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The Elevator Effect In Second Life
There is an good video on NPR about how real human reactions translate to the virtual world. It's interesting in view of the question posted here about rape in Second Life. The video covers a little experiment in SL where a reporter gets together with a psychologist to see if some unspoken human rules apply in the virtual world — such as staring or standing too close to someone. Perhaps surprisingly, in this world where you can be or do just about anything, you can't break these unspoken rules with impunity.
I get the same feeling here: I'll post something, and then someone else will post just below me, and it'll be stuck there right next to my post FOREVER.
Freaks me out.
ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
Ok, Second Life may or may not be pretty cool, but why is there one Slashdot article about it every two or three days? World of Warcraft is at least ten times as popular but does not get anywhere near the same coverage as Second Life does. It smells fishy.
:)
For example, there was this article about a woman offering sex for 5000 World of Warcraft gold. It did not reach Slashdot. That ten times as funny and definitely more "interesting" than some kind of psychological experiment.
Football Odds
Can you fart in Second Life now?
"if some unspoken human rules apply in the virtual world"
Do you know how annoying it is for a ten foot tall neon pink ogre to jump up and down in front of your face and not stop until you log out?
My friends do!
I put on my robe and wizard hat.
Can you please stop whinging about people whinging about people whinging about slashdot on slashdot. It's just too much.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Can you freaks stop misspelling 'whining'?
I find it entertaining as these reporters are acting like it;s a new thing. It's not. Ever cince the days of Doom this has been observed and documented. Camping, while being a viable attack vector in the real world (called a sniper) is frowned upon so much in game that most all combatants will band together to punish the camper.
There was a paper published about it back in the 90's. I wonder if anyone can find it out there on the internet. I believe it was "social manifestations in online gaming" or something similar where they already looked at this and even in a game where you are supposed to go around killing each other, certain social rules are still followed or suffer getting punished.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Problem is , people think that when they are in their car they also can happily break these rules. Even though they know it's not just rude anymore but outright dangerous. Standing-too-close = tailgaiting. you can KILL people with that behaivoir. and honestly, upset the guy in front of you and he can jam on the breaks and teach you a lesson.
All that studies like this prove is that if you are not close enough to punch the person in the face for their bad behaivoir or to keep them under control, fellow humanity becomes raging jerks. Something that almost all of us old farts learned a while ago.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The really interesting thing about such virtual, anonymous worlds like Second Life is, that although we *could* be someone else, we decide not to. Newbies in these world often try to be a completely different character, however, over time they get very, very close to their real character.
I'd say, it's quite simple: In normal life, we chose who we are. Most people have fixed patterns which affect their behavior and therefore their daily life. Over time, these patterns get more and more restricting and make people lose their authenticity.
So, there's certainly a wish to break out, and that's what these virtual worlds promise us - but changing or breaking patterns can never be done by changing worlds. We see that every day, when people change their jobs, their partners or their homes - after all, most end up the same.
Even if there's a "Third Life" and a "Fourth Life", maybe hundreds of them, they will in the end be all the same, simply as we are who we are.
However, if we are shaken up so much, that we have to drop some patterns, or really decide to make a change, this and all other worlds will be different - instantly...
You're equating "non-physical" to "non-consequential". Think about that for a minute and you'll realize how silly that conclusion is.
Dude, are you camping in a maternity ward with a rifle?
Property is theft.