Acknowledgments With thanks to Lindsay, Rebel, Maeby, Michael, Gob, Rita, Lucille, Buster, Maggie and everyone else I was lucky enough to cross paths with in Second Life.
2
Summary This essay will explore how consumption works in the virtual world of Second Life; it will investigate conspicuous consumption for the avatars of Second Life and the players behind them. In order to get an understanding of the areas involved I will first present a broad overview of the historical context surrounding
value
and
consumption.
I will
look closely
at
Marx’s
understanding of Use Value and also more recently Baudrillard’s definition of a Use Value that encompasses Sign and Symbolic Value. In addition to looking at the ideas of Identity both offline and online with regards to Goffman and Bellingham & Vasconcelos. I will then explore these ideas, using 9 Phenomenological Interviews with Second Life inhabitants. These interviews will help to explain why consumption in Second Life should be explored further as a great example of how consumption in the digital age can and should be inclusive, expressive and affordable.
3
Index Acknowledgments
2
Summary
3
Index
4
Illustrations
5
A Quote
6
Introduction
7
Chapter 1 - The context
11
Historical Context of Consumption Theories
12
Historical Context of Theories of identity construction
13
Chapter 2 - The Method Methodology Chapter 3 - The Results
15 16 19
Foreword
20
Complexity
22
Identity Pt1: Conforming
24
Identity Pt2: Individualism
27
Affordability & Aspiration
30
Conclusion
33
Bibliography
36
Citations, Quotes & Annotations
42
4
Illustrations Figure 1: Intrigue Co. A Second Life Shop (Wordie, 2016e) Figure 2: Virtual Russian Roulette (Wordie, 2016f) Figure 3: Buster’s Plane Showroom (Wordie, 2016d) Figure 4: A Second Life Club (Wordie, 2016c) Figure 5: A Pixel Based Sea (Wordie, 2016b) Figure 6: A Modest Beach Hut (Wordie, 2016a)
5
A Quote “The strongest argument for us being in a simulation probably is the following. Forty years ago we had pong. Like, two rectangles and a dot. That was what games were. Now, 40 years later, we have photorealistic, 3D simulations with millions of people playing simultaneously, and it’s getting better every year. Soon we’ll have virtual reality, augmented reality. If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then the games will become indistinguishable from reality, even if that rate of advancement drops by a thousand from what it is now.” (Elon Musk, 2016)
6
Introduction
7
In 2003 Linden Labs launched Second Life, an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) that allows the user to create their ideal world and persona. This essay will focus on Second Life and the people who inhabit it. It will argue that Second Life is an archetype of ‘Conspicuous Consumption’ but also how it can teach us a lot about how to live in a consumer culture where buying habits have changed with the evolving web and virtual items (software, music, book etc) are becoming more a part of our lives (Lanier, 2011). Second Life, unlike other MMORPGs, was set up by Linden Labs to have “no manufactured conflict, no set objective" (Kalning, 2007). Instead, players are invited into a world of open-ended possibilities, where one can go to dance at a club, surf on a virtual sea or become an in-game architect selling houses for in-game currency (Lindens). Second Life first surfaced in the public eye around 2007, after being referenced in the popular TV show The Office. Even though it is now very dated in graphics, many internet theorists still believe it is as relevant today as the day it was created (Jenkins, 2007a; Lanier, 2011; Maiberg, 2016). Ebbe Altberg, the CEO of Linden Labs, claims that the reason that 900,000 people log in each month is because in all its years no alternative has ever been able to challenge the freedom and community offered by Second Life (Maiberg, 2016). These 900,000 monthly log ins are made up from about 600,000 devoted active users, and around 300,000 first time visitors, which shows that the interest in Second Life is still strong. Jenkins (2007a) argues that Second Life will even out live bigger online communities such as Youtube and Myspace because of: “People feel a deeper investment in Second Life as a community because they have built it in their own images, because they have invested time in constructing the physical artifacts and social processes which constitute this multiverse. The core users of Second Life will be there as long as Linden Lab is there and the folks at Linden Lab seem to have a pretty realistic understanding of what it takes to support the diverse kinds of communities who are embracing this technology.” This investment from the Second Life inhabitants in both their own Second Life Avatar and the communities of Second Life, is something that is still present today, 9 years after Jenkins wrote about the Second Life, and something I will discuss in Chapter 3. In this open-ended cash-economy world where every day thousands of dollars (USD) are spent on the in-game virtual item; race, gender and identity become commodities bought for an avatar (Landley, 2008), it becomes important to examine Second Life as an archetype of Consumer Culture. This is especially important when in virtual worlds avatars are your primary way to interact with an expansive online world and the 8
900,000 active monthly players controlled avatars within it
(Maiberg, 2016). By
asking these questions and exploring the culture of Second Life I hope to understand if this kind of consumption parallels the real world and how people will consume identity in future augmented and virtual reality platforms.
