What do Second Life's new content ratings actually mean?

Reader Comments (5)

what about antisocial drug (in my opinion alcohol is also a drug) usage? Xp

anyway, wouldn't those skins that are photos of real human bodies, or appear to be sampled from photos of real human bodies (but in some cases are completly "handmade") be considered photorealistic at least enough to be ARed ?

Photorealism's a funny word. When applied to paintings (which is where the term derives from), it refers to levels of detail and an image quality that is *reminiscent* of a photograph. When it's applied to computer-generated imagery, however, the term is generally taken to mean that it is almost or completely *indistinguishable* from a photograph.

And neither avatars, nor avatar skins come anywhere close to that lofty ideal.

I wouldn't count on people knowing about that little detail, I've heard of people being ARed about an allegedly sex related offense that were way more innocent than a polygonal human model covered with remapped photographies of naked humans...

There we hit an issue I tend to harp on: Definitions. If a term has multiple meanings, how are we supposed to know which meaning is in use?

Without clear definitions, we can argue until the cows come home (as they say) and still not have anything better than guesswork to show for it -- and that puts users of Second Life at risk of administrative sanctions, for acting in good-faith.