Watch: Two RL Artists Talk About SL & Sansar, Sex, Creativity, Choice, Etc.

On the face of it, this is a humanoid fox talking to a brunette babe with action movie inclinations. But the fox is Erik Mondrian, who in real life is currently completing his MFA at a top arts school (California Institute of the Arts), and the brunette is MangroveJane (IRL Alison James) an artist whose Second Life work was recently exhibited in a real life gallery. So it's a fun and thoughtful video podcast worth a listen. (With great screenshots interspersed throughout.)

"Some of my favorite sections from the episode," Erik tells me, "are when Groves talked about her first five days in SL, stubbornly learning to jump, and having her 'existential crisis' there [2:10],  when she brought up the idea of avatar prejudice [11:50], and the discussion about the differences between platforms like SL and Sansar, particularly when she talked about the idea of the 'map' (for something like the SL mainland) and its psychological effect on users vs. the isolated experiences of Sansar [17:50]."

One point that jumps out at me is at 4:00, where Erik talks about how Second Life has no set goals, which Jane relates to SL's media reputation for being a giant, pervy virtual sex hovel -- and then points out that, like a real life city, the red light district is only one of many options you can choose from. This is a common belief among the SL community, and while it's not wrong, I think it misses a larger point:

Because Second Life has no set goals (at least from 2005 onward, because up until then, it had a user achievement/ranking system), users without much interest in creating 3D content wound up focusing on social activity -- and social activity inevitably leads to flirting, romance, and of course sex. And because virtual sex is salacious while also being an activity the general public can understand as an understandable (if to many weird) choice, most media focused on that, and it inadvertently, inevitably, became an indelible part of the Second Life brand.

In other words: Second Life's lack of set goals directly led to its reputation as a giant, pervy virtual sex hovel.

Anyway, watch the whole thing here. And be sure to subscribe to Erik's YouTube, as he has more interviews planned.

Comments

[Darianknight]

"In other words: Second Life's lack of set goals directly led to its reputation as a giant, pervy virtual sex hovel."

Unless you can make that claim about Minecraft, your assertion is bunk.

[Amanda]

If Second Life had set goals I'd have lost interest within a few months rather than still be here almost 12 years later.

The User Achievement ranking system was still in the profile when I joined in November 2006. There was no leader board but the rankings were still there in the profile and you could still rank other avatars. Even then it was horribly gamed and pretty much meaningless

[Hamlet Au]

"about Minecraft"

Minecraft starts as a single-player game with a set goal -- survive the creeps and other dangers.

[Madeline blackbart]

As far as minecraft is concerned there's a very well known section of minecraft users that make awkward sexy (or even straight up pornographic) videos they upload places like youtube, redtube, etc. It's actually a super common joke made about minecraft. So yeah....you can kinda make that claim about minecraft to.