The Media Gets it Wrong Yet Again
I wholeheartedly believe that Second Life is so self-contained, that outsiders are unable to simply understand all that happens. Moral panics have been occuring since the dawn of civilization; it’s no big surprise that the Internet, and more specifically for my own purposes here, Second Life, has been under the conservative microscope.
My reason for writing about this particular topic is this article.
Recently, a player in the game filed a lawsuit against another, whom he claimed was selling a sex bed that he had made, undercutting his price and taking away from his profits, thus affecting his and his family’s livelihood. I personally believe this is fair, as it is his own intellectual property, no matter what purposes the beds actually serve for those who purchase them.
The article continues on to postulate that the entire reason real life corporations are unable to be successful in-world is because Second Life is nothing more than a brothel. Obviously that reiterates my first point about outsiders looking in. Honestly, I am not sure what the sex bed controversy had to do with big name businesses in the game. Those businesses are not successful not because everyone who plays Second Life spends all their time having sex with one another. They are not successful because residents do not want them there. Part of the fun and enjoyment is having EVERYTHING created by the users. People go on Second Life to express their creativity, not to buy things they can buy in their first lives. I am not going to spend a few thousand lindens on a car in the game that is available in real life. Why would I? I enjoy supporting those talented few who use the limited tools the game provides to create works of art (by art I am talking clothes, hair, vehicles, weapons, you name it).
Most people I know in the game do not participate in promiscuous sex. The ones who do are typically the new people who are looking for something new and improved because they are tired of the same old porn or text on a screen. Sex is a part of life. You cannot suppress it, no matter how hard you try. A man walking around with his penis sticking out in the game is not a man walking around with his penis sticking out in real life. It’s not really touching you. It’s not giving you AIDS. It’s not going to eat you. Stop being so afraid of sex. Stop being so afraid of what you do not understand. Spend a few weeks in the game. Don’t just create an avatar, walk around a bit, and write an article or a paper. To really experience any world, any culture, you must truly experience it. It’s almost like armchair anthropology. That’s been out of style since Malinowski. You may be sitting in your chair while you participate in Second Life, but you are walking around, interacting with the locals. Get off your ass and into the game before you write such nonsense.
July 17th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
I think what a lot of media outlets (except SL related) are not getting is defending your trademark is a use it or lose it type thing, and he’s doing that. (This doesn’t include the whole copied items- which is another ball of wax.)
It’s his obligation to defend his trademark (sexgen) and he’s probably going to spend tons more money than what he would have lost in sales to that guy but he has to.
You might be interested in the secondcitizen post where Stroker explains everything.
July 30th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Wow, reading that article made me a big angry…I can see why you wrote the post about it. I agree that the person who wrote that article must not have played the game for more then 2 days in their life. Calling SL a brothel so freely, and not even mentioning any other aspects of the game…always easy to do when you need to prove a point, isn’t it? That is what I like to call some terrible writing.
Otherwise, I really enjoyed your post & the rest of your blog…keep ‘em coming. :)
July 30th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
im also a bit angry, but big works too, doesn’t it?