Enjoyed reading this long UK Guardian feature on Second Life's 20th anniversary by Simon Parkin, who also does excellent reporting on gaming culture for The New Yorker. Far as I can tell, this is the first major media story marking the 20th year of SL, though it definitely will not be the last. (Modesty forbids mentioning another).
Simon chats with me about the virtual world, goes in-depth into Philip Rosedale's second thoughts on Second Life, and (I'm glad to see) spends some time on Aufwie, a young and rising popstar who helped fuel his rise through SL:
Most people first join Second Life out of curiosity or boredom, but the reasons for staying are as numerous as the residents, as Fabrizio Laceiras (known as Aufwie) tells me. A musician based in Birmingham, Aufwie, 26, first visited Second Life aged 12. After experiencing bullying at school, he found it hard to make friends and socialise. “Second Life offered a safe environment in which I could be social on my own terms,” he says. Music was his chosen icebreaker. “I would just pop by some virtual land that allowed microphone usage and start playing guitar and singing until someone approached, and we’d start talking.” Often Aufwie’s performances drew a small crowd, so a friend encouraged him to play a proper concert, building a small stage on her land where he could perform. The pair chose a date and time, and distributed leaflets beforehand. When 50 people turned up, Aufwie’s PC struggled to render the throng on screen: “I was forced to log out momentarily, which gave me a bit of time to process what was happening.”
Read my own profile of Aufwie here and listen to my favorite track of his above! All too often, profiles of Second Life depict the virtual world as a kind of online retirement community, missing the insight that the virtual world can and often does make it possible (perhaps more than any other Internet platform) for us to transcend age divisions -- accommodating both a twenty-something like Aufwie and a Bluesman who played in Second Life into his 90s.
Also: Great cover art, Guardian! I usually complain about horrible illustrations for metaverse stories, but this one is a winner.
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