I felt it was appropriate to look into the cultural significance of games and space in Second Life because its unique nature where there's no real end goal (unless you count making money), but rather it is a "place" where people go to create a virtual world which may or may not parallel their own lives. As mentioned in the Pearce essay, the new trend of a fourth dimension of gaming is emerging where "In these worlds, players are not merely citizens of someone else’s fantasy world, but actually have a hand in constructing the fantasy themselves." It is no longer about winning a game, but creating one. Players have the chance to create their own home, coffee shop, restaurant, store, or even their own island. The possibilities of the world go beyond what can happen in the real world.
First person shooters and massively multiplayer online games are often associated with being a primarily male-dominated world. Virtual worlds, on the other hand, target the female population by introducing aspects that females are more interested in. For example, as pointed out in the Fullerton, Morie and Pearce essay, fashion becomes a controllable factor in the game. In Second Life, just about every aspect of the characters appearance is modifiable -- hair, body type, eyes, nose, mouth, height and even clothing. The clothing is not only limited to what has been provided by the creators of Second Life but rather can be created by any user. Architecture and design are also shown to be dominated by females in both the real world and the virtual world. Jenkins argues that video games are often used to escape "the often drab, predictable, and overly-familiar spaces of their everyday lives." Second Life is a perfect place to do just that by creating obscure clothing, objects or places.
I find it fascinating how people have made a living -- not just a living, but becoming a millionaire -- off of Second Life. People want to show off their virtual spaces by buying virutal things. It becomes a my virtual house is bigger and better than yours and people are willing to pay a lot of money to make that point. While I, myself, have never really seen the appeal of entrancing myself in a virtual reality, spending counteless hours walking around in a virtual environment, I suppose it's not too different than chatrooms and forums in the online world. But even then, I'm one to meet people in real life rather than online.
As with all good things, comes a counterpart. With the openness of Second Life, unforunately, comes adult entertainment, pornography and sexually explicit content. I guess this is something that cannot be escaped because it's such a prominant part of today's culture. Whether it be online or in real life, it seems pornography and sexuality is an issue that arises in all forms of entertainment mainly because, in this perverted world, it is an industry that makes billions in profit.
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