Figure 1: Intrigue Co. A Second Life Shop (Wordie, 2016e)
To tackle this question, I will first examine theories of consumption and discuss how other papers have suggested they relate to Virtual Worlds. This is especially important as items in Second Life serve no conventional ‘Use Value’ in the eyes of theorists like Marx, and how they more closely follow ideas of exchange, sign and symbolic value laid out by Baudrillard (Martin, 2008). These ideas will be then further explored in reference to how people build identities in both online and offline worlds, by looking closely at Goffman’s original framework (Bullingham and Vasconcelos, 2013). I will attempt to expand on studies that have shown how online personas closely link with the person behind the screen and how people tend to emphasise or hide aspects of themselves behind the ‘mask of the screen’.
9
To help me examine and discuss these ideas in this essay I have carried out a series of 9 phenomenological interviews with avatars in Second Life and the people behind them. These interviews will be further supplemented with my own in-game observations of the Second Life world. Such observations and interviews will help me bring new information to the table and help me argue why I think Second Life is an archetype of Conspicuous Consumption. These discussions and interviews will then lead me into discussing how consumption in virtual worlds is intrinsically linked to our real world, with ideas of media, conforming and individualism all taking place. It is important to note before going further that I will be using the shorthands of ‘Real’ and ‘Virtual’, not because I regard either Second Life or ‘Real Life’ as being more real but because it offers a easy and discustionable shorthand of these two areas I will be exploring in this essay. As Castronova (2015) explains these shorthands help in “identifying two distinct areas of human behavior, using words ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ much as I might use ‘France’ and ‘America’”.
10
Chapter 1 - The context
11
Historical Context of Consumption Theories When talking about ideas of consumption in virtual worlds such as Second Life it is also important to first discuss consumption in the offline world. One of the key speakers on theories of consumption is Marx who laid out his idea of ‘Use Value’ and ‘Exchange Value’ in Capital (Marx, 2000). In this book, Marx argues that all items have a Use Value, based on the physical properties of the object, a good example being the nutritional value of an apple. Items also have an Exchange Value, based on the items place in society and how it valued by said society, a good example of this would be a note of currency; many have argued that Second Life doesn’t have any items that exhibit Marx’s idea of Use Value but instead only have Exchange Value and that Marx’s ideas therefore don’t apply to virtual worlds (Martin, 2008). Martin (2008) argues that Baudrillard’s (1981) ideas of symbolic value are more appropriate when looking at Second Life and this would explain why Second Life has $500 Million in GDP each year (Weinberger, 2015; Maiberg, 2016). What separates Marx’s consumption theories from more recent speakers on the topic, is Marx does not assign a Social Value as part his idea of Use Value (Baudrillard, 1981; Debord, 1994; Martin, 2008). Both Marx (2000) and Freud (1905) believed that any ‘Social Value’ in an item was purely put there by the observer, that the beholder of the object was fetishizing the object, assigning it value it did not inherently pose (Dant, 1996). However, for Baudrillard and Debord, these Social Values are not imagined but are instead present in the items sign and symbolic value. This validation of Social Value in Second Life is very important when Second Life avatars don’t have any needs to be fulfilled by Marx’s ideas of Use Value, but they do have needs to be fulfilled by Baudrillard’s definition of a Use Value that encompasses Sign and Symbolic Value. This is to say that the value in identity and belonging is very important to Second Life users, in a way that equals Use Value of real world items (Martin, 2008). Lanier (2011) explains that the reason why people are “generally not as mean to one another” on Second Life compared to other internet spaces where people are anonymous or use pseudonyms, is precisely because “the pseudonymous personality is so valuable”. Social Value can be seen in the offline world when looking at ‘Conspicuous Consumption’ and ‘Status Consumption’. With Status Consumption being: “The behavioural tendency to value status, and acquire and consume products that provide status to the individual.” (O’case & McEwan, 2004, p24)
