Drew Carey Blogs In Praise of Second Life Steampunk

Friday on New World Notes is devoted to SL Bloggers, and recent posts from the metaverse blogosphere. Today that means a long review in praise of Pandora Wigglesworth, the brilliant creator who's made everything from a Clockwork Brain to a Propeller Mouth. The computer geek into Second Life steampunk? Why, Drew Carey, beloved comedian and TV celebrity, who also hosted Reason TV's visit to Second Life last year. "I have a friend who thinks being on Second Life makes me somehow less of a man because all I do is shop and look for cool places like [Wigglesworth's] Curio Obscura," Carey writes. "He plays World Of Warcraft. As he said to me in an email, 'I go on quests and kill monsters all day. What do you do, change your shirt?' Ooooh. Good burn."

I found Carey's post via Charlanna Beresford, who uses it to wonder what it must be like to be a real world celebrity in Second Life: "I don’t think anyone would dispute that celebrities should be entitled to their privacy in-world. But think about it for a moment, to maintain privacy a celebrity might need to recast things about his/her first life identity." In other words, to maintain a successful Second Life, the celebrity must hide or even disguise their first life. (Unsurprisingly, Drew Carey doesn't seem to mention the name of his SL avatar.)

Comments

[Crap Mariner]

<3 Pan <3 Lanna
Oh, just <3 everyone and be done with it.

-ls/cm

[Melissa Yeuxdoux]

Thank you for the pointer to Mr. Carey's blog and that entry in particular! I hope all have seen his excellent video about Second Life on reason.tv that you mentioned in an earlier post--the man gets what SL is all about.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

If you are known in the real world, SL represents a retreat where nobody recognizes you, they're not asking for autographs or trying to be cool as they casually aim their cell phones in your direction. People don't defer to you or expect you to live up to a character or treat you any differently than they would treat Joe the accountant. You can walk into a strip club without driving the entire tabloid industry into overdrive (though the wife has the right to make snarky comments).

And if Drew Carey wanted to be an anonymous young, hip, soulful steampunky studmuffin, he could be, and nobody would treat him like a chubby funnyman. That's worth the price of admission right there.

[Delinda Dyrssen]

For some reason I don't get Crap mariners comment. But I do agree with Melissa that Drew Carey "gets it".. I wish more people would then they wouldn't think im spending all this time just playing a game!