Objects, Identity and Advertising.

I can fully understand that there are times when you get bored of social life, I do. I have relationships with objects, of a sort... I make them, paint them and sell them. I call them plants etc. .. my generic term is Flora Virtua Exotica, a term Kaltusaran and I thunk up for our first shop.

I find objects called baby, bunny, horse..etc. a difficult one. I would not personally be happy with keeping a baby in my invent. I find it creepy. I don't have any problem with people that do. I also have two good friends who were Bunny Addicts, and I blogged about them, sometime. Now, my friends weren't happy about keeping their animals locked up in their invents either.

The latest edition of Sandbox, LL's Attempt To Make SL More Interesting, should be renamed Litter Tray as it is featuring animals as the New Thing. Now luckily LL's advertising is so poor that it probably won't succeed. I say 'luckily' because if 100 people a day start a bunny collection (other creatures are available) which multiplies to 10 creatures (as bunnies do), then by the end of the year SL would be the proud owners of 365,000 lag making bundles of fun (not the fast kind).

SecondLie suggested that LL was trying to increase concurrency by increasing lag so that everything takes longer to do inworld. Breedables could achieve that.

..but, seriously folks, Crap has a wonderful set of adverts on his blog, here. .... not sure why humour is so missing in the lab. Anyway, Paisley blogged something similar at the same time....here..... suggesting that the Boys draw on the huge pool of talent available instead of half-assed attempts.

This is all very reminiscent of the podcast that Toxic, Chantal and Phaylen did..... tho it does seem that while the sims and prims of LEA are still locked in a few elite hands, the LEA will host a machinima event... I feel like I should say "about time".

However, the more I think about VWs and the reason so few stay, the more I am gravitating towards the psyche rather than the viewer. By that I mean the reasons are psychological rather than technological.

There are people who cannot stand the idea that their avatar cannot be the same height as their RL bio body. This is not a handful, many share the same angst..... I blogged about this post a good while back. I believe the author and those commenting, bewailing the height problem, are just the tip of the iceberg.

This was bought back to me while reading the huge number of comments about Kitely on Eners blog of last week, where Gaga pointed out that FaceBook is for those more comfortable in their RL personas..... or words to that effect.... This lead me to wonder if this was the reason for such a marked clash of opinions between those for and against FB connection to VWs.

It takes a particular type of psyche to enjoy role play, and all avatar based platforms are role play, even if you think you are playing yourself. The so-called RL persona is a construct, one fabricated over decades. To leave that behind and start again is an act of courage I think, which demands a certain confidence.

If, and like all theories it doesn't exclude other views.... if all fear (like death and/or going mad) is basically the fear of disintegration of the Self, of identity, then I could see how clutching to "Real Life" is important. The height of my avatar could be important, and making my avatar as Real as possible would be vital....BUT.... a person truly insecure in their own identity would never, ever, enjoy living an avatar life.... nor role play, nor fancy dress...

Now, as I said, it's just a theory. However, if there is an element of truth in that, then no amount of advertising is gonna help. Not even the Labs last attempt "Become Your Avatar" (a philosophically illogical concept, except in the film 'Avatar' which entailed killing your RL self....slightly dramatic and not, surely what LL was advocating ).

If even partly true.... VW's are a niche market, and the Boys should abandon The Myth Of Ten Million Users.

Making SL into an extension of FB's FunnyFarm is doomed to fail.... remember Avatars United? yeh, me neither.

Why can't they just accept the numbers and make it profitable...


:)))

"Can't Find Your Favorite Hair?" Rant.

This is what SL asks me when I log in, as a pretext to getting me to go to Marketplace and buying an inventory organiser...but PLLEEAASSEE... I just want to complete the sentence like this.... "Can't find your favourite hair? then you must be a bit stupid.. after all it's most likely on your head, or in that bloody terrible folder that Viewer 2 gave you without asking, called Current Outfit, which for reasons only an idiot would understand is not in the Clothes folder where it should be. (If you are a semi intelligent person and haven't downloaded Viewer 2 then that folder will be empty for ever anyway).

