Get a ....Second Life?
Most of us have enough problems with this life. We bubble around doing whatever we can - and avoiding whatever we can't.
But some have discovered there's alternative places to live. One is the phenomenon called Second Life. Maybe you know it. Maybe you've been there. For some it's an escape from whatever is bothering them about their everyday life. For some it's a way of being someone else. For some it's a way of acting in a way that is so unlike their "real" self.
I've been going there on and off since April. I had a couple of days off sick and was so bored with just surfing the net or lying in bed that I followed a link from a website. It took me a while to get going. And then the full potential gradually dawned on me. I really DON'T have to be who I am in real life. I can change everything - my name, my appearance, my age....even my gender....wow!
But of course, I can't really do any of that. And once I start speaking as this other character, however hard I try, the person who comes out from behind the mask - is ME. Well, now there's a surprise.
I'm used to playing parts - I spend a week or two every summer taking part in living history events - and I used to act in stage plays. The difference between my former stage roles and the living history is that the latter is 90% improvisation and 10% sketched character in a designed landscape. We each know what character we are playing and where he or she is in the cast of characters. We know the period we're re-enacting (usually the English Civil War). And the rest is down to us. Sometimes visitors come up to us and ask how we remember the scripts so well. That raises a laugh - "script? what script?" And that of course raises the visitor's eyebrows even further "you mean you're improvising it all as you go along?" Well, yes. It's more fun that way. We're not acting out the same scene every day to a different audience. We're recreating the daily lives of people in a historical context - and generally those daily lives move on a little each day. Some days we deliberately make the "plot" leap forward with dramatic events. Much more fun.
So, when I visit the fantasy world of Second Life, I already have roleplays in mind. But I have never yet actually reused a roleplay from a previous visit. Sure, each player has invented a character (an avatar, in the terminology), and given that character some sort of profile. But what we actually get to talk about is whatever comes to mind in the situations we visit. Because, you see, Second Life (SL to its fans) allows lots of different venues for the characters to visit and very sci-fi ways of flitting between venues whenever you feel like it.
And you know what comes out for me? A very rebellious streak. A desire to help characters to escape to a haven of their choosing. Some would say it's a haven within the haven of SL for those who can't face....whatever it is that drives them to be there in the first place. But of course we choose to do whatever we can imagine. And what I notice is that the internet has allowed yet another community to exist. The community of people who dive off into a fantasy world for an hour - or more. And the great thing is that no physical harm comes to the players (if you exclude the harm done by crouching in front of a PC or laptop!).
What do people do in Second Life? They act out fantasies and invite others to join in. Who do they meet? Whoever turns up. And they have ways of keeping in touch with other players so they can develop friendships. Sounds a bit like real life, eh?
But some have discovered there's alternative places to live. One is the phenomenon called Second Life. Maybe you know it. Maybe you've been there. For some it's an escape from whatever is bothering them about their everyday life. For some it's a way of being someone else. For some it's a way of acting in a way that is so unlike their "real" self.
I've been going there on and off since April. I had a couple of days off sick and was so bored with just surfing the net or lying in bed that I followed a link from a website. It took me a while to get going. And then the full potential gradually dawned on me. I really DON'T have to be who I am in real life. I can change everything - my name, my appearance, my age....even my gender....wow!
But of course, I can't really do any of that. And once I start speaking as this other character, however hard I try, the person who comes out from behind the mask - is ME. Well, now there's a surprise.
I'm used to playing parts - I spend a week or two every summer taking part in living history events - and I used to act in stage plays. The difference between my former stage roles and the living history is that the latter is 90% improvisation and 10% sketched character in a designed landscape. We each know what character we are playing and where he or she is in the cast of characters. We know the period we're re-enacting (usually the English Civil War). And the rest is down to us. Sometimes visitors come up to us and ask how we remember the scripts so well. That raises a laugh - "script? what script?" And that of course raises the visitor's eyebrows even further "you mean you're improvising it all as you go along?" Well, yes. It's more fun that way. We're not acting out the same scene every day to a different audience. We're recreating the daily lives of people in a historical context - and generally those daily lives move on a little each day. Some days we deliberately make the "plot" leap forward with dramatic events. Much more fun.
So, when I visit the fantasy world of Second Life, I already have roleplays in mind. But I have never yet actually reused a roleplay from a previous visit. Sure, each player has invented a character (an avatar, in the terminology), and given that character some sort of profile. But what we actually get to talk about is whatever comes to mind in the situations we visit. Because, you see, Second Life (SL to its fans) allows lots of different venues for the characters to visit and very sci-fi ways of flitting between venues whenever you feel like it.
And you know what comes out for me? A very rebellious streak. A desire to help characters to escape to a haven of their choosing. Some would say it's a haven within the haven of SL for those who can't face....whatever it is that drives them to be there in the first place. But of course we choose to do whatever we can imagine. And what I notice is that the internet has allowed yet another community to exist. The community of people who dive off into a fantasy world for an hour - or more. And the great thing is that no physical harm comes to the players (if you exclude the harm done by crouching in front of a PC or laptop!).
What do people do in Second Life? They act out fantasies and invite others to join in. Who do they meet? Whoever turns up. And they have ways of keeping in touch with other players so they can develop friendships. Sounds a bit like real life, eh?
posted by Simon | 11:42 pm
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