Stalkers in Second Life

An incident in SL made me think about stalkers in Second Life. During last two years in SL, discussions with friends, and strangers, have compelled me to do a small survey on this topic.

Stalking in Second Life is one of the worrisome and controversial topics. The fear of a masked stranger lurking in the dark with a knife in the hand and an intention to violate your privacy and kill you is very intense. This mental picture has been reinforced by countless movies and is difficult to erase. To this, add the possibility that you may have inadvertently created your own personal stalker because of a virtual game. This is a scary combination that will haunt you in the real life.

For some, the fear of a stalker is too real to take any chance. Tina Trina (made up SL avatar name to hide identity) cannot escape the fear of unknown.  She uses SL very creatively for her RL profession. She loves to meet people in SL and frequents the music clubs. However, Tina’s RL mother was murdered and this scar keeps her from taking chances both in RL and  SL.  She has no contempt towards SL or people here;  it is a precaution. Despite her carefulness, she admits that she has occasionally been carried away by the friendliness of SL and has given out some RL information to people about whom she knew little. However, she is quick to add that she was lucky to have interacted with good people who never took advantage of that information to stalk her.

Not everyone is lucky like Tina; a small number of players in SL who give out their RL information, do get stalked.

Although I started with a hope to survey both male and female avatars, logistics became too daunting with a questionnaire containing twelve questions. Therefore, I decided to survey females only. From the response, it appears that a small but seemingly significant number of people have been stalked in SL. I had 24 respondents who were stalked in SL alone or both in SL and RL. The results to the questions are given in the graphs presented here.

Not surprisingly, the majority of women (14 out of 24) were stalked by male avatars, 4 by female avatars, and 6 by both male and female avatars.  We cannot take the female stalking lightly because at least two of the female stalkers crossed the boundaries of the pixel world to reach the real world and contacted their victims.

Who are the stalkers? There is an almost fifty-fifty chance of being stalked by a stranger or a previously known person: only 13 victims had previous SL relationship with their stalkers. Stalking seemed random because not all the stalkers had victims’ RL information:  only 9 of the 24 victims had shared real life information with their stalkers.

One of the worst fears of SL stalking is that the stalker can contact the victim in RL. There were 6 cases where stalking spilled into RL. In all the 6 cases, the victims had shared the RL information with the stalker. These data further support the oft-repeated advice that people should be careful in sharing RL information in SL.

Only 6 victims reported to Linden Lab about stalking. Of the 6 victims whose stalkers reached RL, only 4 reported to Linden Lab. The other two who reported to Linden Lab were victims in SL only. These numbers suggest that victims seem to have different tolerance threshold for stalking.

According to this survey, Linden Lab took action in only 1 out of 6 reported cases. Most victims were disappointed by Linden Lab’s inaction.  This remarkable failure of Linden Lab to act on the reports has generated strong resentment and frustration among victims.

Interestingly, reporting to Linden Lab also generated a bit of controversy.   There were concerns about people being over-sensitive and reporting to Linden Lab on the slightest of incident.  One responder who was not a victim of stalking wrote that a frivolous reporting to Linden Lab against someone may result in suspension of account and loss of game inventory that was built by spending real money.

It was not surprising that all 6 victims whose stalker reached the RL also had to take action in RL to protect themselves.  But, only 2 changed their avatar identity and created an ‘alt’ to avoid further harassment. Most victims (22 out of 24) do not worry about the past stalking incidents. They believe that it was a nuisance in their lives but are cautious about their future interactions in SL.

According to a website on legal issues (definitions.uslegal.com/s/stalking/), the definition of an RL stalker is:

‘A person who intentionally and repeatedly follows or harasses another person and who makes a credible threat, either expressed or implied, with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear of death or serious bodily harm is guilty of the crime of stalking.’
(italics mine)

So, what is the definition of a stalker in Second Life? Since no death or bodily harm can be inflicted on the avatar or the player in Second Life, and if the stalker does not cross the pixel boundaries, what will be considered as stalking?

This question raises another question about the threshold of the victims. Some victims of ‘SL stalking’ simply turn on their ‘Mute’ buttons while others immediately rush to report to Linden Lab.

I would like to know your views on these questions. Please click on the Comments button below and tell us what do you think.

Incidently, the word ’stalker’ must mean something good in other languages because on the last count, I noticed 356 avatar having first name Stalker. (ha ha!)

Tipping and Money Laundering in SecondLife

Giving tips either in cash or goods has been a trend in the world of business and Second Life is not an exception to it.  Tipping is an expression of acknowledgment for a job well done.  It is thought to be reasonable for owners of publicly accessible sims and clubs to ask the users for voluntary donations and  tips that is used to defray some or all of the cost of running the business.

