Impulse

Second Life both fas­ci­nates and fright­ens me.

For those who haven’t heard of it, Second Life is a mas­sively mul­ti­player online game (MMORPG) that’s been gain­ing a lot of momen­tum. Unlike other MMORPGs, which are all about fight­ing with drag­ons, aliens, or stormtroop­ers, Second Life has no com­bat. It’s empha­sis is on cre­ativ­ity — build­ing your own worlds, objects, clothes. Imagine being a sheik in your own pri­vate Dubai.
Second Life is bet­ter than the Big Box of Crayolas (you know: the one you begged your par­ents for). You can quickly build any­thing you like with­out the fuss of phys­i­cal labor and time. Interested in archi­tec­ture? Build your­self a sky­scraper in an evening. A tin­kerer? Build cool giz­mos with­out nasty smell of sol­der rosin. Into clothes? Be a fash­ion designer. Share your cre­ations with oth­ers and bask in their appre­ci­a­tion. It’s like being a kid with an adult’s expe­ri­ence.
On the other hand, this thing wor­ries me. We’ve all heard sto­ries of lives ruined by MMORPGs. Now, here’s one that appeals not only to the non-gamer crowd, but any­one who isn’t happy with their life and is look­ing for an escape. There’s a lot to escape from: the cur­rent polit­i­cal envi­ron­ment, con­stant news of nat­ural dis­as­ters, increas­ing trend of white-collar over­work. None of that exists in Second Life. It’s an easy salve. Junk food for the heart.
I hate see­ing peo­ple dis­en­gage. The world only gets bet­ter when we par­tic­i­pate.
I have to admit that I’m hes­i­tant to play Second Life, in part, because I can see how addict­ing it could be. I could eas­ily spend way too much time on it. Ultimately though, I know it wouldn’t be sat­is­fy­ing for me: I left the soft­ware world because I was tired of mak­ing things that don’t actu­ally exist. I have a dark­room because cre­at­ing some­thing by hand is more ful­fill­ing than by click. Life’s too short for vir­tual wine.
Ahh, but what an inter­est­ing way to do cin­e­mat­ics and sto­ry­boards for pre-production movies… How much does this thing cost?

Related posts:

1. It’s a won­der­ful life
2. Flagrant dis­re­gard for human life