12
And Conspicuous Consumption being: “The tendency for individuals to enhance their image, through overt consumption of possessions, which communicates status to others.” (O’case & McEwan, 2004, p24) Both status and Conspicuous Consumption status give value to items that don’t inherently have Use Value, and this value goes beyond Exchange Value. Status Consumption also shows us that Social Value of items goes beyond showing off to others or trying to enhance one’s image, as Status Consumption has value in making the consumer feel good about oneself (O’case & McEwan, 2004). These theories translate well to the virtual world where avatar creation has value not only for the image you are giving off to others but also value in how it makes players feel about themselves. Martin (2008) notes in his paper on consumerism in Second Life that appearance is a big driver for consumption in Second Life, as it shows status and is the primary way to convey character on the first meeting with another avatar. However, as I will explore later in this essay, I feel appearance in Second Life is as much
for
the creators’
Status Consumption as
the beholder Conspicuous
Consumption.
Historical Context of Theories of identity construction As important to this discussion as consumption and value, is one of the main ideas behind theories of identity construction both in the offline world and online; one of the primary speakers on this subject is Goffman, who laid out his understanding of identity in “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” (Goffman, 1974). In this, he discusses how the ‘actor’, the person creating the identity, both give and give off expressions that form the identity. With the former being intended and the latter being accidentally given but still received by the audience (Goffman, 1974). Goffman also goes on to discusses how ‘masks’ are used to not only facets of oneself from being given off but also to give off particular parts of one’s identity more clearly (Goffman, 1974). He suggests that this is easy to do in non-face to face interactions, and gave the example of how a telephone shields an actor’s facial expressions from the audience and hence masks parts of their identity. This would suggest that in Second Life, connections are even more masked. However, Jenkins (2010) suggest that online avatar interactions may be the next best thing to face to face conversations, especially as the technology surrounding online avatars gets better. This idea was also echoed by Miller (1995), who believed that Goffman’s ideas are still relevant online
13
but perceive the offline world as a place to prepare a persona to present to the online world. These ideas were explored with primary research of both bloggers and Second Life inhabitants by Bellingham and Vasconcelos in their 2013 essay. In this piece they compare the ideas I discussed earlier in relation with 4 Second Life interviews, 4 Blogger interviews and 2 combined blogger and Second Life interviews. In this they finds that the Goffman’s original theories hold true, however, they does notice a few caveats. Firstly, they found some of their interviewees find their online identity to be the most real manifestation of self and that their offline self being the one masked (Bellingham & Vasconcelos, 2013). This is to do with there being less social pressures to conform in the online world- this isn’t to say there are not media forces in Second Life with a huge role to play in trends and mainstream Second Life culture, as I will explore later in this essay. This idea of the online identity being the most real manifestation is also aided by the affordable nature of online items and the ability to sculpt your avatar as you please. Another observation that Bellingham and Vasconcelos (2013) found is that the online and offline self are intrinsically linked, with the online avatar being heavily influenced by elements of the offline self. With people feeling more “honest and direct with others” when basing their avatar on their offline self, it also observed that interviewees did not feel that the online world is that different from the offline one (Bellingham & Vasconcelos, 2013). They note that users emphasise aspects of themselves they want to be given and hide others they didn’t want to give off, in much the same way as we do face to face (Bellingham & Vasconcelos, 2013). These theories and studies tie in with the previous chapter on value, as the main Use Value of commodities in Second Life are to create an identity, both for the player and for the observer.
