Virtual Adventures: The Gypsy Lady

"Rose-colored glasses are never made in bifocals. Nobody wants to read the small print in dreams." --Ann Landers

What would you do if you could create your world, including yourself, without limits? Would you go back in time and live in a medieval castle or flash forward and own an apartment in space? Would you create a more "perfect" and "flawless" physique for yourself or would you rather be something other than human altogether, i.e. vampire, werewolf, faerie, gnome, or a dragon?

A few years ago, a friend of mine I've known a long time, introduced me to such a world, a virtual world called Second Life. Created by a Californian named Philip Rosedale in 2003, he said to The Economist magazine, "Since I was a kid, I was into using computers to simulate reality." He went on to tell the interviewer that his vision for Second Life was to help people "extend their reality by building a virtual version of it...similar to the one envisioned by author Neal Stephenson in his science-fiction novel Snow Crash published in 1992. My initial reaction when told about it was that it sounded like a stupid video game, and a complete waste of my time, especially for someone as non-techno savvy as myself, but curiosity got the better of me so I decided to have a look around.

The first two months of playing around in this virtual world involved a lot of frustration and swearing. I nearly drove my friend Tank, the one who brought me into Second Life, insane with a million questions and my numerous struggles; learning how to walk, how to dance, navigating from place to place, or even just putting shoes on my little pixel feet (You'd be amazed at how complicated such a simple task can be when it involves using ones and zeros. I still hate virtual shoes!). I don't know how many times I nearly gave up because fighting with the technicalities was such a pain, but then I started meeting people, really nice people, from all over the world. I started making friends, so I decided to stick with it and use it as a learning experience (and believe me when I say there are a lot of possibilities for learning to be had there, unfortunately not all of the lessons are good ones). I rented my first little piece of land and purchased a gypsy wagon to "live" in. The metaphor for my real life as an Air Force wife was just too delicious to resist.

Once I created a pixel version of myself that I could live with and mastered how to go out in public with clothes on so as not to completely embarrass myself, I began to explore some of the most wondrous places! I went to Paris and walked around French villages, shopped in Italy, explored an exquisite rendition of the Grand Canyon (although not as gorgeous as the real one). I swam with mermaids, and floated, weightless, among a million stars in space! I flew fighter jets, and crashed spectacularly, all while my husband watched me on the screen, screaming, "Eject! Eject!"! And I fell off a lot of things, i.e. buildings, mountains, towers, cliffs, etc. I put up the cutest apartment in space and even bought myself a baby dragon! The most amazing thing I've done there, however, is get to know some truly exceptional people.

It is the "human" aspect of Second Life that brings me back over and over again. Some treat it like a game. Some treat it like a hangout. Others use it to create the life they wished they had, i.e. a perfect body, youth, magic powers, etc.; and there are those who use that world and the people in it for much more nefarious purposes. In the virtual world, it's easy (and common) to lie about who you are, treat people carelessly, and generally be unfeeling and unkind. Just like in the fleshy world, there are good people and bad, liars and those who are honest, users and those who are giving, people who are heartless and people who have generous, loving hearts. But in the virtual world, if you don't like the way your virtual life is going, or if you've broken one heart too many and generally made an ass of yourself, no problem! Create a new, free account, completely change your looks, your name, even your gender, and voila!--whole new you, at least on the outside. While the anonymity aspect may change the behavior for some, at the core people are who they are in any world. For me, I gave up my Gypsy wagon and created the little town of Safe Harbour. I am working on bringing as much of my pixel dreams into my real life because while exploring the virtual world can be a lot of fun, I never want to forget where I truly live!

*www.economist.com/node/7963538, "Living a Second Life". The Economist--San Fransisco, 28 September 2006.

---