The most notable areas of monetary exchange in SL are heavy transactions in ‘virtual estate’, virtual sex industry and music performances.   Ever since the inception of SL, its economic effects have been controversial.  It has been a constant dilemma of how to view the in-world money transactions.  Should the virtual money be taxable or not?  Governments, economists and  ordinary players all have mulled over this matter.

Some argue that as long as virtual activity stays within the virtual economy, it shouldn’t be taxable.  However, the linden dollars have now been spilled in the real life (Reference 1, Reference 2) and money can be freely exchanged between real life and Second Life.  With this development, there is the looming possibility of money laundering by unscrupulous people including funding of terrorist groups.

In fact, the Swedish Taxation Agency Skatterverket has seemingly declared that any virtual transaction of money in the game is taxable.  The US Internal Revenue Services (IRS) has also been keeping a close eye on the Linden dollars to enforce taxation.  Skatterverket wants to tax in-world transactions and expects the users to send invoices for any transaction.  But this approach may not be reasonable since one of the basic premise of SL game is the anonymity of the users.  The users don’t know who they’re interacting with.

Arguably, in SL, the largest transactions of money are through tipping in numerous virtual sex businesses and music clubs.  SL residents are particularly drawn to the music clubs to experience a social interaction while DJs or live performers playing their favorite music.  Tipping the DJs, live performers and the hosting clubs and sims is an accepted practice that in some cases is essential for keeping these clubs viable.  These seemingly innocuous gestures of donation and receipt of Linden dollars may have deeper economic repercussions.

Recently, a new trend has been noticed in SL.  Tip a little too much and someone from the Linden clan will chase you, audit you, and make sure that you are not evading taxes or laundering money for a drug cartel.  This brings us to the question whether large amounts of money can be laundered in Second Life?  It seems that using multiple alt accounts and bots, it may be possible to launder petty cash of a few hundred dollars without being tracked by the authorities (Reference 3).  But laundering any larger amount of money will be almost impossible without raising a red flag in Linden Lab’s exchange department.  A bitterly true account of Linden economy is presented at Reference 4.

Coming back to the taxation of the tips and donations, in real life, the IRS calculates an average percentage based on actual credit card tips the server or restaurant earns and applies that number to cash transactions.  Can this model be adapted to SL?  Theoretically, it is possible to track these donations that are channeled through the tip-jars.

The omnipresent tip-jar at the public sims and clubs can be quite a complex device.  The tip-jar is not just a receptacle of the tips and donations dropped in it.  These tip-jars come in a variety of fancy shape, sizes and decorations including the personalized ones with the pictures and themes.  The facade of these tip-jars may hold a complex calculator that faithfully apportions the obtained tips into the accounts of the hierarchical management system.  A number of these tip-jars have been designed by astute builders who have put innovative scripts that distribute the tip to the performer, establishment and the sim owner.  Sophisticated tip-jars may subtly create competition among donors and recipients alike.  For example, a tip-jar may display the biggest donor at a venue making other generous donors to up that amount.  A tip-jar may also display the most tipped employee at a location to generate ‘healthy competition’ which invariably may help the owner of the establishment.  In addition, these tip-jars can hold or relay the entire transaction of the event or the day to a web-based server or to your email account for record-keeping.

In any case, it is not clear why suddenly Linden Lab has been tracking people for their monetary transactions in SL.  There are several theories about Linden Lab’s apparently whimsical actions of suspending SL residents from the game.  I have attempted to contact the Managing Director of Marketing (Linden Lab) through email, but Linden Lab server has refused to receive my email. Until we hear from them, it remains an unsolved mystery!

Halloween Hall of Horrors

Two years ago at this time of the year, I experienced an SL halloween horror that has haunted me ever since. The second life changed, and in some ways the events that followed have paved the path to blogging.

Various themes of horror and scariness can be observed in SL sims that are fun to visit. However, Colin Fizgig, PatriciaAnn Daviau and their friends have put up a Hall of Horrors (Horror Hall Festival, Start Area, Delgado Estates (236, 105, 3078))  that is a masterpiece. It is a different kind of halloween theme.  Sha Karrilion and Lawrence Delgado have graciously accommodated this project on their sim.

The Hall of Horrors is not infested with ghosts and ghouls.  There are no witches flying on broom and no stenciled appearance or disappearance of flying bats to annoy you.  Yet, it is an experience not to be missed.

