This week's reader survey is on "virtual/real life relationship cheating" in Second Life, which as I'm defining it, can include anything from an adulterous affair that begins in SL and carries over into the real world, to virtual couples who share personal intimacies in SL that their real life partners would not approve of, were they told:
Post a comment
Your Information
(Name is required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)
A 3D virtual environment hits a sweet spot for intimate encounters. On the one hand, it avoids the embarassing literalness of webcams; on the other hand, the visual richness of the environment is more immersive than text.
As such, I think it's ideal for people who are too shy, ashamed, afraid or otherwise constrained to explore aspects of their sexuality in RL. And while that's generally a positive (in my view), sometimes that person is breaking an explicit or implied promise to another.
Posted by: Arcadia Codesmith | Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 06:45 AM
*shrug* I dunno. What's your mom's av name again? I think she was on the pole last night.
*ZING*
-ls/cm
Posted by: Crap Mariner | Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 09:02 AM
@ Arcadia Codesmith
Agreed...spot on.
Posted by: brinda allen | Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 09:44 AM
@Crap, OMG that was my DAD on that pole!
Don't tell me what happened...
Posted by: Ignatius Onomatopoeia | Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 10:54 AM
I don't think SL offers any specific inducement to infidelity. But there are some characteristics of any 3D virtual world that combine to make infidelity easier, both logistically, and on the conscience, than it might be otherwise. One is that these world are places, logging in is like traveling alone to a foreign country. We meet people and share experiences and it can lead to a rapid intimacy, and its a rapid intimacy in a place far from home where no one we know can see us.
Posted by: Circa Citron | Friday, May 21, 2010 at 05:42 AM
For a role-player like me, this question makes no sense whatsoever... My avatar is not me, I just play a role with it, in a virtual world of pure fantasy.
Posted by: Henri Beauchamp | Monday, May 24, 2010 at 08:10 AM