Second Life Media Coverage, Conflict, and How Not to Approach My Avatar
As real life media coverage of Second Life continues to go strong (for example, see today’s BBC article Second hype or second life? and the Wall Street Journal’s Avatars at the office, subscription required), and more people become aware of this virtual world and flock to join, whether for social or business reasons or both, it’s inevitable that there are going to be interpersonal, cultural, community-based, and business-related clashes and conflicts. And the extent to which these are effectively handled and managed will be critical to the growth of Second Life.
Eric Eggertson has an interesting post about the recent decision by Second Life gated community Dreamland to ban PR and marketing professionals who have allegedly made public statements claiming to be the "first" at something in SL that longer-term SL residents believe to be untrue.
"This is an interesting case of having to defend your reputation in a semi-official way, as opposed to keeping an eye out for rumours, and trying to combat them with information.
… it will be interesting to see if this goes in a positive direction - encouraging discussion of expectations and rules of behaviour - or if it’s the virtual equivalent of the blacklists, where corporations are assumed guilty until they appear before a committee."
Getting to know the expectations and norms is important in any environment, and seemingly more so in Second Life where perhaps currently the sensitivities between pioneers and early residents, and the more-recently joined, are somewhat delicate.
By the way, if you’ve got the time and the money, a conference that’s sure to be fantastic and may touch on some of these issues is State of Play IV: Building the Global Metaverse taking place in Singapore in January. The program promises to cover taxation of virtual property, global virtual world journalism, legal regulatory issues affecting virtual worlds, intercultural communication, and virtual worlds as global learning environments.
And speaking of interpersonal conflict, for anyone wanting to make nice with my avatar Ceara Moore, please note that calling her a "bitch" when she doesn’t immediately offer you friendship — maybe because she’s never met you before, your profile says nothing about you, and you haven’t even made the effort to engage in small talk — doesn’t cut it. And simply propositioning Ceara on the street with a "wanna f***?" doesn’t cut it either.
Those approaches never worked on me in real life and they’re sure as heck not going to work on my avatar in SL. Just goes to show that there’s more overlap between RL and SL than some may realize.
Tags: secondlife, avatar, cearamoore
I hesitated to use The Second Life Herald as a source, since they were the sole source for an earlier post about discontent in Second Life. The vote in Dreamland pushed me into posting something about it. But I have no idea if the vote represents a true groundswell of opinion, or just the manipulations of a few disgruntled folks who were able to get a majority of voters to side with their position.
I hear it’s your blogversary! You’ve done an amazing job of reaching out, putting your ideas out there, learning and teaching. I hope we can count on more in the future.
It’s been great getting to know you, Andrea, even if we’re just nobodies in the communications business.
Thanks Eric
It really is all about learning and teaching and sharing, isn’t it?
Many happy returns indeed! I still remember getting your first e-mail and especially my surprise that there actually could be somebody in the States stumbling onto my blog. Anyway: I’m still glad you did! Keep up the good work!
Congrats on the first year Andrea, here’s to many more!
Elizabeth Vargas was in SL this morning, and her avatar looked shockingly like Elizabeth Vargas.
She never mentioned being propositioned for cybersex, so you must be better looking.
@ Serge: Yes, amazing, huh? And with any luck we’ll get to met in person next month.
@ Mack: You were one of my first online buddies and supporters, and look at you now, Mr. Marketing!
@ Ike: I think it was more the case of being in the right, err, wrong place at the wrong time. And no, my avatar is pretty basic right now, nothing special, but I’m working on getting a great skin, so watch out
Andrea,
Here’s another event happening in Second Life that might interest you and your readers: CaseCamp Second Life - http://www.CaseCampSecondLife.org
It’s taking place on Thursday, December 14.
CaseCamp Second Life is a free unconference where marketers present case studies and take some questions from the audience.
CaseCamp has already been held successfully several times already this year throughout Canada, but now we can bring the same event to a global audience by holding it in Second Life.
Hoping that Ceara Moore will register for the event!
–Bryan Person
CaseCamp Second Life organizer
So I guess saying “If I said you have a beautiful skin would you hold it against me” won’t work, huh? Damn… must go back and work on another line…
@ Bryan: Thanks, Ceara registered.
@ Lee: Maybe that works on the avs you’re inviting to those wild parties Allan said you’ve been having back at the pad.
Andrea, I enjoyed your post on SL. I am still not sure what to make of the whole place and all the controversy around it.
As well, like you, I have found that my avatar gets hit upon with the worst pick-up lines I’ve heard since the days I used to hang out in college bars. Sheesh.
Donna, glad to see Ceara’s not the only one
Happy Blogversary.
I guess I’m finally going to have to create a SL avatar, and check out CaseCamp Crayonville.
I was avoiding the inevitable until now, but if it’s good enough for you Andrea, then I should give it a shot, me thinks.
Happy Anniversary!
@ Bill: Thanks buddy.
@ Jordan: Let me know when you’re set and I can show you some of the places I think you’ll like. And if Alex wants to come along, we can do some shopping — she’ll absolutely love that.