Second Life Acceptance in Mainstream Culture: A Comic Interlude
10 comments:
Anonymous
said...
True story.
I was at a medieval re-enactment, sharing a table with other people wearing medieval garb. They had discussed Star Trek and Firefly already, and somehow I brought up in conversation Second Life.
I was a geek among geeks. The looks they gave me, man.
I kind of sputtered, "I make real money though..." It helped a little but the damage was already done.
I've been forbidden by my RL/SL partner to discuss Second Life. He can't handle the extra helping of geeksauce; he was last inworld to see what the IBM sims were like, got quickly bored, and never logged in again.
The "Furry community" is probably a slightly extreme example because "Furry" (a) sounds kinda funny :), and (b) has a bad rep due to Certain TV Shows and all.
Other interesting things to contemplate might be "I'm very active in the virtual sailing community online" and "I'm a digital artist in Second Life".
Not to say anything specific about how geeky or nongeeky those might be, but might be somewhat different than the one you give.
I long ago learned to not say "I roleplay in Second Life," but to say "In Second Life, I'm the King of the Fairies!" Over the top makes it seem more acceptable, for some reason.
Dale: I agree that it would be that there are ways to frame one's participation to make it seem more "normal." But I think that having to spin things to be accepted also supports the point I was trying to make. btw, I had an earlier draft where the response was something like, "I like to hand out a few hours a night in Second Life."
10 comments:
True story.
I was at a medieval re-enactment, sharing a table with other people wearing medieval garb. They had discussed Star Trek and Firefly already, and somehow I brought up in conversation Second Life.
I was a geek among geeks. The looks they gave me, man.
I kind of sputtered, "I make real money though..." It helped a little but the damage was already done.
Wow! What an amazing story. I can't stop chuckling.
...and I'm not even a furry!
I've been forbidden by my RL/SL partner to discuss Second Life. He can't handle the extra helping of geeksauce; he was last inworld to see what the IBM sims were like, got quickly bored, and never logged in again.
Oh just wait a few years.
The "Furry community" is probably a slightly extreme example because "Furry" (a) sounds kinda funny :), and (b) has a bad rep due to Certain TV Shows and all.
Other interesting things to contemplate might be "I'm very active in the virtual sailing community online" and "I'm a digital artist in Second Life".
Not to say anything specific about how geeky or nongeeky those might be, but might be somewhat different than the one you give.
I long ago learned to not say "I roleplay in Second Life," but to say "In Second Life, I'm the King of the Fairies!" Over the top makes it seem more acceptable, for some reason.
Dale: I agree that it would be that there are ways to frame one's participation to make it seem more "normal." But I think that having to spin things to be accepted also supports the point I was trying to make. btw, I had an earlier draft where the response was something like, "I like to hand out a few hours a night in Second Life."
Creag: Yeah. Self confidence and a sense of humor go a long way!
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