The always amusing Warren Ellis has a story filed with Reuters about pretty much everything Second Life recently, from the hoofrah over “Resident” numbers to the phallocentric attack on Anshe Chung.
There are two dominant perceptions of Second Life right now. Due to what some see as clever presentation of numbers, Linden Labs, the creators and operators of Second Life, have parlayed a supposed “Residents” number in excess of two millions into a good story: That Second Life is a snowballing Internet application that gains speed by the moment. [...]
The other perception, of course, is that Second Life is a psychosexual nightmare given virtual form, where giant penises roam the land and disturbed people wear the forms of bears and then have repulsive intercourse.
It was interesting to me to see both perceptions collide a few weeks back.
And now, it’s interesting for you as well. Both for Ellis’ reaction to the wackiness that is Second Life, and the fallout thereof as it impacts the rest of us.
Both the widely-read blog BoingBoing and the website of the Sydney Morning Herald reported on this [the flying phallus incident], leading to nastygrams from Ailin Graef’s husband and business partner Guntram, threatening legal action for reporting on the event – which he categorized as “cyber rape porn” — and posting screenshots of the attack, in an email to BoingBoing’s Xeni Jardin, a California-based print and radio journalist.
Cyber rape porn? Someone’s been reading my blog spam.
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Let’s turn that “cyber rape porn” spotlight the other direction and see what is happening on the land rented out by Anshe Chung in SL.
It’s about time the mismatched shades of Spider Jerusalem were turned on Second Life…
“I Hate It Here” needs a comeback.
Cyber rape porn ??
maybe they need to stop listening to Happy Joy Joy jingles and report that murder death kill.
I thought people only talked that way in movies.
This is why the internet is man’s greatest invention.
Another case of “Time to Cock” isn’t it?
Could someone please kill Second Life.
“Time to Cock” on SL was measured in nanoseconds. Now you can buy cocks for your avatar, which like all the other “prims” are most typically made by the only sorts of people monomaniacal enough to learn how to use the in-game tools: the twisted and the broken wretches of the Internet.
Everyone else just watches. Those in the virtual world business, I imagine, occasionally cringe at the notion that if they didn’t provide their user bases with enough handcrafted entertainment to sustain them, eventually they too could have pink dildoes floating through their walls, destinations and penetrations unknown.
And then they slam another Mountain Dew and get back to work.
Not to contribute to the piling-upon the whole Second Life hype machine for the largely ridiculous enterprise it is, but… ah, hell, that’s exactly what I’m out to do. So I heard this on the radio today:
(from marketplace.publicradio.org)
TEXT OF STORY
KAI RYSSDAL: When the Democrats took over yesterday, the action wasn’t just in Washington. Residents of the virtual world Second Life could watch the events unfold on a simulated Capitol Hill.
Congressman George Miller of California even held a press conference there. Or at least his avatar did. Frankly, it’s all a bit confusing. But it is completely clear politicians are trying to cash in on the Second Life phenomenon just like many companies are. The site has more than 2 million users. Or does it?
Marketplace’s Amy Scott reports the virtual world may be in for a reality check.
AMY SCOTT: It’s true Second Life boasts more than 2.3 million residents. But that refers to the number of avatars — or online personas — people have created. Clay Shirky teaches technology at New York University. Recently he started questioning how many real people actually use the site. Yesterday a reporter from Fortune got the numbers from Second Life owner Linden Lab. Shirky says just 1.5 million people have actually tried Second Life. Only 250,000 have returned a month after signing up.
CLAY SHIRKY: So these aren’t terrible numbers, but it’s certainly a much more modest success than we’ve been led to believe by the business stories saying “there are millions of people using Second Life and it’s growing by leaps and bounds.”
So why does it matter how many real people inhabit a fake world? Well, remember that tech bubble that popped a few years back? Jimmy Guterman writes for Paid Content. He says journalists who fell for the hype were part of the problem. And he’s worried that may be happening again.
Guterman says a recent Business Week cover featured the boyish founder of digg.com, with the misleading headline, “How this Kid made $60 million in 18 months.”
GUTERMAN: It’s a result of someone sort of extrapolating what something could have been worth if it were liquid, rather than what has actually happened. And I think it’s sort of a classic example of bubble journalism, where we print what we believe, rather than what we checked.
Linden Lab declined an interview request. But in a statement the company said it voluntarily publishes a wealth of information about its usage. Guterman says it’s our job as reporters to find it.
In New York, I’m Amy Scott for Marketplace.
Linden Labs *declined* an interview request from a halfway-savvy public radio program featuring business news?
The end is near.
You know “cyber rape porn” is going to be the number one search term to get to your site soon, right?
here I will help:
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cyber rape porn
ok thats enough
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