The Enchanted Forest

The teleport point is in midst of an enchanted forest.  The light rays filtering through the canopy of the trees create a surreal atmosphere.  The trees appear to be old and fearsome.  There is an aura of horror but no direct threat.  It is like a Spielberg movie where the threat of violence is more disturbing than the violence itself.  In this menacing atmosphere, you can feel the piercing gaze of burls that dot the forest landscape.

From the teleport point, a path leads to a dialepidated building half covered with vegetation.  You have reached the Hall of Horrors.  At this point you are on your own-  one step and you will be engulfed by a building that tortures your brain.  It forces you to view things differently.  It wrenches your mind to let go your conventional thinking and forces you to adapt to a new rule where things are not what they appear to be.  It is not the threat or the fear of unknown, it is your own self that you are scared of.  You want to run away from this awkward ‘reality’ because it wrings your nerves.  You feel claustrophobic but your ego keeps pushing you deeper and deeper into the labyrinth.

The further you go, the sicker you feel.  That is the power of this building.  It horrifies you from its very design and construction.  Its logic has no beginning or end, it multiplies within itself.  Most likely you will not leave the House of Horrors on your own terms;  you will likely be teleporting out of it!

The Hall of Horror

The building team comprises of Mobius Enzo, Colin Fizgig, PartriciaAnne Daviau, Puppet Runo, Dakumi Kanto, TommyTom Jun, who are very interesting characters in SL. They defy conventions and push the limits.  They are always busy building complex and unusual things that are testimony of their super-convoluted brains.

Their child-like curiosity and ever-growing interest in things of strange and bizarre nature keep them inventing new ways of representing the 3-dimensional virtual world.  Having common friends in this playground has given me privilege to watch them build some of their masterpieces and I sincerely hope that you will have a peek into his intricate mind.

The Movers and Shakers

The event is organized by TommyTom Jun, Sha Karillion, Aviendha Vayandar.  The events will be open to public from 26 October to 1 November 2009.

In case you were wondering about ‘extras’, there are a lot of fun activities organized including high-grade shopping area and a great Horror Party. Plus, there are numerous free-stuff including Colin Fizgig’s famous real cool flying broom-mobile. The flying broom is fitted with a handle bar and a smoking tail. The broom can be used for flying at a very high speed. This broom was part of a Quiditch project which Colin undertook improvising on Galoot Yangho’s prototype and I had a privilege of watching him work on it.  See ya there.

Taliban of the Second LIfe Blues.

Freedom of Speech

Last week, I was permanently banished from Toby’s Blues club without any reason extended to me. I figured that it was related to my previous blog where I wrote about a DJ ‘firing’ her boss Toby Howton, the co-owner of a Blues club of dubious authenticity.

Later, my guess was confirmed when a seemingly irate Toby sent me an IM telling me to stop publishing ‘libellous bullshit’.  He threatened me, ‘you will be revealed for what you truly are’.

Toby seems to be living on a monkey planet where an alpha monkey holds his group prominence over his harem members by grimacing at others.  What seems amusing is that he and his cronies have got eject and ban buttons to play with and they seem to be delighted in doing so.

You don’t have to take my word for this.  Walk into any Blues music club in SL and randomly ask people about Toby or his cronies.  You will hear people sigh in disgust and feel sorry for Toby & Co.

It is clear, Mr. Toby, that you are not used to free speech and do not respect upright people who do not kowtow to you.  Your actions speak volumes about the fragility of your ego.  You want to stop people from speaking freely about what they think.  You want to tell people what to wear and what to say.  You may have some incongruous rules within the non-material boundaries of your club, but you DO NOT command what I think or say there or anywhere including this blog site.

In this complex and vast world, my existence may be of a ‘little man’ as you called me in your IM, but I believe in one thing very clearly and strongly-  censorship is unacceptable.  To me, people who impose their ideas by force and exercise banishment to show their power are in the same category as taliban.  They are little, they are insignificant, and a bane for mankind.

A word of advice from me, Mr. Toby.  Exercise your brain and write about your disagreement.  I do not censor comments here; I keep the comments button open on these blogs.  But to do so, you need some courage to face the world.

Play Misty For Me: DJs in Second Life.

If you remember what the radio DJ Clint Eastwood went through in the movie ‘Play Misty For Me’, you will empathize with the DJs in SL because they are more exposed to their audience than a radio DJ can ever be. Creepy events are part and parcel of a DJ’s job especially for female DJs who happen to be pretty. Who would know it better than Lixxin Zadark who has had a long-time admirer IMing her every single time he logs on, “What do you have on in real life?”

