Entering Virtual Reality

One of our assignments this past week was to create an account on a relatively old video game called Second Life. Second Life is a video game published by Linden Research, Inc where its first conception was way back in 2003. (For all of those who are video game uninformed, 5 years is horrendously old for any video game. You might as well talk about Nintendo and consoles where there was only one button to push.. the good ole days.)

Signing up for an account was as easy as signing up for an eBay account. Actually, some might say that getting an eBay account is more difficult than obtaining a Second Life account. How strange that to create life, all it takes is your name, country, email, and a new password. I'm sure my mother would have preferred that over labor. After two hours of playing with the video game, I took some notes on my impressions.

First, as soon as I created my profile, the sign-up form prompted me to select an avatar. Some were funky for those funky people, and some were plain for those plain people. What did I do? I accidentally selected a female avatar. How silly of me, right? (I swear.. it was accidental!) Then the old internet concern hit me in the gut like I was fighting a boxer in the ring.. everybody around me in Second Life may not be what they represent. Their avatar is merely an image created by a computer. I may not be even interacting with a person of the same gender, let alone the same age or interest group. 

That's life though, right? Who is to say that rich friend I go to for financial advice only has his Mercedes Benz as a facade? Or that happy smile my girlfriend has is actually a protective shield for her underlying depression? People are liars. To escape that would be to escape from people.