Second Life

l i f e

Time

to get real about virtual worlds Living in virtual worlds can be exciting and challenging. Anu Gulmohar assumes a spunky avatar and goes out to meet other avatars in virtual alleys, beaches and valleys to understand the ways of these worlds…

second life

L

iving parallel lives in virtual worlds was initially all about

fun and games. In real life, where one has to be an adult and mistakes are seldom tolerated, virtual worlds are like playgrounds where one can try new games – from exchanging vows with your virtual soulmate to adopting children – and not be afraid of real life consequences. But as the possibilities of living large have expanded, and people have gotten completely caught up with their second lives, the line between the real and virtual seems to be diminishing. In May, a 43-year-old Japanese woman was divorced by her online husband, and the lady took it so hard that she hacked into his account and deleted him from the story line. While she had no intentions of physically harming him in real life, her enraged ex called on the cops, and now Japanese Police have divulged that she could find herself behind bars for up to five years, or be fined upto $5,000, according to the time and money that her online spouse had spent on his avatar. The days of simply flirting in chat rooms are gone, and what people from around the world are getting addicted to, is living full-blown, real virtual lives. Gul Sorbet is my online avatar on Second Life (SL). I have to confess, Gul is a tad slimmer than me, but I haven’t intentionally cheated on any other count! A lot of people are far more original in creating their avatars; for instance the very first person I got chatting to was Ambassador Atlas, who told me that he’s from

Chicago, but in SL he poses to be from UK, and fools everyone with a perfect Brit accent! The next person I chatted up (let’s call him Mat) told me how SL is a place to be yourself, and that he has chosen to be himself with lesser inhibitions. Second Life has its own currency – Linden dollars – which can be exchanged for real world currency (roughly 260 L make 1 US$), and people can find employment and run businesses in this world. One can be a journalist and cover events pertaining to the second world, or become a receptionist, or an office administrator. One of the easiest ways to make money on SL, Mat told me, is by becoming a dancer in a nightclub or by becoming an escort. He then teleported (if only one could escape traffic so in real life too!) me to a store which had plenty of free clothes, shoes, hair, eyes… Before leaving, Mat advised that if I’d like to try becoming an escort then I should pick up

"People use spaces such as Second Life to be able to achieve what they cannot outside"

the sunday indian 59 23 november 2008

l i f e

– hold your breath – "a vagina" for my avatar! “It is always easier to drop inhibitions in a ‘pretend’ world – this is precisely one of its key functions. So people use spaces such as Second Life to be able to achieve what they cannot outside virtual worlds. This experience can feed into the real world and help individuals to change (for the better or for the worse),” says Sandra Jovchelovitch, Head of the Institute of Social Psychology, London School of Economics. The prude in me made me walk out of that store with merely some fancy clothes and accessories, but I did find my way to some clubs. Fantastically created ambiences greeted me at every club I stepped into, which had plenty of thingamajigs that allowed you to make your avatar do the salsa, tango, belly dance etc and hug and kiss your partner. One of the clubs, Lara Beach Club, had posters of Aishwarya Rai, Mumtaz and Rajesh Khanna. Waqas Rau, co-owner of Lara Beach Club, boasted to me, “Lara Beach Club is now the biggest eastern club on SL with 1500+ members in only two months.” They’re not making any profits though, “I spend 50,000 L every month in running this club, but we’re only starting,” said Waqas. You can own lovely homes in such virtual worlds – complete with drapes, marble floors and chandeliers. I once, accidentally, teleported myself right into someone’s home, but thankfully the mistress of the house didn’t reproach me for the intrusion. Alicia told me that this house, which she shared with her SL husband and child, cost them 800 L per week. “My SL husband is my real life boyfriend since two years, but my daughter – I don’t know her in real life,” said

Alicia, and so led me on to realise that SL has a number of adoption agencies. Here, children (in real life older than 18 years though – the minimum age required to register on SL) and parents wishing to adopt put up their profiles, and couples and children walk in and choose the people with whom they would like to build their virtual family. Disco Simons, owner of Kids Place Adoption Mall, believes that families in SL can become as precious as ones in real life. “Your feelings are real in this game as well. A lot of children come back to tell us how happy they are.” There are umpteen cities and communities in SL. To help me figure my way around, Ambassador Atlas had given me a number of landmarks to which I could teleport myself. “Violet is a small tightly knit community. Waterhead is vile and, at times, full of nihilistic twerps. Wengen is a small community of fun folks…” But the one place I was most excited at finding was Bollywood! A riot of colours and dome-shaped buildings greet you here. “Bollywood was the first Indian-themed island on Second Life. Since its launch in July 2007, it has grown to become one of the most popular hangout for Indians and others interested in Indian film and culture on Second Life,” says Siddharth Banerjee, founder & CEO of Indusgeeks Solutions P Ltd. “We realised early that it was important to invest in these worlds. Besides Bollywood, Indusgeeks also operates SLJobfinder.com, which is the largest employment service for virtual worlds like Second Life,” said Banerjee. Joni West from California is another entrepreneur who learnt early the possibilities SL presented to businesses. “I wound up establishing my own agency,

This Second Marketing LLC, which brings real world clients into Second Life in an effective and relevant way. Our happy clients include Colgate, Nestle, IMAX, and CareerBuilder.com to name a few,” says Joni. On people investing in businesses in SL, Joni says, “There are thousands of people making more money from Second Life than they are paying to be there. A woman got famous by buying land early on and developed a housing project like a real world developer and reportedly made over a million real dollars in the real estate market. There are also some very successful clothing and furniture businesses. Pre-fab houses, body shapes, ‘skins,’ and animations are also lucrative businesses for those who take them seriously in Second Life.” It is estimated that 80 per cent

of all Internet users would have presence on such virtual world by 2011. The moment high Internet speeds become common in India, many of us will inevitably find our way to worlds like Second Life and There (which also has its own money exchange). While Sandra from LSE tells me that they’re keenly monitoring the process, and warns, “Sometimes people will want to cross the line and forget the reality/fantasy distinction, bringing into their real worlds their virtual selves. This can be, in extreme cases, dangerous for the general well being of the individual and others.” While the Japanese lady learnt this the hard way, let’s remember that virtual lives can be as fun and as complicated as our real lives. With inputs from Savreen Gadhoke

Virtual life goes on... ICMR* survey across four metros Percentage of people who have made friends with strangers on chat sites

69%

Percentage of people interested in playing games like Second Life

63%

Percentage of people who would feel cheated if their spouse married another person’s online avatar Percentage of people who feel safe in investing money in a virtual world

the sunday indian 60 23 november 2008

39% 46%

* Indian council for market research