Considering that music is a dynamic motive force of Second Life, DJs in SL play a very important role in the social and economic well-being of this virtual world. They attract the audience to the the sim, make the music lovers visit more frequently to the club and keep them engaged long enough so that other businesses in the sim may benefit from the incorrigible shopping habit of these visitors. This is their job. DJs are expected to bring people to the club through their talent, and hold their audience’s fickle attention in the club giving them time to meet, chat, interact, and dance with other like-minded people.

I have witnessed many great DJs in SL including some very talented ones in Hiphop (UncleSlappy Wylie) and Jazz (Johnnie Hesse), but my music experience in SL is mostly confined to Blues Clubs. These clubs offer some legendary DJs, many new, upcoming, and some crossover DJs who are making their presence felt in SL music scene.

We all have a ‘vision’ of our voice. But somehow, the electronic medium does not do justice to our own ‘image’ of the voice. Yet there are many gifted people with a great voice, of whom some are happy to make the rest of us happy with their wonderful voice. These are our favorite DJs. I have told about Thundergas Menges in one of my previous blogs but there are other excellent DJs including Fiery Otaared, Ben Shutt and Bard Wasp who cast their magic spell on their die-hard fans. They have struck a chord with their audience and have instituted their own specialty within the Blues music.

Lixxin Zardak

Yet, there are new DJs whose entry to the Blues club has rejuvenated the interests in many of these clubs. One evening, sitting at Toby’s, I had turned down my ‘lights’ to midnight setting and was enjoying the vibrant music when I started to view people on the crowded dance floor. I noticed a female avatar with long flowing iridescent golden hair that was shadowing the pretty face. There was no face-light to emphasize the expensive skin and makeup on this avatar. The next thing I noticed was the hovering name tag that said Lixxin Zadark. Immediately it became clear to me that she was the presiding DJ at the moment and the lack of face-light was neither a lack of confidence nor of style. On the contrary, it was her self-assuredness displayed as her being a considerate person. You know how an inexperienced but overzealous avatar can ruin your perfect dance with a great partner to the superb music by not turning off that 5000 watts face-light. Lixxin’s confidence was recently evident when she fired her own boss Toby Howton, the owner of Toby’s club, because he failed to value the regular club visitors and, instead, sided with an obnoxious foul-mouthed old woman avatar who likely was one of his assistants in disguise.

I was talking to Lixxin that evening when the idea of this blog topic came to my mind and I insisted on asking her more. Being a DJ both in RL and in SL, Lixxin has mastered the art of ignoring inquisitive people. She told little about herself except that her schedule is extremely busy from DJing both on the internet radio and in SL. When asked why she spends time on low-Linden dollar paying SL-DJ job, she candidly answered, “In SL, you get a lot more feedback and it’s immediate. You can tell by the chat and IM’s if people like what you are doing.” After a pause, she offered another explanation, “In here (SL) you can be judged more on the job you do, not on how you look or how old you are or whatever. In here your image projected is whatever you make it.” We are taking your words and watching you Lixxin.

Rieana Golding

Another female SL-DJ who has garnered a formidable strength of her fans is Reiana Golding. Rieana’s time is at odds with the rest of the world, especially the contiguous states of the USA, because she hails from Hawaii. Yet, her savvy presentation makes her the favorite of the fans who eagerly wait to hear her mellifluous voice to spill in the dark night. Rieana explains her deeply embedded roots in music and showmanship, “… grew up with relatives and family members in the entertainment business… and have had also participated in the entertainment business. There were musicians, singers, dancers, DJs, etc.” She is not new to SL-DJing; Rieana has been around for more than three years. She started as event organizer when a friend cajoled her into trying out as a DJ. She has not looked back ever since.

BluJns Benoir

In the cadre of great female DJs, BluJns Benoir is equally deft at her art of DJing. Like Lixxin, she is rooted in internet broadcast and derives her pleasure and sense of accomplishment from the SL audience. When I asked her what was so special about SL that she spends time as a DJ here, she cheerfully replied, “The people. The music. The SHOPPPPPPING!!!!” Of course her enthusiasm is contagious and she knows it too, “Another thing, you can tell a lot about a person by the tune they request… what feeling they want to convey or even how they are feeling. And if its me.. you can tell my mood….SOIMETIMES ” When I quipped that she could be an SL shrink, she laughed, “LOL, aint it the truth- bartenders n Djs LOL.” I shook my head, ‘Who knew?’

