Slashdot Mirror
Thousands Of Disabled People Are Living In 'Virtual Utopias' In Second Life (backchannel.com)
"For many disabled residents, who may spend 12 hours a day or more in Second Life, the most important moments and relationships of their lives happen inside the virtual world," reports Backchanel. "For them, the fevered fantasies of a decade ago have become reality: Second Life is where they live." mirandakatz shares this article:
Wagner James Au, who has written extensively about Second Life, estimates they may account for roughly 20 percent of users. Some active members estimate the number higher -- at as much as 50 percent...
Abundant research shows imagining movement, without actually moving the body, can have positive effects on motor skills, balance, and learning... Studies suggest the therapeutic benefits of virtual reality extend beyond movement disorders -- to chronic pain, cognitive functioning in people with ADHD and PTSD, and social skills for people on the autism spectrum.
The article describes a 90-year-old former nurse, now living in a retirement community, who's spent eight years living in a Second Life archipelago called "Virtual Ability Island" with over a thousand other members. "Watching her avatar hike trails and dance gave her the confidence to try things in the physical world that she hadn't tried in a half decade -- like stepping off a curb or standing up without any help."
The article describes a 90-year-old former nurse, now living in a retirement community, who's spent eight years living in a Second Life archipelago called "Virtual Ability Island" with over a thousand other members. "Watching her avatar hike trails and dance gave her the confidence to try things in the physical world that she hadn't tried in a half decade -- like stepping off a curb or standing up without any help."
Wonder if inspired by this or just brilliant understanding of the future.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Junipero
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
#DeleteFacebook
I saw this in my RSS feed and accidently opened the previous article and read, "a fan has finally completed a MAME version of Atari's unreleased game Primal Rage II this week" and thought, "now, that's a utopia I can appreciate!" ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Just wait for if they ever get the NervGear from Sword Art Online working.
You will see millions of physically disabled living in there. Will be seeing a bunch of them living there full time if they can where they have a full body to use.
Will be seeing elderly using it to live a life where their bodies still work as good as they used to. Will be seeing a bunch of injured athletes using them to live the old lives they used to. Will be seeing a bunch of poor coming home from work and living in that life where they actually have decent homes and can go swimming or hiking or skydiving as they will never have the funds to do any of that in real life.
About that same time, you would be seeing the market for a lot of luxury purchases drop like a rock as they no longer would use them. Then you would also have issues with people who starved to death or their body just atrophied to death from never leaving the virtual world because their real world just sucked compared to it.
SL is a very large diverse place there are various cultural communities as well as social communities. Virtual world is a good description as you can be satisfied sticking to one area or exploring and learn and experience different stuff.
Many are interested in the social aspect but there also is a large creative group: The appeal of doing 3-D virtual virtual building is very satisfying, The in-world building components and controls are VERY easy to learn and with the SL scripting language you can make your creations animate, makes sounds, perform tasks, interact, etc.
If you search around you usually can find a community that suits your social and creative needs. While searching you might stumble into some really weird stuff too. I myself spend most of my SL time as a humanoid squirrel, either as 1 1/2 foot tall "tiny avatar" or a bit taller furry like one, and hang around the sillier communities - when on Second Life you don't have to live it like real life.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
Disabled IRL I enjoyed years of virtual adventures there. However perhaps due to political climate change in the US, the current expansion seems to be actively hostile to those who are not physically able to play at an arbitrary level. Not gonna quit or threaten to, but it is a sad realization that the toxic atmosphere that infest trade chat is reflected by the Devs barricading even low to mid level crafting recipes inside 5 man dungeons.
*"Cogito Ergo Liberalis"*
The whole "game" seems to cater for people with some kind of disability. (mainly mental)
http://swordartonline.wikia.co...
#DeleteFacebook
Are you high right now? How are they "living in utopia" when their own body isn't functioning correctly? Maybe someday you can become a paraplegic, then post back about how much of a utopia your life is.
Twat.
Thanks to my heart disorder I can't walk far and I can't run at all. Walking simulators like Obduction and the Myst games provide me with the chance to walk for a long time through beautiful environments while exploring them, without getting tired. It feels liberating. I don't like sports on TV or in games though because they bring up bad memories from my childhood.
-- Cheers!
is this still around i remember getting a free month with a new gfx card of this when i was a kid or teen.
Was SL not this ungame that was hyped by the mainstream media a few years ago?
I was not aware they still had thousands of users much less thousands of disabled ones.
Honestly I am surprised they did not quietly shut down yet.
I was mildly interested about ten years ago, after reading Snow Crash.
Then I heard it had devolved to flying penises and lots of virtual sex – furry or otherwise – and had zero interest in subjecting myself to that. Never gave it a Second Thought...
I just tried SL for the first time last month, and had to abandon it in the tutorial. The UI and movement controls we're intolerable. I come from a long history of MMORPGing, with familiarly in diverse control schemes (from UO to WoW to ESO), and yet I just couldn't get used to SL's movement and camera controls. I'll return if/when they ever improve.
This reminds me of the Star Wars MMO change. The game used to be playable by quadriplegics because it was possible to play slow/methodical (as a trader, minder, etc) but then they did a "2.0" update and made it more "action RPG" instead of "RPG" or "strategy/trade/builder/crafter RPG" and there was a fair amount of articles and outrage about it (I'm pretty sure even /. articles about it)
However perhaps due to political climate change in the US, the current expansion seems to be actively hostile to those who are not physically able to play at an arbitrary level.
#thankstrump
The "Virtual Ability island" referenced is run by a non-profit: www.VirtualAbility.org
Myst Online was CLOSED, then opened recently.
Lots of the people I've met in SL (and on the island mentioned) create disabled avatars who use virtual wheelchairs;
they mimic their RL disability in SL. They're not running, walking, hiking, or flying. They are rolling around in old-fashioned
mechanical wheelchairs. Exactly the opposite of some imaginary personal utopia. Their enjoyment was just the fact that
they could instant-message the avatars standing (or sitting) next to them.
is ever so close.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
no he didn't you did
Second Life.....still NOWHERE NEAR as -PATHETIC- as FB.