Monday, July 12, 2010

The Trinity of Virtual Life Activity

Virtual World Trinity

Just about everything one can do within a virtual world can be categorized somewhere in the chart above. I suspect that our virtual experience becomes a virtual life (within a particular world such as Second Life) when we spend a fair amount of time somewhere near the sweet spot of the center.

Quite a few people I've met over the last few years in Second Life have either left the world or expressed a pervasive malaise that makes them wonder why they bother to keep going back. I've experienced this myself. I now think my personal ennui is largely due to my movement towards the green periphery over the last year.

How is your virtual experience balanced? 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not sure quite what you're driving at. Can you define virtual life at all?

Botgirl Questi said...

Tateru: Yeah, it's a bit ambiguous as is the meaning of atomic life :)

For me, the question of virtual life is the difference between perceiving a virtual world as a platform/tool that I use, versus a world or environment that I inhabit through a virtual identity. Many people describe having a "second life". Although that label may be somewhat due to the world's name, it also reflects a visceral experience.

I think that we might evaluate a virtual world differently if we judge it from a strictly tool point of view, versus an alternative world in which we can live. And if we use it like a tool, but evaluate it as a life, it is likely we will find it lacking.

Another reason I turned to viewing things from the perspective of our actions was to turn from focusing on the platform/world as the problem to how we choose to use it or act within it.

As usual for these kinds of questions, I think the concept applies as much to human/atomic life as avatar/virtual life. It begs questions of objectification, empowerment, etc.

Night said...

Well my friend, after 2 fruitless years of trying to decipher your countless mind-boggling charts and graphs of experience & identity, these three simple circles speak truth to my heart. Without question, my periods of deepest satisfaction in SL came nestled snugly within that happy intersection. I wonder what that can teach me about satisfaction in the real world...

Take a break. Go shopping. Stay up far too late chatting with friends about nothing project related! Remember, all work and no play makes Bot a dull girl :)

*kisses*

Botgirl Questi said...

Hey Night: Great to hear from you!

Simplicity is my goal, but as my new favorite quote about the creative process says, "The only way out of the complexity is through it." (from "Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art" by Stephen Nachmanovitch)

sororNishi said...

Spot on, I think. Well done again.