14
Chapter 2 - The Method
15
Methodology When starting this essay I knew that primary research gathered from interviews would be very important. The opinions, insights and information gathered from such involved interviews would give me a fresh perspective, on a subject as personal as identity and consumption (Kvale, 1983). This is especially true when looking at online communities such as Second Life, where there is a big disparity between what the mainstream media portrays and the in world reality. Hence the “Contextual Sensitivity” gathered through in-game interviews is incredibly valuable (Silverman, 2006). When selecting interviewees for this research, I set up the following guidelines. Firstly they must be over the age of 18 for ethical reasons, this was relatively easy to enforce as Second Life has an 18 or over policy for the majority of the virtual world. Secondly, interviewees must have had an active avatar in Second Life for over a year. This was because interviewees were asked about their opinions and insights about the Second Life world and as such needed to have a breadth of in-game knowledge to draw from. To first gain access to a few Second Life communities and gain a basic understanding of
Second
Life,
I
reached
out
to
the
Second
Life
subreddit
(www.reddit.com/r/secondlife), an online forum, and asked if anyone could give me a quick tour of Second Life. After said tour, I was introduced to a few communities on Second Life and thus conducted interviews in these. However, I also felt it was important to have a broad spectrum of Second Life users and hence I reached out on Reddit to find individuals who would be open to an interview. Below is a brief overview of the Interviewees that took part in this research paper, their names have been changed in order to maintain anonymity. #
PSEUDONYM
EXPERIENCE
PROFILE
1
Lindsay
8 Years
In game club owner for 7 years and Second Life Fashion Blogger
2
Rebel
4 Years
Self-described “Freebie Hunter”, who has spent no money in game
3
Maeby
5 Years
Involved in the creative communities of Second Life
16
as an artist, creator and actor 4
Michael
10 Years
A Furry who rents land in Second Life beach community
5
Gob
10 Years
A Second Life Shop Owner, who sold in-game commodities as his primary source of income for 8 Years
6
Rita
2 Years
An active Second Life role-player and Second Life home owner
7
Lucille
11 Years
Shop owner and creator in Second Life specialising in social games and modelling studios.
8
Buster
13 Years
A Second Life veteran who started a business selling virtually flyable planes.
9
Maggie
8 Years
Self proclaimed Second Life people watcher and retired Second Life troll.
After finding interview subjects, I set about interviewing them and their avatars in a Phenomenological manner (King, 2004). This meant that the interviews were done in a free flowing manner and were guided by an open-ended question that developed throughout the interview process. A good example of this was how my first set of 5 interviews informed my second set of 4 interviews. Whereas in the first set, I was still gaining an understanding of Second Life culture as a whole. The second set were more direct in relation to both my essay aims and also the research I have conducted. As King also lays out in his essay, that I as the researcher, am also an active participant in the interview with “the relationship (between interviewer and interviewee) being part of the research process rather, not a distraction from it.� (King, 2004, p12) This was particularly important due to the sensitive nature of the subject of an identity of consumption. I wanted the Interviewee to feel comfortable when discussing their experience of Second Life with me and also to help guide the discussion to areas that I might not have thought of. By using this open method, I was able to gather seemingly inconsequential details, that Silverman argues are the great benefit of qualitative research (Silverman, 2006).
