Written 6 February, 2009
Inventorexia and Bulimientoria
I find myself unable to proceed with the sad story of Sweetie’s inventory dysfunction without mentioning two disorders closely related to Inventory Obsessive Disorder—Inventorexia and Bulimientoria.
Avatars with Inventorexia are convinced their inventories are too large. No matter how few items they may actually have in their inventories, they firmly belief their inventories are overstuffed.
Inventorexics will do almost anything to lower their inventory count, up to and including trashing their favorite possessions—their furniture, their house, their virtual platinum-and-diamond wedding ring, even their favorite skin and hairdo can go into the trash.
A hallmark of inventorexia is obsession with the library. Inventorexics view the library as useless, like their virtual appendix, and will spend hours trying to delete its items. They seek and all-too-often find unscrupulous virtual physicians who will perform librarectomies on them. This requires only a simple hack, but inventorexics will pay big money to rid themselves of their libraries.
An all-to-common outcome of inventorexia is account deactivation. The Lindens, seeing such small inventories, assume the avatar has left Second Life and terminate the avatar.
A disorder closely related to inventorexia is bulimientoria. Bulimientoria is characterized by a destructive cycle of binge-and-purge, in which bulimientorics will compulsively stuff their inventories with freebies, high-cost gowns, and even simple cube prims. Then they will purge, deleting their newly-acquired items. Unfortunately, Second Life’s user interface makes the problem worse by providing bulimientorics with a purge option for items in the trash (just right click any item in your Trash folder to see this).
I’m tempted to discuss even more inventory-related disorders: Munchausen’s Inventory Syndrome by Proxy, Phantom Inventory Syndrome, and Multiple Inventory Disorder, for instance, but I’m feeling a need to finish the story of Sweetie’s inventory malfunction.
Inventorexia and Bulimientoria
I find myself unable to proceed with the sad story of Sweetie’s inventory dysfunction without mentioning two disorders closely related to Inventory Obsessive Disorder—Inventorexia and Bulimientoria.
Avatars with Inventorexia are convinced their inventories are too large. No matter how few items they may actually have in their inventories, they firmly belief their inventories are overstuffed.
Inventorexics will do almost anything to lower their inventory count, up to and including trashing their favorite possessions—their furniture, their house, their virtual platinum-and-diamond wedding ring, even their favorite skin and hairdo can go into the trash.
A hallmark of inventorexia is obsession with the library. Inventorexics view the library as useless, like their virtual appendix, and will spend hours trying to delete its items. They seek and all-too-often find unscrupulous virtual physicians who will perform librarectomies on them. This requires only a simple hack, but inventorexics will pay big money to rid themselves of their libraries.
An all-to-common outcome of inventorexia is account deactivation. The Lindens, seeing such small inventories, assume the avatar has left Second Life and terminate the avatar.
A disorder closely related to inventorexia is bulimientoria. Bulimientoria is characterized by a destructive cycle of binge-and-purge, in which bulimientorics will compulsively stuff their inventories with freebies, high-cost gowns, and even simple cube prims. Then they will purge, deleting their newly-acquired items. Unfortunately, Second Life’s user interface makes the problem worse by providing bulimientorics with a purge option for items in the trash (just right click any item in your Trash folder to see this).
I’m tempted to discuss even more inventory-related disorders: Munchausen’s Inventory Syndrome by Proxy, Phantom Inventory Syndrome, and Multiple Inventory Disorder, for instance, but I’m feeling a need to finish the story of Sweetie’s inventory malfunction.
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