The Friend and the Funkologist: The 3rd Part in the Endless Second Life Series

Most of you have read the first and second part of my series on Second Life where I have covered everything from Avatar design to the kinds of places and people you’ll meet. From Svarga to Sumos, Miki Tiki to Molestation Station — there’s been a lot of places, and Athena has rocked them all. Problem is, with becoming known as the Journalist within a vast world of people needing a voice, everyone wants to give you theirs. More often than not, you’re being accosted by furries with vendetta against those who scornfully view their races. Not just that, but the people of different factions of websites that have their own Sims and are noticing the cyber-blood war start to take off. What do we do in this case? Real life situations are heating up where we thought they’d never even enter and for what? To be able to stake your claim on a simulated piece of the “World” according to Mr. Linden?

My situation began when a person introduced me to a place owned by the popular web site, “SomethingAwful.com”. When I was introduced, a few interesting characters (One of them being Steven - Pictured) lead me around and showed me that they have themes sometimes twice a month where they recreate the sim based on the new theme. The current theme is “Masaland“, a land that they say takes it’s inspiration from the Care Bears and goes absolutely ballistic once the main designers get their hands on it. Once I was lead around and introduced to the main people that inhabit this Sim, I decided I liked it. Sure, their humor was crude and their behavior bordering the world of the Griefer - but that just made it all the more fun. There, you could do all those obnoxious things that you couldn’t in other Sims because there was no code, no moral obligation to be a good Avatar and do what you’re told.

This came with frustrations though, such as meeting someone whom definitely made me laugh on many occasion - but seemed to have their own set of issues outside of Second Life. Once I started to become more regularly introduced around the Sim, we spoke more and ink droplets of their life were getting dripped onto the personal messages that popped up on my screen. Suddenly I knew more and more about this person, yet their behavior did not change in the actual Sim. Confessions of sadness and depression, significant others that had wronged them and were caught roleplaying on Second Life SO much that they felt neglected. Was Second Life becoming a more artificial yet strangely more real version of the Everquest scare? Were people getting so wrapped up in their avatars lives that they were ignoring their real life partners?

If you take a moment to talk to people who take up the space in Second Life, they’ll relay to you that the world their avatars live in is exactly that - a world. This isn’t just some chat window that people design in, this is their world and with every ping - they’re breathing in the air of whatever Sim they’re standing in. So far, the simulation that “SomethingAwful” created made the most sense. They were using Second Life as a sandbox to design in, where they send their ants in to dig deep and mysterious holes in the matrix of code and maybe, just maybe they come out on the other side.

As proven by my raptor-headed, afro-wearing friend, sometimes that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes you have to quit Second Life like any other habitual drug; cold turkey. Would my journey prove the same thing? Where would I go after this? What would I do? What else is there to find in Second Life? I have no clue, but I’m down to find out.