Between RL and SL – Interview with a Second Life Professional

During my time studying in the US, I have developed an even greater interest in Online Communication and Internet Culture. My aim is to combine what cultural studies knows about communities, culture and human interaction with the Online space and understand it better. I have written two papers about the video sharing platform Youtube; one investigating its infrastructure applying cultural theory from Adorno to post-Birmingham School approaches, and the other an audience study investigating how users conceptualize their relationship to the plattform.

My goal is to understand these products as cultural phenomena, embed them into what we know about people and be able to judge and speculate about what the Internet is and will be all about. Bizarre to most people I talked to, I am acquainting myself with a new Online space that relies on a 3-D environment in which people can move and interact as avatars: Secondlife.

Initiated by a corresponding class at the University of Potsdam taught by recent Ph.D. Stefan Stieglitz, I now own an avatar, one that looks like a raccoon or a fox or something, I visit my university’s online 3D-campus and will soon be able to attend classes and build stuff there. Right now I am trying to understand the current status of the platform and what it is mainly used for. I roam around, try to check out the most popular places, fly, walk, talk to people and all this crazy stuff you can do there. (don’t worry, I sure won’t do ALL of the crazy stuff)

When I did that yesterday night (as part of my research of course), I was lucky to bump into a guy (or: an avatar animated as male) who has been on there for a long time and was patient enough to give some very insightful answers to my newbie-questions. I tried to pick out the most interesting to cmpile them here (”You” is me, I anonymized the fellow to “MS”):

[looking for a popular place, I ended up in a shop where you can buy yourself an animated female body; for some reason there's a naked girl standing close to us]

[19:32] You: wait, to me you are naked
[19:32] MS: she’s naked
[19:32] You: holy shit
[19:32] MS: she’s a stripper
[19:32] MS: you better give her a tip
[19:32] You: oh, thanks
[19:32] MS: if you have manners
[19:32] MS: lol
[19:33] You: eh?
[19:33] You: she hasn’t stripped!

[personal questions seem not to be exactly appreciated]

[19:33] You: who are you?
[19:33] MS: I’m me
[19:33] You: how does that work out for you?
[19:34] MS: well good question
[19:34] MS: hard to compare though

[already my animalic appearance seems to show I am new]

[19:35] MS: how old are you?
[19:35] You: this avatar is like 3 weeks
[19:35] MS: ah ok
[19:35] MS: so why are you a fox
[19:35] MS: or something
[19:35] MS: lol
[19:35] You: racoon
[19:36] You: i thought it was just as random as this place is
[19:36] MS: lol
[19:36] MS: you are always a fox in sl?
[19:36] MS: raccooN**
[19:36] MS: okay cool
[19:36] You: so far yes
[19:36] MS: that’s why i asked how old you are
[19:36] MS: mostly furry’s (animalheads) are young peeps

[apart from that he says]

[19:42] MS: you can reconise new people too by their movement. they tend to move more than oldies

[I asked for the location, the shop we were in]

[19:43] You: what can people buy here?
[19:44] MS: people can buy female skins here…its the texture for the body (so not the actual shape)
[19:44] You: alright
[19:44] MS: a typical womens store too
[19:44] You: why would I wanna look like a woman?
[19:45] MS: well most guys wanna look like guys
[19:45] MS: but like 6% of the females in second life is actually a guy

[we had been messing around about whether the girls next to us (PR) were actually guys]

[19:50] MS: although most people are honest in here, you never know
[19:50] You: i bet
[19:50] PR: You can usually tell
[19:50] You: how much time do you spend in here?
[19:50] MS: me?
[19:50] PR: who?
[19:50] You: anyone
[19:51] MS: i spend alot of time here..mostly on my own somewhere building stuff
[19:51] PR: heehee…..well I am a realtor in RL….so everynight…..lol
[19:51] JS: As for me, not much lately….too busy in RL
[19:51] You: got it
[19:51] MS: sl is kinda my job now, so i got time for it lol
[19:52] PR: Lucky you…….If I made in SL like I do RL selling real estate Id do it too…..
[19:52] MS: then why dont you do it?
[19:52] You: hm
[19:52] PR: well hmmmm….. Can I make as much in SL?
[19:53] MS: i think theoreticly you can make as much as you want in SL
[19:53] PR: So……….I bet I can’t…lol I’d have to sell a lot of cartoon land

[it turned out my interviewee is actually doing nothing but Second Life (or SL, as opposed to RL=real life)]

[19:46] You: so, what have you built?
[19:47] MS: i’ve buid hairs and clothes, shades, furniture, piano’s, ..anything

[later he says]

[19:54] MS: like take my hair im wearing now..im gonna sell that in a store..and people are gonna pay like 600 L for it
[19:54] You: and that is how much in $US?
[19:54] MS: thats about almost 3 Dollar
[19:55] MS: in second life things are pretty cheap, so you have to sell alot
[19:55] MS: but if you sell to 100 people things that are worth 1 buck in real life, you earn 100 bucks
[19:56] MS: and you can go on vacation and you keep earning
[19:56] MS: and sleep till 2 PM and then do nothing till you feel like it
[19:56] MS: that’s my kinda job
[19:56] MS: lol
[19:56] You: and you do make enough to live?
[19:57] MS: yea
[19:57] You: wow
[19:57] MS: anybody can do that ..if you’re smart
[19:57] MS: if you find a way to earn 10 bucks you can do the same trick 10 times

[one question which I was very interested in... is there something like avatar-friedship?]

[19:58] You: do you have people you meet again?
[19:59] You: I mean… friends?
[19:59] MS: mmmm a bit ..i dont really have friends in sl
[19:59] You: got it
[19:59] MS: im mostly busy building stuff

[he is actually my first "friend" now... later he with several others about a specific shop... with an interesting conclusion]

[20:02] MS: new stores pop up everyday
[20:02] MS: yeah they picked that strange name
[20:03] SS: the prices were rather silly
[20:03] MS: yeah they’re cheaper now i noticed
[20:04] MS: yeah its all the same
[20:04] MS: dont really makes sense
[20:04] SS: oh well… SL doesn’t have to make sense…lol

And I think I agree with that so far. I still have to understand this whole thing way better to know what its potentials could be… Hell, it’s still bizarre. Thanks MS for this amazing introduction to your workplace.