Second Life and Virtual Worlds
In working my way through the Anxieties Canary lists in her article I get to the tenth, taxes…
In America the IRS is the Internal Revenue Service. It is the taxing agency of the American government that has its own courts and law enforcement officers. It also has over 1,977 forms, 90,000+ (2015) employees, and 74,000 pages or 3.7 million words of tax law that it enforces (Reference) without regard to the Constitutional principal of Due Process.
The eighth of Canary’s anxieties is about dumbing down Sansar. I think it goes hand-in-hand with the ninth anxiety: too complex. Opposite sides of the same coin, sort of. It is true the Lab is trying to make Sansar appeal to the masses and that an easy to use factor. But, is Project Sansar really going to give us a dumber virtual world?
The term ‘dumb down’ will have different meanings as it is somewhat ambiguous. Another term in the gaming world that could apply would be NERF. Will they nerf SL into Sansar?
The seventh in Canary’s list of Second Life™ anxieties is about whether or not Sansar be a world or a number of small independent island like worlds? For the list jump here. This is a good question and I haven’t completely decided where I am on the answer. So, while I see this as mostly a fear of the unknown, it isn’t necessarily a false expectation.
One of Ebbe’s recent interviews revealed that the World Map is not a paradigm we are likely to see in Project Sansar®. That indicates the Lab is thinking more platform than world. But, this is sort of what the Lab originally thought for Second Life™. So, we have to consider how much weight we want to give this point. After all, there are those arguing whether SL is a game or development platform.
The 6th item of Canary’s list of anxieties is about privacy in Project Sansar®. Will we have privacy in Sansar? A separation between our in-world persona and our RL identity?
For the list see: Are Second Life residents anxious about Project Sansar? For an answer on privacy read on.
The answer to whether we will have privacy in Project Sansar® is yes and no, at least from what has been revealed so far. It will be a bit like it is in Second Life™ but, different.
Sansar is going to have a slightly different account style. We have been told there will be a base account. We will need RL ID and financial information for the account, if we plan to move money and upload content. Government protections on money laundering and terrorist funds require the Lab have RL information for anyone receiving money. But, to jump into sansar and visit with a minimum of abilities it appears we will need to provide very little personal information.
You’ll have noticed I am working my way through Canary’s list of Anxieties of Second Life™ users. See: Are Second Life™ residents anxious about Project Sansar? This post is about item 5: Fewer people in SL.
Several bloggers and podcaster as well as in-world meetings have touched on this sensitive point. If one wanted something to say Canary’s list was not in the order of most worried about anxiety, this might be the one to point to.
I first covered the worry in: Second Life: Sansar Fragmentation Anxiety… and misspelled the title. I hate it when I do that.
However the fragmentation I write about there is not quite the same as the anxiety in Canary’s list. Or at least I don’t see them as the same. In ‘Fragmentation’ I was writing about how Sansar was sounding like it might be a more fragmented world than the Second Life world. The Canary anxiety item is more about Sansar pulling people away from SL.
I think this is kind of funny. But the second anxiety Canary Beck came up with is just that question, not worded quite that way, but not being PC I don’t have to ‘imply’ it. I can just say it. See Canary’s: Are Second Life residents anxious about Project Sansar?
Canary indicates 60% of Second Life™ residents use SL to engage in adult activities. Not all adult activities involve sex. Some of the Zindra groups worked, or may still be working, to make people more cognizant of that point. But, engaging in some sexual activity is a large part of the adult activities in SL.