008 at 10:53 AM
Nice friends you've got. With friends like that, who needs enemies?!
Looks like it was a fun party. I really like the mixed reality concept. I think we will begin to see more of it (and more lampshades as well!)
Princess Ivory (who is rushing off to open a store selling lampshades)
Posted by: Princess Ivory | Friday, May 02, 2008 at 12:44 PM
"Bebop Reality" ranks right up there with "lunchbucket Democrat" and "flyover state" as the most retarded phrases I've heard in the past year. Please. Stop.
Also, "meatspace". This too. Until humanity evolves into some kind of transhumanistic "H+" fantasy people need to stop calling it that.
Posted by: Two Worlds | Friday, May 02, 2008 at 10:24 PM
I usta have a friend who was a dragon, and whenever another of our mates went afk - we'll call up our dragon friend and say "dinner time!" - he'd always arrive back at the keyboard in the process of being eaten. :P
Posted by: Pavig Lok | Saturday, May 03, 2008 at 12:23 AM
Off topic, but since Two Words brought it up and having actualy *read* the book myself....Hamlet, *dahling*, lay off the buzzwords a bit, will you? To coin the phrases is one thing, to try and use them at every chance you get is just iffy marketing.
(That said I did like the book!)
Posted by: Elle Pollack | Saturday, May 03, 2008 at 10:02 AM
omg that's me!
Posted by: QueenKellee Kuu | Saturday, May 03, 2008 at 02:20 PM
I disagree--I think the use of the buzzphrase is appropriate here, not even having read the book. It makes perfect sense to me.
Posted by: Henrietta Strangelove | Saturday, May 03, 2008 at 06:14 PM