Oh what a wonderful world. But how real is it?

Residents of the 3d virtual world community Second Life (SL)  are fortunate enough to live in a very glamorous world, free to roam and fly about as they choose, totally unencumbered by the daily grind of juggling school drop-off runs, dirty dishes and other mundane chores incurred in everyday Real Life (RL). How wonderful!  Doesn't it sound so insanely appealing? Sure does. Unfortunately, I'm just a little too pragmatic to join in. Not necessarily for lack of wanting to, mind you, but fear that I might enjoy it so much I won't want to come back...however, perhaps not is all as it seems...

How real is it all?  Perhaps belief of Second Life as reality can be likened to the belief of fairies in Peter Pan? - "I DO believe in fairies" - and if you believe in SL, then it is real. Or perhaps we could say that  it is shared experiences  that create reality? According to Mark Stephen Meadows in his book 'I Avatar' : "People in virtual worlds build things, use them, sell them, trade them and discuss them. When another person confirms what I am seeing, places value on it, spends time working to pay for it, buys it, keeps it, uses it, gets emotional about it, and then sells it - this tells me that something real is happening. The suspension of belief has become a grounding of belief."

Does this mean that if two or more people share an experience it makes it more real and valid than if only one person is involved? Well then, with around 15 million registered users, life in Second Life must be very real indeed! It's certainly real enough for people making money in their Real Life from their involvement in their Second Life. RL people such as Ailin Graef, the creator of Anshe Chung, a real estate developer on SL, and the first virtual world resident to have made enough Linden dollars (the currency in SL), to equate to one million dollars in real life. Anshe Chung 's virtual business dealings now finance her real world business dealings, including the development and sale of properties for large corporations.

The business of consumerism is one of the major activities on Second life. In January 2006, over 5 million real dollars was spent in around 4.2 million transactions on shopping for general items such as clothing and personal accessories and real estate transactions. Second Life publishes it's own quarterly financial reports, unsurprisingly replicating the conventional real-life business world.  Residents can also purchase weird and wonderful items that are not typically available in RL yet, such as skins and other body parts, particularly if one intends to do the horizontal tango.

Apparently genitalia are not standard issue upon joining SL, and you need to purchase the right 'equipment', albeit easily done by virtue of your credit card, thank you. $$$ Kaching $$$. Even fashion guru Giorgio Armani (below) has opened a range of virtual/real businesses, offering his particular brand of taste and style to SL fashionistas. This blend of real and virtual worlds certainly blurs the line between reality and hyperreality, and for many, the simulacra has become the reality. But what if one day it all just disappeared,  at the push of a button?

The rug can be pulled out from underneath your second life at any time, as customers of Ginko Bank found out. Following an announcement by Linden Labs against gambling on SL which triggered  a run for cash withdrawals by bank customers, the virtual bank initially froze withdrawals of funds by customers, then summarily decided to close its doors. This potentially leaves many avatar customers and their real-life counterparts in a financial quandary, as their Linden dollars can no longer be redeemed and converted back to real currency. The connection between reality and hyperreality is a very one tenuous indeed.

A University no more... 
Woodbury University established  a virtual campus on an SL island in 2006, and has been paying around $1000 (real dollars) per month for the land lease. The campus was a reality shared by approx 1500 University staff, students and other people. Unfortunately, vandals and troublemaking avatars have created havoc a little too often, resulting in Linden Labs (the owners of SL) taking the drastic step of erasing the campus from the Second  Life world map. There is no compensation for any loss or inconvenience incurred. Meadows identified one of the main problems with immersion into a virtual world as the real-world consequences and injury that can be caused by actions inthe virtual world.


                                       The Woodbury campus as it once was......

       
                                     And the void created by where it used to be......      

                                    So, how real is it now? 

It is clear that a certain reality can be created in virtual worlds by the creation of another persona, another life, inslands, buildings, shops, banks and universities, and the sharing of extraordinary experiences with other people, but ultimately, these experiences are dependent on the technology required for them to function and the rules, policies, resources and whims of the world's creators. And that, my friend, is truly reality.

For further insights into the world of Second Life here is a very informative video from  a special edition of Four Corners on the ABC: You Only Live Twice.