Journal #7

When playing Second Life, some play to get monetary gain and some play to become what they are not in real life. Second Life allows a person to create an avatar to be whatever the person wants. They can escape the everyday routine where the player essentially can be a god of sorts. The player can create buildings, businesses, gain money, and even fly! Second Life can almost be seen as a do-over in real life, if the player has made a few mistakes in life, he/she can use what they learned and apply it to their “second life”. How many times have you said, “If I only knew what I know now”? Within Second Life, you can solve problems in a different way or avoid the whole situation altogether. Second Life is unlike other online games, unlike most there is no violence. This allows players to communicate successfully regardless of how much time others have spent playing. This game is entirely based on the principle that money is the core commodity in a society. A player can have a minimum wage job in real life, but can be largely successful within Second Life.
Second Life also eliminates the need of human contact by creating the illusion of other people through avatars. “This is why some people prefer Second Life and systems like it to the real world. Their intimacy and interaction with others can be more easily controlled, and they feel more protected” (Meadows, 36). Meadows points out the fact that people tend to feel more secure interacting with others through an avatar rather than talk in person. I have even ran across this in middle school using AIM, people would act tough or obnoxious, but in person would never act like that or back up that kind of behavior. “Most of the Internet is a collection of avatar villages” (Meadows, 23).
Online games allow people to act out in ways they are not allowed to in real life due to social stigmas. This can be seen as a way of releasing tension that builds up in a society like ours where an angry person is portrayed as having some “anger issues” rather than just being treated like an emotion. Games that are based on society, especially online interactive games allow the release of emotions that is still deemed “okay” by our society. Some players do, however, tend to go a bit far and use the online world as an excuse to go completely insane (reference videos below).
Online games can be perfect for some and problems for others. The gaming community has always been misunderstood when it comes to how truly involved we all get with our games and avatars. “Ultimately, avatars are about the advancement of personality within a kind of fiction that is both social and personal” (Meadows, 23). A person’s avatar becomes an extension of their own personality and it represents them in a virtual world, some being more realistic than others, nonetheless still linking us to our emotions. Avatars allow us to act on a more primal level with one another, our true emotions and thoughts can be shown without consequence and there is a degree of security in knowing the people you are talking to have no idea where you live or what you look like, in essence giving you the option to act kind or act completely insane. When we sign up to be apart of an online world, we get the freedom to act however we see fit in a society that is different from the one we wake up to every morning. We ultimately have to opportunity to reinvent ourselves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBVmfIUR1DA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX1Qcflxak0