Tight Whiteberry

Male DJs are not alien to the SL music scene. In fact, they are the dominant force here. I have mentioned a few names earlier but there are others too who have been known well and are on a trajectory to become legends in their own right. Two names immediately come to the mind- Tight Whiteberry and Hy Gynoid. Both these DJs have had considerable experience in the SL clubs. Tight is more involved in specialized grand shows with the help of Daisey Baroque, the co-owner of his Lightning Productions. Hy Gynoid has slowly but steadily climbed up the steps of DJ stardom and now is regularly featured at the Is Salsa’s Hotlanta Blues. I could not interview him because of his busy schedule but his voice and playlists are treats not to be missed this Halloween season.

Hy Gynoid

In a radio or internet broadcast, a DJ may decide to address an audience and stay with that. In contrast, in SL, it is difficult to fathom what the audience wants because the entire SL is amazingly deceptive. Almost all the avatars are young looking despite the players’ age, which makes an SL-DJ’s job rather challenging.

Smart DJs have got their fingers on the pulse of the audience. As time progresses and music continues, they can sense the sap rising in the mind and body of people during the performance. They constantly fine tune their acute sense in a highly dynamic atmosphere of SL crowd. The dynamics of SL is different than any other broadcast, podcast, or streaming medium; the crowd in SL is ever-changing. There is continual arrival and departure of people during the performance of a DJ. To this, add the complexity of the international audience that makes the job of an SL –DJs extremely precarious. They have to strike a balance, they have to sense the excitement and boredom of their audience and respond to it with their creativity which sometimes may be demanding.

They have to juggle a few things as well. The stream must work, the playlist should be fresh or the canny regular visitors will be annoyed. Live requests have to be played that may require an instant download. If lucky, a request may only give a hint of the lyric, track name, album or the artist. Under more challenging conditions, the request may describe some sentiments encoded in the song and the DJ has to rely on her memory and musical spirituality to dig out that requested song from the depth of her memory. All this would be difficult to fake for anyone who is not fully tuned into being a DJ or someone who just wants to hook up her iPod to the stream and show off the playlist.

In this era of satellite and internet radio, iPods and flexible downloads and playlist, we can access our favorite music anytime anywhere. But we still need our DJs to play it for us because somewhere DJs and music connect the humans and keep us socially interactive. And that is a thing worth preserving!

The Looks That Kill.

First of all, I want to acknowledge that this blog post is a collaborative effort with my friend Maliki Galli. She framed the questions and conducted numerous interviews in SL to find the answers to the questions:

1. Do you IM men (or women) based on their avatar look or the profile?
2. Have you ever hesitated to IM an avatar who is ‘drop-dead gorgeous’?

Maliki interviewed men and I called women in SL. We contacted many friends and strangers.

If you are like me, I occasionally dance in SL in the Blues clubs and, regularly answer to IMs while dancing. One night, while dancing, I was talking to my friend Maliki in IM who quietly sat on a barstool while smooth music was filling the hall. Looking at her I noticed that her seat was placed between two good looking guys. I asked her why she was not dancing when two guys, who had been parked next to her for a long time without their own dance partners, were flanking her.

Apparently, she was expecting them to ask her for a dance, which they never did. I have previously written about the dance halls in SL being full of women but no men to dance with (All She Wants To Do Is Dance, Dance!). Still, it was disheartening to see a beautiful female avatar sitting there without an invitation from any of these guys.

Without thinking, I said, ‘They must be scared of you.” To which my friend replied in surprise, “Scared? Of what?” I said that they might be scared to ask her to dance because she was beautiful and they probably feared that she would refuse to dance. Now that was quite a surprise for my friend. She thought that such a situation may arise in RL, but not in SL.

To an extent, beauty and style impart sex appeal that attracts people. But, do it too much and chances are that it will make you unapproachable. People may still find you attractive, but they don’t think you as an ‘achievable target’.

So, to satisfy my curiosity, I decided to run a quick test. I asked a few male avatars in the club and they were unanimous about looking at the profiles and not how pretty an avatar was. I was a bit disappointed to see my theory bite the dust. But I reasoned that no one would want to appear shallow by admitting that he contacts people in SL based on their looks. After all, with a generous amount of linden dollars, anyone can make his or her avatar look gorgeous regardless of how modest the appearance is in RL.

I sighed deeply and told Maliki that this survey was  doomed to fail because people wanted to be politically correct. But, Maliki was quick on her feet too. She had already posed those questions to a few male avatars. This time, they replied that indeed they considered appearance of an avatar and they could be shy at occasions to contact a ‘drop-dead gorgeous’ female avatar.

One thing became clear that male avatars were answering to me (a male avatar) with caution, but they did not filter their response when answering Maliki. She was excited with these results and wanted to probe deeper into the ‘psyche of the avatars’. We decided to query opposite sexes. Did we get true answers? We don’t know. But we did get some interesting answers.

