Kate Miranda

Anyone who comes into Second Life expecting it to be a "game" is going to be frustrated. There ARE people playing roleplaying games within Second Life but it is all pretty adhoc and user controlled, (kind of like D & D around the dining room table but with some animations and stuff.) Second Life is a 3-D platform for whatever users want to do in it and in my more than 3 years there that has changed with time. The rules for navigating it are like the rules for the social web, finding out where there are lots of people interested in some of the things you are through "events" and "groups", making friends and linking up to more people and groups over time. I don't know if I had a particularly ugly avatar but I did not have a lot of sexual advances coming my way in the places I went in second life. My major endeavours have been SL musical events, participation in the Second Life Quaker Meeting and socializing with a great group of international friends in my community. I do participate in a roleplay community now that has adult content, but it is pretty difficult for someone to wander into a roleplay sim without lots of warnings that should deter those that want to keep it PG. Personally I don't see anything wrong with people engaging in cybersex as consensual adults. To me it is very much like writing and reading erotica. A harmless adult sport. It amuses me to see people get so bent out of shape about naked pixels.

Sometimes I'm a little grateful that the interface is difficult enough that it works as a filter to some extent. I find long term Second Life participants a really interesting group of smart people.

I have been creating value-added content in Second Life for a couple of years mostly for the fun of it in the form of a concert series that is among the most well-attended regular events inworld. I never was looking to make money, but I wish I could find a way to raise the inworld costs and make my project independent--not dependent on the loan of space and resources. But the funding of the arts in the real world has no relationship to virtual arts and the virtual economy benefits from the rich content of artists but isn't really able to support them. http://music-island.blogspot.com