IN case you have never hear about Second Life (http://secondlife.com/), the easiest way to describe it is a real time online 'Sims' for adults.
This game is not only hugely popular, but also has attracted sociologists and cyber-sociologists by the bucket full!
Basically people either think this game is great or it's some sort of evil dystopian matrix waiting to take over our lives!
My first experience of this was when an acquaintance of mine was 'banned' from this world for 'anti-social behaviour'!
...However, since these early days of a rather knee-jerk ban, it seems that the game has evolved much more scary and psychological punishments for the rule-breakers...
(..>Oh, and yes - this is all serious, not a joke...)
Boing Boing reports:
(http://craphound.com/images/secondlifecornfield.jpg)
Quote Misbehavior in Second Life game punished by exile to "the corn field"
In the Second Life online game/world, misbehavior is suspended by banishing miscreants' characters to "the corn field," a vast star-lit field of corn cut off from communication with the rest of the world (a reference to the classic Twilight Zone episode, "It's a Good Life"). The existence of the cornfield was only rumored until recently, but now the prison's existence has been made public and documented.
To me this is a very worrying turn in game culture...
Already 'Second Life' is famous for how seriously people are taking it and being 'sucked in' to the virtual culture.
Virtual 'Real Estate' in the game is actually bought and sold for real money! And there have been some reports that some people have set up REAL businesses buying and selling objects in this game ~ enough to make a modest living.
This isn't new of course, as last year there was that very weird case where a Chinese guy actually murdered a fellow PRP gamer because he 'stole his magic sword'!
But what is all the more sinister about 'Second Life' is that it is creating psychological punishments for its users ~ which implies that the game developers understand how psychically involved its users are in the game.
This is VERY disturbing. And in effect is a form of mind control (no I haven't gone nuts myself - this IS actually very scary stuff).
It is all about addiction and immersion and there is also a smidgen psychological sadomasochism about this, where the punishment at the one and the same time WITHDRAWS the 'wrong doer' from their obsession but in a way which still indulges their addiction...
It's rather like giving a heroin user morphine ~ only in this case it is only to tidy the user over until they can come back onto the heroin!
The wrong doer 'fells' like they are being punished, but at the same time are still being fed the stimulant that keeps them addicted...
Very clever - and at the same time a bit sick!
QuoteOriginally posted by Ranger@Jan 4 2006, 10:32 AM
IThis is VERY disturbing. And in effect is a form of mind control (no I haven't gone nuts myself - this IS actually very scary stuff).
It is all about addiction and immersion and there is also a smidgen psychological sadomasochism about this, where the punishment at the one and the same time WITHDRAWS the 'wrong doer' from their obsession but in a way which still indulges their addiction...
It's rather like giving a heroin user morphine ~ only in this case it is only to tidy the user over until they can come back onto the heroin!
The wrong doer 'fells' like they are being punished, but at the same time are still being fed the stimulant that keeps them addicted...
[post=107994]Quoted post[/post]
A bit like Rememberance Sunday at a small airfield on operation cleansweep then :P
:whistle:
He can't reply as he been sent to the dMw "Farmyard" as punishment for revealing the secret :D
I tried the game for a while but lost interest. If you don't buy land you can buzz around in there for free, apart from the one-time fee. It is not a game, it is more of a world.
You can do just about anything. Some people develop cars, planes and other things using the editor in-game. They then sell them to people. Some get paid by the creators to hold conferences and such. I used to drop by a regular wednesday for a place that had a movie quiz night. Some play bingo. Some fight each other - even though death is not a real issue.
There are several clothes/items shops where loads of female players like to go and shop for money they have earned in the game. I made a little bit of money by building funny mice figures people could put on their land.
I used to talk a lot to a real estate dealer (one of many). They make real money buying and selling land in-game. Because what you earn in-game can be converted to real money, the easiest way is using in-game ATMs. I think the exchange rate was something like 250 credits for 1 real US cent.
Buying an in-game island (a whole sector) cost - at that time, prices kept going up - about 10.000 DKK (£ 900). You could then sell the parcels with a 50% profit over a 3-6 month period. the cost areas could be very profitable. However, the demand for land and good parcels is so high, that getting the land you want is difficult.
I was given a piece of land in exchange for one of my mice. I made a little lake, a little house etc. and had a nice view. Then the girl who sold me the land sold a big parcel next to me and my new neighbour built a gigantic house so I could not see anything. My parcel was very small and badly situated but I still got 3500 credits for it.
I keep rambling here. Give it a go - but be careful not to get caught in it!
It is funny that Ranger should chose to talk about laws - because there are very few. Or, at least, there wasn't. Dunno about now.