SECOND LIFE STUDIES & CONSTRUCTED PERSONAS IN VIRTUAL SPACES

Over the last few months, I have been developing practise-based research on MMORPG Second Life. By creating my own avatar and taking on the role of explorer of this virtual space, I aim to understand users virtual constructions of identity and Second Life as a reflection of our current, digitised reality.

2003: Second Life is launched and brands itself as an immersive, real-time social space.

Realisation of identity and concept of the self grows increasingly complicated in the modern day, with computer-mediated communication environments such as Second Life altering the traditional conditions of identity formation. Through Second Life, communities around the globe are able to engage with socialisation and interaction in a new way, choosing to express, hide, expose or indeed create entirely new identities represented by self-designed, controllable virtual avatars.

The SL Parade is an online blog dedicated to exploring all areas of the Second Life experience. ‘Furries: The Spirit Animals of Second Life’, is an article by founder and editor in chief rere1 who considers becoming a furry the ‘best way to go…if you truly want to embody your spirit animal’. [rere1 2017] She quotes Jaysen Katscher, an active member of Second Life and self professed anthropomorphic furry: ‘I was just amazed to find this and wanted it. I was partnered at the time and she wasn’t keen on my being a furry in here. So I sneaked around, in a sense, trying to spend time with a version of myself that I enjoyed being over ‘just plain old human’. She eventually accepted what I was about and even tried it herself, though she preferred being human. Real life happened for her and she drifted out of SL…After that, I was a full-time fur and avatar collector. Giant robots, dragons and other creatures all in my inventory for whenever I got bored. I always came back to my smilodon or tiger, though. They were home for me….where I felt at ease with myself and my lot in my 2nd Life.’ [Katscher in rere1]

Postmodernism’s uneasy relationship with progress and the ‘death of history’ literature it references as a solution feels relevant here. Second Life represents a post-modern reality in which characters from all eras and fictions exist together - a more transparent reflection of our current reality, where there is more of a sense of a lack of history than ever before. The fragmented, disjointed sense of time blurs the fact-fiction ontological boundary, and reminds the viewer that they only exist in a virtual space. In a sense, the lagging quality for me, cements Second Life as a failed utopia. Virtual environments become destroyed and inventory’s deleted. Fact begins to overtake the fictional element that most users revel in. Cracks in the dated game violently reveal themselves and users are asked to stop playing, creating, building. Despite this, Second Life subcultures and communities still seem to stand the test of time. Interesting…

VIRTUAL 'FURSONAS' & SECOND LIFE SEX

Some writings of the subcultures that exist within this virtual space have been described as a reflection of the repressed desires of our current age. Sex has always been integral to the Second Life story, with many of the featured environments in the Discovery Guide age-gated due to adult-orientated content. Adult areas in Second Life are full of clickable posters of nude women, which lead you to purchasable sex-related assets, and virtual avatars using community-created animations to re-create desired sexual acts. Even in my own gameplay experience wandering around general areas, characters dressed in dominatrix outfits or furry costumes is not an unusual sight.

The furry subculture is ultimately about playful escapism, as is Second Life: the uniting of the two therefore feels inevitable. The appeal appears to be in the re-creation of oneself, and rejection of what is considered being an ‘adult’. This is particularly interesting when considering my research on identity performativity. A study in The Guardian found the following: ‘For a minority, however, it is more than that: 46% of furry fans surveyed by Gerbasi reported identifying as less than 100% human – with 41% admitting that if they could be not human at all, they would. Twenty-nine percent of them reported experiencing being a “non-human species trapped in a human body.’ [Wall 2016] Some might parallel this with gender identity disorder. Much like some transgender individual report their being born in the wrong sex, according to this data some furries feel a disconnect with their bodies - as if they were trapped in the body of the wrong species.

In this context, Second Life, like the internet, stands as an expression of the diversity of the human experience; 16 years later, and the game still has thousands of regular users. Despite the lag, and general dated aesthetic of the game Second Life allows users to not only create their own avatars, but also shape, change and create the world they’re in by importing their own 3D assets and applying modifications using the Linden Scripting Language; for example, the 3D modelling tool can be used to add interactivity to objects. Relationships and communities often form as a result of this. Through my own personal game play, I feel that avatars convey a feeling of proximity making the voyeur experience more than a simple textual encounter. There have been accounts of couples marrying online, and even taking these online relationships into real-life. Some have ‘Second Life children’ and use the platform to build a home and family. This poses a series of important questions, similar to those raised in my earlier research on RealDoll: will society have to recontextualise intimacy and relationship in the future? Will ‘avatar’ relationships be just as sincere as regular human ones?