Of all the male avatars interviewed, 70% claimed to consider profile only. The remaining 30% agreed to consider both profile and looks but specified that looks mattered only after reading a profile. None of the interviewee owned up to IM a female avatar based on her appearance. Now that is a surprise!

Among men, almost a third of them admitted to hesitate while approaching an extremely beautiful female avatar. One guy confided, “They are waiting for you to try, so that they can obliterate you with their scorn ” Another said, “I would probably send a ’safe’ IM to compliment them on their appearance.”

These results can be interpreted in many ways. If the answers given by men are true, then it should alarm women that all those shopping sprees in SL are going waste. But I seriously doubt the truthfulness of these claims. I will let you draw your own conclusions and would like to invite your comments.

How did our female avatars do on these questions? More than half of the female avatars (53%) said that they look at the profiles. Those who considered both profiles and looks made 17% of the total. Once again, they specified that looks mattered only after reading the profiles. Only a sliver of the total number interviewed (6%) said that they go by the appearance. None of the women interviewed ever hesitated in sending an IM to a guy.

In addition, there was unique response from female avatars; approximately a quarter of women claimed that they NEVER send IM to men. Many jokingly said that they didn’t have to (send IM to men) because men send them in wholesale. Others had interesting takes on a ‘drop-dead handsome’ guy avatar. When asked to elaborate why she would not send an IM to a super handsome male avatar, a friend quipped, “because they are gay’. In fact, there were several interesting comments on a ‘drop-dead handsome’ guy avatars of which I am quoting a few here:
“no, generally assume he’s a woman.”
“the best looking ones are not always the nicest”
“they seem to be fake and shallow, as if they might have a belief that good looks mean something”

There were a few interesting replies of which one is worth mentioning. A guy, whom Maliki interviewed, shared his secret that he actively avoids beautiful female avatars and instead he focuses his energy on the newbies. He explained that a pretty avatar means that the woman has been in SL for a while, and is most likely ‘conditioned’ to propositions of very intimate kind. But a newbie is still ‘sex crazy’. What a smart guy!

Once again, we thank all the participants for their inputs. There were a few moments where I was ridiculed for asking these questions. A few dancing women at Toby’s Blues club went on to an insulting degree in open chat. Many never replied, and some are still at it …

[15 August 2009] Thunda Masala: Have you ever hesitated to IM a man if he is drop-dead handsome?
[5 September 2009] Kit Lisle is typing…

..I am still waiting.

Cold Crystals and Deep Percussions: Women’s Personal Pleasure Devices.

Number of people in each response group.

Recently, I asked women in Second Life whether they use a mechanical device for intimate personal pleasure in Real Life. As expected, the responses were quite interesting and the results are equally sensational.

The question immediately arises why I decided to inquire and write about this topic. Was it a pervert desire or voyeurism that compelled me to seek out the juicy scandalous story? The answer is rather simple-  human sexuality is always an interesting and curious subject of inquiry. To this add the feminine mystique, and the situation becomes clearer. The feminine side of the human world is quaintly wrapped in a mystery as if a diaphanous veil reveals just the filtered view. The curious mind always wonders what lies behind this veil.

The question I asked was not simply about female sexuality. It was about supposedly ‘unnatural’ means of attaining sexual pleasure through artificial means. Sexual pleasure is a taboo to be discussed in general, and the question had an added layer of ‘guilt’ associated with it. We also have to consider that use of a mechanical device or self-pleasuring still imposes a moral dilemma. It is not always easy to accept it as natural. In fact, it may also be perceived even as a carnal sin by many people. As an example, vibrators and women’s personal sexual pleasure devices are illegal to sell in the State of Alabama.

Another curiosity was to test whether anonymity of Second Life makes the players less inhibited in answering questions about their very personal preferences.

If my intent was to only obtain salacious stories, it would have been much easier to ask the question in sex-oriented sims where players have lesser inhibition. As one person said to me, ‘ So you want to know from the more “average” person rather than from those more obviously sexually active? : )’. Exactly! Therefore, I asked the players who were visiting regular music clubs. Randomly selected players were asked the questions through private IMs.

I started with an assumption that people would be willing to readily share their preferences since Second Life avatars are not real. However, it turned out that this assumption was not completely true. A large number of people simply ignored the question and never replied. Of those who replied, a substantial number was skeptical of my intent despite the reference to my legitimate blog site address. This can only be interpreted as the Second Life residents’ behavior as it would be in the RL. Thus, despite the most commonly held belief that SL and RL are different, anonymity in Second Life did not make the players comfortable to a question about their extremely private matter. Most responders chuckled in distrust and wished a sarcastic ‘good luck’.

