Written 20 March, 2007
Second Life Yuppies
I’m a firm believer in personal freedom, which means I approve of people being free to do what they want even if I disapprove of it, and even if I don’t understand it.
I’ve written about something of which I don’t approve—child avatars—and I’m working on a piece about the Goreans.
Now I’m writing about something I don’t understand.
And that is Second Life yuppies.
In this blog I’ve related an incident about a woman I met at Wingo; she was extraordinarily proud of having a three-car garage in Second Life, complete with Mercedes, and, I suppose, a house to match.
Now, many of us don’t own everything we would like, and SL is a great place in which to have it all (I do not, sadly, yet own a volcano in the Greater Metropolitan Atlanta area), but I really don’t understand why people live totally yup lifestyles in SL.
A lot of people in SL take fantasy to the extreme, which is why there are so many elves, fairies, vampires, dragons, furries, dominatrixes, Gorean motherfuckers and sex workers on the grid. It’s not to my taste, but I understand why they do it way more than a person who chooses to strike sparks stumping up an elegant-appearing staircase when they could teleport or who is proud of owning a Mercedes when roads are rudimentary and they can fly or teleport besides.
This isn’t a slam at car and aviation buffs. I totally understand why they build 1965 Mustang convertibles or Harley Fat Bobs and F114s. What it is is a statement of incomprehension as to why someone would be impressed for themselves for owning a three-car garage when they could live in a palace in the air or a hobbit house or an undersea garden or a replica of Vlad the Impaler’s castle or a giant Rubik’s cube.
I don’t get Second Life’s yuppies. But then I don’t get yuppies in real life, either.
More power to them and their unimaginative, shallow, self-centered lifestyle, though.
Second Life Yuppies
I’m a firm believer in personal freedom, which means I approve of people being free to do what they want even if I disapprove of it, and even if I don’t understand it.
I’ve written about something of which I don’t approve—child avatars—and I’m working on a piece about the Goreans.
Now I’m writing about something I don’t understand.
And that is Second Life yuppies.
In this blog I’ve related an incident about a woman I met at Wingo; she was extraordinarily proud of having a three-car garage in Second Life, complete with Mercedes, and, I suppose, a house to match.
Now, many of us don’t own everything we would like, and SL is a great place in which to have it all (I do not, sadly, yet own a volcano in the Greater Metropolitan Atlanta area), but I really don’t understand why people live totally yup lifestyles in SL.
A lot of people in SL take fantasy to the extreme, which is why there are so many elves, fairies, vampires, dragons, furries, dominatrixes, Gorean motherfuckers and sex workers on the grid. It’s not to my taste, but I understand why they do it way more than a person who chooses to strike sparks stumping up an elegant-appearing staircase when they could teleport or who is proud of owning a Mercedes when roads are rudimentary and they can fly or teleport besides.
This isn’t a slam at car and aviation buffs. I totally understand why they build 1965 Mustang convertibles or Harley Fat Bobs and F114s. What it is is a statement of incomprehension as to why someone would be impressed for themselves for owning a three-car garage when they could live in a palace in the air or a hobbit house or an undersea garden or a replica of Vlad the Impaler’s castle or a giant Rubik’s cube.
I don’t get Second Life’s yuppies. But then I don’t get yuppies in real life, either.
More power to them and their unimaginative, shallow, self-centered lifestyle, though.
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