Second Life

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moongirl
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Second Life - Is A 3D Online Digital World Imagined,
Created & Owned By Its Residents

http://secondlife.com/


From Innocent Bystanders - July 27, 2007
ROME (Reuters) - Catholic missionaries have always trekked to dangerous parts of the Earth to spread the word of God — now they are being encouraged to go into the virtual realm of Second Life to save virtual souls.

In an article in Rome-based Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, academic Antonio Spadaro urged fellow Catholics not to be scared of entering the virtual world which may be fertile ground for new converts wishing to better themselves.

“It’s not possible to close our eyes to this phenomenon or rush to judge it,” Spadaro said. “Instead it needs to be understood … the best way to understand it is to enter it.”

Second Life is a simulation game where players can create a virtual version of themselves — an avatar — and interact with other people in the three-dimensional world.

According to its Web site, it has a population of more than 8 million residents and millions of dollars change hands there every month.

Spadaro warns the uninitiated that “the erotic dimension is very present” in Second Life, that people can buy genitalia for their avatars in a world that is “open to any form of erotic stimulation from prostitution to pedophilia”.

While the virtual world might be a refuge for some people seeking to flee the real one, it is also full of people seeking something more from life, including, possibly, religious enlightenment, he said.

“Deep down, the digital world can be considered, in its way, mission territory,” he said. “Second Life is somewhere where the opportunity to meet people and to grow should not be missed, therefore, any initiative that can inspire the residents in a positive way should be considered opportune.”

And there’s the problem with Spadaro’s idea. A “virtual version” of self is not a person, and avatars do not have souls. I think evangelism happens one-on-one, in real life. That’s why the “televangelism” that was such a fad in the 80’s turned out to be a failure, and tainted by scandals.

The target market of evangelism is a contrite heart, not gamers fleeing reality. The “body of Christ” that is the Church is comprised of people, not pixels.

But, those pixels might be horny.
Sorry, Spadaro, you are full of crap. I really don’t believe that people “meet and grow” in Second Life, especially as you have described it. Frankly, I’m wondering what you are really doing there.
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and avatars do not have souls
OMG!! My world is in disarray...ah souls you are wrong, wrong, wrong!!
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battye
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Spadaro warns the uninitiated that “the erotic dimension is very present” in Second Life, that people can buy genitalia for their avatars in a world that is “open to any form of erotic stimulation from prostitution to pedophilia”.
Have I read that correctly?

The games creators have included an erotic aspect of the program which includes pedophilia? As far as I am concerned, that is as good as promoting pedophilia. The site should be closed down and the bastards that wrote it locked up.

I find that very disturbing.
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Disturbing that the Catholic Church should be promoting it.


And, that Catholics should be advised to go in there and participate while looking for souls to save!! Image
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The Entrepreneur's Guide to Second Life: Making Money in the Metaverse (2007)
Written By: Daniel Terdiman

http://forums.cricketmx.com/viewtopic.php?p=81112#81112

The term metaverse comes from Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash, and is now widely used to describe the vision behind current work on fully immersive 3D virtual spaces. These are environments where humans interact (as avatars) with each other (socially and economically) and with software agents in a cyber space, that uses the metaphor of the real world, but without its physical limitations.

In Stephenson's words, the "Metaverse" [is] my invention, which I came up with when I decided that existing words (such as "virtual reality") were simply too awkward to use [Snow Crash Acknowledgements]. The metaverse concept appears under other names in the Cyberpunk genre as far back as the 1981 novella True Names.
http://dictionary.reference.com/go/http ... =Metaverse
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I'm glad you bumped this topic, because I saw a report on CNN just a few days ago which backed up my thoughts posted earlier.

It seems that pedophilia is a growing part of Second Life, enough to get a 10 or 15 minute mention on CNN. Apparently some countries are charging people who take part in this dark side of the game... I think it was Germany who had tough laws against it, while countries like the USA allowed it, seeing it was virtual. IIRC, it was a grey area in other countries - Hong Kong, China, and some other Asian regions.

Good on Germany for cracking down on it. I've never played Second Life, so I am only basing my opinions on what was said on CNN and articles I've read - but it sounds like Second Life can be abused to the extreme. It's quite sad that such a good idea could be used to do such disgusting things.... :evil:
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"OK, life [as you chose to define it] repeats until there are no more lessons to be learned." - nrnoble (June 12, 2005)
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Second Life Recession? Read all about it in Virtual Worlds News.
http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2007/0 ... -taki.html
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Maybe I should get involved with Second Life, it sounding more and more interesting - not to mention people are making genuine dollars through this thing. :P As far as online recessions go, I think they should follow CMX's lead and create a new currency :lol:
CricketMX.com in 2022: Still the home of bat's, rat's and other farmyard animals!

"OK, life [as you chose to define it] repeats until there are no more lessons to be learned." - nrnoble (June 12, 2005)
"the new forum looks awesome, it's getting bigger & better" - p2p-sharing-rules (11 Jan, 2008)
"Looks like CMX is not only getting bigger...but, also getting better!!" - moongirl (14 Dec, 2007)
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moongirl wrote:The Entrepreneur's Guide to Second Life: Making Money in the Metaverse (2007)
Written By: Daniel Terdiman

http://forums.cricketmx.com/viewtopic.php?p=81112#81112

The term metaverse comes from Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash, and is now widely used to describe the vision behind current work on fully immersive 3D virtual spaces. These are environments where humans interact (as avatars) with each other (socially and economically) and with software agents in a cyber space, that uses the metaphor of the real world, but without its physical limitations.

In Stephenson's words, the "Metaverse" [is] my invention, which I came up with when I decided that existing words (such as "virtual reality") were simply too awkward to use [Snow Crash Acknowledgements]. The metaverse concept appears under other names in the Cyberpunk genre as far back as the 1981 novella True Names. http://dictionary.reference.com/go/http ... =Metaverse




Sony has again delayed its foray into the metaverse.
Sony's "Home" is a real-time interactive online world such as Linden Lab's Second Life.
What this second delay means is that more users will have access to the now Closed Beta service starting this summer, but at the same time, there’s no chance of seeing a PlayStation Home release in 2008. The company didn’t provide any precise release date so far.
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You can be virtually on Mars!!
Visitors to NASA Island in Second Life can chat with a "cybertwin".
NASA is trying all manner of Web 2.0 software to promote its science to the tech-savvy crowd. Months ago, the media director at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Lab began sending out Twitter messages, or 140-character digital notes, about the Phoenix Lander mission to Mars. Now, NASA has created a so-called cybertwin for the Phoenix rover in the virtual world Second Life.

Even though the term "cybertwin" sounds very Web 1.0, the technology is based on techniques in artificial intelligence, such as natural language processing. Instead of tapping NASA's media director for answers, the Phoenix cybertwin calls on a database of knowledge that's been programmed by scientists from JPL. That way, people can ask questions of the Phoenix chat bot to receive quasi-personalized responses about the rover's mission. (The cybertwin was developed by Australia-based start-up MyCyberTwin.)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9960846-7.html
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