All those to whom I sent the question were polite in general despite their occasional irritation or annoyance towards such a bold question from a complete stranger. None hurled profanity at me, which is a testimony of good-natured Second Life female residents in general. Some even laughed, and made witty remarks. My first interviewee felt quite spirited and claimed that a gun in her hand would be the most pleasing device. Another seemingly surprised lady immediately remarked, “Nice line……You at least have to buy me dinner first!’

A number of respondents declined to answer; one said, ‘well, I’m afraid that I don’t know you well enough to reveal that much personal info to you.” Another one replied that she was stunned. Despite that, she told her preference anyway. Many respondents tried to circumvent the question and were successful because I did not want to insist on getting an answer and embarrass anyone.

Because of slight ambiguity in my question, there were a few funny moments too. One lady answered that her MacBook-Pro gave her the most intimate pleasure because of its ‘awesome NVidia graphic card’ and quite ‘strong CPU’. Yet another person stated the obvious by claiming that her body was the ultimate pleasure device.

There were some creative ways of ignoring the question. One lady praised the Hindu scripture quote in my profile and bowed out. Another one claimed that she had not known of any such device. Interestingly, one person made a quite different point, “Does a woman’s charming areas count? My door swings two ways.’

Some answers were interesting in a different way; a lady dancing at a music club confessed, ‘Why on earth would anyone care? Anyway, I don’t have a favorite. I have a toy chest with lots of goodies for all occasions. ’. She was not alone with the stash of armament; another lady, who insisted to dance with me, confided, “My ‘toy’ drawer is very full, it depends on what my mind has woven for the mood I’m in.”

A hard-working lady was satisfied only through her ‘manual labor’ because she considers it ‘more control and more natural’.

One friend weighed in for quite some time before declaring, “I don’t think I can answer that question.” Several friends politely refused to participate in the survey, “I cannot contribute to this one.”

But one promised to come back with a list, and she indeed gave me a list of her favorite devices. She said, ‘ I never got back to you with my list so here it goes.. then I have to hit the sack.’ She proceeded to describe her cache of toys that would make her the queen of a dungeon. However, before logging off she did warn me, ‘I better see something i said in your blog.’ Is she kidding?

Another friend, who does not speak English, had difficulty in understanding my question. As soon as she figured it out, she immediately logged off in horror. She did return afterward, and, with some help, managed to answer, “then my answer is the number 2”. She was referring to my hint to device names.

Quite a few people thought that the question pertained to a pleasure device in SL. A friend responded, “hehe… mine is my dildo, it’s pink, and I use it when I’m in the mood to watch people having slex. It’s scripted and it looks very real !” When I reminded her that the question was about her RL device, she said, ‘I guess you can say the same for RL, because I like using it while watching porn. lol.’ A builder who sells kinky devices in SL also went on about her preference, ‘anything from KL, lol… or any of my products .’

Several argued that the ‘natural’ version of the gender of preference was the best. However, when pressed for choosing a ‘device’ some were reluctant while other revealed their choice.

So how do the responses break down in numbers? Only women avatars were sent the question. I have no record of how many women were asked the question, but 64 responded. Approximately, 16% women claimed that they either do not use a device in RL or rely exclusively on a male partner for intimate pleasure.

Another 34% responders declined to answer the question. It is reasonable to assume that those who declined to answer were indeed ‘device users’. This analysis indicated that 81% of the respondents use mechanical device for personal pleasure.

Some 5% of the respondents gave answers that were not considered to be devices and are not considered any further.

Of all the confessed device users, only about 8% relied on their fingers. Most women in user group liked to have a mechanical device. Actually, 67% of device users admit to use a percussion toy.

Another way to look at the toys is whether they are insertion type. Fingers were included in insertion type device and a good 83% women preferred insertion type device (including both vibrating or non-vibrating types). The remaining 17% preferred surface percussion instruments. About 5% of insertion users mentioned a device that uses both insertion and surface vibration simultaneously. While all the mechanical devices seem to be battery operated, at least one person confided of having a heavy duty electrical mechanism.

Among the mechanical assist devices for intense personal pleasure, users of one particular device were especially excited to talk about it. Though a non-percussion device, the Pyrex tempered glass or crystal glass insertion toy has caught the imagination of many because of its thermal versatility.

All in all, the survey was fun to conduct and the results tell that a large number of women use personal pleasure devices but a significant number of them is unwilling to discuss about it. This last point tells us that people in SL behave similar to RL, and that social science studies can be conducted in SL that will truly reflect the RL.

Second Life can be a good testing ground for many commercial products without huge expenses involved in similar RL campaigns.

