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<generator>Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/</generator><item><title><![CDATA[The illusion of Second Life government]]></title><link>http://massively.joystiq.com/2007/11/04/the-illusion-of-second-life-government/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://massively.joystiq.com/2007/11/04/the-illusion-of-second-life-government/</guid><comments>http://massively.joystiq.com/2007/11/04/the-illusion-of-second-life-government/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/opinion/" rel="tag">Opinion</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/second-life/" rel="tag">Second Life</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/politics/" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/virtual-worlds/" rel="tag">Virtual worlds</a></p><img vspace="4" hspace="4" border="1" align="middle" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/massively.joystiq.com/media/2007/11/abba.jpg" alt="" /><br /><br /><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/bloggers/tateru-nino/">Tateru Nino's</a> recent post about <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2007/11/03/second-life-politics-on-fire/">F.I.R.E.,</a> an organization claiming to be <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/tag/second-life" style="font-style: italic;">Second Life's</a> first political party, reminded me of a blog I wrote in 2005 about <a href="http://secondslog.blogspot.com/2005/11/lets-have-party.html">Second Life's de facto political parties</a>. It's well worth the read, if only for the humor factor, but the gist of the article was basically that several political parties are starting to informally emerge in the arena of ideas. In today's article I would like to discuss two of the most passionate and vocal de facto parties whose debate rages on even today...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Nation Party</span> - Those who believe that <em>Second Life</em> is a "world," a "nation," or a "country," and should be treated as such which includes the formation of a government.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Platform Party</span> - Those who believe that <em>Second Life</em> is client-server software owned and operated by a private company and should be treated as such. <br /><br />What should be an obvious and quick debate can actually become quite sticky, especially when the definitions of terms like "world" and "government" can vary from formal to casual usage, and when the legitimacy of a term's usage may vary with scope. It becomes even more confusing when the nature of <em>Second Life</em> itself creates an illusion that resembles something profoundly familiar to us for which we have deeply-held, preexisting expectations.<p><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2007/11/04/the-illusion-of-second-life-government/" rel="bookmark">Continue reading <em>The illusion of Second Life government</em></a></p><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com"><img src="http://massively.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="Massively" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2007/11/04/the-illusion-of-second-life-government/">The illusion of Second Life government</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com">Massively</a> on Sun, 04 Nov 2007 14:58:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2007/11/04/the-illusion-of-second-life-government/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/forward/1029782/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2007/11/04/the-illusion-of-second-life-government/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a>]]></description><category>featured</category><category>fire</category><category>government</category><category>kendra-bancroft</category><category>Neualtenburg</category><category>politics</category><category>virtual-worlds</category><category>virtual-worlds-politics</category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Adam Holisky]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 04 Nov 2007 14:58:00 EST</pubDate></item></channel></rss>