If you can't find your favourite hair then any number of Inventory Organisers isn't going to help you because you will lose the organiser in your inventory before you get organised.

The other stupid invitation I have been getting from the marketing geniuses at the Lab is the suggestion, implied I know, that after Christmas my shape may need changing. I am supposed to infer that I have over-eaten over the festive season and a trip to Marketplace to get a new shape would be a good idea. Is this supposed to be amusing? If it is, it doesn't quite work ...I have only to click on Appearance anyway, so the joke, if it's meant to be one, is more than a little tame. I think they've been watching too much TV... they'll be suggesting I go to the Marketplace to book my holidays next...



Now.... it has always been my contention that most of Viewer 2's logic (that may be an oxymoron, I realise) is advertising based..... as seen above, my profile is alongside an advertising space which implies that I condone whatever is being advertised beside me... It could be weapons, porn, gambling, or other crumby stuff I hate, and I can do nothing about it.

Firestorm, released today, and not usable in other grids so far, has No Advertising on the splash screen and no banner ad on my profile which pleases me greatly.

Firestorm gets the thumbs up from Wizzy who has been running, I haven't yet... been busy...:))

So...tried it yet?

Will report more...

:)))

The Teen Question.

Well, as I blogged in August, the Teens, and their parents along with them are being trodden on as another minority gets to feel LL’s dictatorial Rules.

Much has been written about this change and I cannot add to the anger and anxiety that has already been expressed without repeating stuff that has been said better by many, many others....here.

From my own perspective I would still class Facebook as being massively more dangerous (potentially) than SL could ever be, and walking down the street in London as being massively more dangerous than Facebook.

This is not in any way to condone the move by LL, just my attempt to get a perspective on the situation.

Most people have assumed that this is a piece of pure stupidity by LL and that they are all idiots. This may be true.

If, as a mental exercise we assume, however, that LL is a successful bunch of money hungry entrepreneurs who know exactly what they are doing.... why have they done this? The cutting of overheads by disbanding an existing grid which isn’t that profitable doesn’t really save them that much money, I would guess, especially as these teens are potential customers they are alienating, possibly for ever.

I fear that adults could be hurt by this move as much as teens. I know that sounds weird, but, let’s consider the dangers..

1) A 16/17 year old gets exposed to more sex than is generally ‘good’ for them, whatever that means. Now, assuming, rightly or wrongly, that every child who has a computer has been given that Parental Talk about the Dangers of the Internet, then any bad experience should be confined to their computer screen, rather than their RL....and there can't be many teens who haven't had an inappropriate email attachment sent by one of their peers..

2) An adult could mistakenly get involved with an under age child. (Let’s assume that every child of 16/17 is far more computer savvy than their parents). This comes into the public realm and the Media get hold of this story. My god the Media would love it. ...not so the person’s family, boss, etc...(this fear is voiced often enough in the comments on SL blog to be classed as a major concern).

Would either of these events give LL an option of pressuring people to reveal their real names?

I think so.

Protecting Children is the number one moral lever, (even better than National Security which they tried to use against Wikileaks) and an argument no-one will counter.

Those holding on to their anonymity could be painted as potential paedophiles, “it would be safer for you to reveal your name than protect your anonymity”.

Real Names is where the money lies for LL. Advertising, and only advertising, is why LL want 100 million users....and it wants the data they have to connect up to your Facebook profile, Amazon account, and of course, your Credit Card. That is where the Lab will get rich, by closing the circle.

Is this another nail in the coffin for Anonymity?

I have mentioned this before and only time will tell if I am right or simply a paranoid, deluded, conspiracy theorist.

In the mean time, I will continue to behave well to everyone I meet, as will all my friends.... and trust that 99.9% of teenagers are world-wise enough to steer their way through a grown up world.

My experience of teens is that they are wiser than we tend to give them credit for..

:))