Finally, I would like to thank all the participants who made this survey possible and all the friends who readily discussed and provided view points on this issue.

Fuel for Second Life.

Second Life is run on pixels generated by the electric power. However, the minds and bodies that determine the combination and intensity of the pixels are metabolically active humans. This generalization is based on the assumption that no non-human species, zombies, ghosts, ghouls, ethereal spirits, or inter-galactic travelers are involved in this virtual world.  There is no easy way of knowing whether such entities are indeed populating the Second Life world.  We will definitely be interested in knowing what kind of genetic material, other than the old-fashioned DNA, is driving these ‘alternate Second Life forms’.

In the mean time, I will go back to the DNA driven metabolically active humans.  One night, while sitting behind my dilapidated laptop, I received an IM from a friend who was munching on Cheetos and trying to clean the crumbs off her computer keyboard.  A picture of smearing the keyboard with orange flakes and crumbs emerged in my mind.  At occasions, my friends had confessed about their snack-munching, but it never caught my imagination.  For some reasons, I was too perceptive that night.  Immediately, I started to IM everyone on my friends list who was logged on.  I was curious to know what people have as snack while playing Second Life.

If you were playing an intense online frenzied action-packed game, you probably do not have time to think of snacks.  But as a Second Life inhabitant, you can afford this luxury.  The results of my limited interviews revealed both common and seemingly peculiar snacks that people consume.  The snacks range from plain ice cubes, potato chips, roasted nuts, fruit yogurt, ice cream to licorice, cheese cake, sugar babies, Oreo cookies and even fruits (cherries, peaches) and veggies.  Surprisingly, popcorn was conspicuous by its absence.  (Later I checked my notes and found that at least two people have mentioned popcorn.  My apologies to them for misplacing their interviews).  More people preferred salty snacks over sweet ones.

On the drinks, people mostly mentioned water or ice water as their favorite.  The second favorite was soda including Coke, Diet Coke, and Pepsi,  although a few confessed about drinking juice.  One sweet-tooth confided that she drinks milk while online.  I know that some inhabitants do indulge in alcoholic beverages of which red wine and vodka are by far the most popular, but beer was not mentioned even once.

This survey was very small, so it makes no sense for me to put out the statistics. Yet it tells something about the demographics of the Second Life – the inhabitants and their personalities.  We sure would love to know more about your preferred snacks while playing Second Life.

Oh yes, I survive on corn chips and lemonade!

I’ll Be Back!

Pressing circumstances have kept me away from blogging. However, I’ll be back very soon.  Thank you all for your patience and continued support.

Best,

Thunda

Dangerous Roleplaying.

The Second Life Medical Association is a group involved in promoting health- awareness and helping Second Life residents with medical issues through seminars, consultations and referrals. Recently, they were shocked by noticing a group listing on an avatar’s profile. The group was named “Torturers, Slavers and Killers” and the description of promoted activities contained torture, rape, enslavement, mutilation, and murder! Not surprisingly, the association complained to the Linden Labs and the group was promptly banished from existence.

Even though Second Life is a free place with plenty of opportunities for self-expression, this group obviously took it too far to an abhorable level. The description suggested that it is not just about benign role-playing in a fantasy BDSM situation. Instead, it was more pointed and specifically directed towards young women.

Roleplay is one of the major activities in Second Life that ranges from simple ‘sex-poseballs’ to more elaborate plots and rigs based on either some fictional series or genre of literature. Most of these activities are considered to be for fun and are believed not to be different from reading a book or watching a movie. A lot that goes on in these places in Second Life is pure fantasy that has been claimed by some ‘experts’ as having an important role in people’s lives. In these roleplays, there are sims that follow more or less fixed set of situations and players use their ‘creativity’ to make the improptu interaction interesting. Some roleplays do seem to lead to situations that would not be commonly acceptable in the real life, but these are based on voluntary participation.

Indeed there are vibrant communities and groups in Second Life that practice elements of ‘torture porn’ in roleplay which may not be gender specific. There is also a misguided and misrepresented proclamation of feminism in these situations which is extolled as a control in sexual power. With a simple search, one can be led to sims that provide access to numerous binding, gagging, tying to a rack and use of many more imaginative torture contraptions run by scripts.

What seems to be in this banned group’s agenda suggests that the members might have been not only roleplaying (if at all) but propagating something beyond that. The description of the group’s philosophy in this case was extremely dangerous. Even though virtual worlds exist as imaginary world, they do have real impact on people and such inhumane activities must be actively discouraged. Linden Labs shut down this particular group immediately and we hope that vigilant resident will neither promote nor condone such groups.