I enjoy Gwyneth’s writing. She has a new article out that inspires thought and examination of one’s thinking about Second Life™ with some interesting comparisons between human behavior in Facebook and SL.
It supports many of my perceptions of life and human nature, so I found really interesting.
I like how she has described the fallacies in the thinking of the interviewees. I enjoy rational examination of philosophy and human behavior, which is why I have a Philosophy Section in my blog.
Gwyneth is responding to interviews of by Aria E Appleford with SL Residents that have left SL. I think it is good reading. See: Second Life Has No Humans.
While you are there, check out the poll that Gwyneth has on her blog: What do you think about Philip Rosedale’s upcoming virtual world, High Fidelity? I am surprised how many have not heard of it… well… there are only 17 respondents when I voted. So, it’s too small a sample to provide much insight.
Aw thanks for the heads-up, Nalates 🙂
Everything having to do with perceptions and how we create our own self image (image of the self?) fascinates me, and these interviews by Aria E Appleford were very provocative. I specially liked the way people on the comments said things like, “you are a wonderful man” — because after all the drama, what this guy did was to turn off SL, stop logging in, and starting to care more about his family, while spending his free time on Facebook.
One can only conjecture in the kinds of “drama” he had been involved…
As for the poll, heh… well, they’re an old feature which always have little replies. In the days where I was a more regular blogger, the most replies I got was perhaps 150 or so, and that was only after several weeks/months 🙂
But, yuo current poll is an interesting question.
I agree, it’s the first time that Philip competes with himself with a new virtual world. How will residents react? Is Philip important, or does SL matter by itself, independently of what Philip may or may not do? I’m curious about people’s perceptions… and interested to see what happens after HF is launched, to see if one’s expectations are aligned with reality 🙂
I am looking forward to HF’s release too. But, I doubt Philip will release it Cloud Party style. I think he will go for a more splashy release near completion.
If anyone ever wants to do an article on why some people stay long term in SL, I would volunteer. I know there are many more like me. It would give some balance to the “SL is dying” threads I see on some blog. I simply don’t believe that is true.
Still here, with friends, and having a blast!
A real challenge for an article like that is getting meaningful/significant data to provide an objective viewpoint. I’ve been working for over a week on figuring out what SL’s reputation really is.
I’m happy with subjective opinions, I’m a bad scientist… lol
Subjective ones have their place.