17
In total, I conducted 9 interviews, with all but one taking place on the Second Life in private chat game chat window, Gob was interviewed on Skype. Each interview took between 60 and 180 minutes, with the average being around 120 minutes. However, as Shepherd points out there are issues to be had when carrying out chat room based interviews (Shepherd, 2004). Shepherd notes the frustration caused by the time taken to reply on chat rooms being much longer than face to face, and the issues involved in overlapping conversations when the interviewer asks another question before the interviewee has completely finished their answer to the previous question. Overlapping conversations were less of an issue for me due to the Second Life chat client telling you when someone is currently typing but this was an issue I did have early on in the interview process. However, as I got more accustomed to Second Life chat etiquette, I did not feel hampered by the interview format. As Shepard also points out, there are many benefits to carrying out interviews through online chat, noting how “Danet (1998) describes cyberspace as having a carnivalesque atmosphere, where it is always night. When people are limited to the use of text to communicate they are in effect wearing a mask of their own choosing that allows them to feel less inhibited about expressing themselves.� This is especially true when interviewing in Second Life, where player and avatar are so intimately linked. By using Skype interviews, rather than in-game chat, I would’ve been interviewing the player and overlooking their avatar as an interviewee. By interviewing in a game, I was able to let the interviewee answer questions as their online persona, which can be important as identity creation in virtual worlds is an important aspect of this essay. These in game interviews also allowed me to explore interviewees homes, and view their online avatar first hand.
18
Chapter 3 - The Results
19
Foreword An important discussion to have before talking about consumption in Second Life is to identify who is the buyer, whether it be the player behind the screen or the avatar in the virtual Second Life shop (Landay, 2008). This is a difficult subject with the level of realism given to virtual avatars varies across a spectrum varying from a literal representation of their true identity, to an aspect of themselves, to just a doll to dress up (Maggie, 2016). During my interviews this spectrum was very apparent with people like Buster and Gob, who use their avatars mainly as a tool to interact with the world and their customers (Gob, 2016; Buster, 2016). To others like Lindsay and Michael their avatar is a much more a virtual manifestation of an aspect of their real identity. When asked about who is spending money in Second Life, the player or the Avatar? Lindsay replied “she is me”, “ I don’t mean we look exactly alike, but she is my avatar” (Lindsay, 2016). Ben-Ze’ez (2004) explores this well in his book “Love Online” explaining that “Cyberspace is a part of reality; it is, therefore, incorrect to regard it as the direct opposite of real space. Cyberspace is part of real space, and online relationships are real relationships.” Here Ben-Ze’ez is talking about online relationships are as real as face to face relationships but the same logic applies to avatars, with Second Life being a part of real space, and online identities or avatars being real part of real identities.
Figure 2: Virtual Russian Roulette (Wordie, 2016f)
20
This idea of having your avatar as a visual representation of yourself in an online virtual world can be seen in all my interviewees, and I felt it myself in some regard when Lucille asked me to play a virtual game of Russian roulette during our interview. The game involved using an in-game animation to enable your avatar to pick up a virtual gun and pull the trigger, resulting in your avatar either shaking their head in relief or if unlucky, a cloud of smoke and your avatar falling face first into a table. As Lucille says, “it feels genuinely nerve-racking to play this game” (Lucille, 2016) and is a great example to the attachment Second Life players can feel towards their avatars, their interface with the virtual world and their friends within it. Lanier (2011), a leading virtual reality pioneer, muses on how once immersed in virtual reality (VR) you become unware of your physical body, and instead your brain starts to accept your virtual body as your own. While Second Life is not commonly played with VR headsets, it is the next obvious technology for Virtual Worlds to adopt. Infact Linden Labs is currently in Alpha testing of a parallel platform to Second Life called Project Sansar, a more accessible and up to date alternative to Second Life built solely for VR (Maiberg, 2016). While it becomes clear that avatars are a very important aspect of a Second Life inhabitants identity and life in Second Life, it is also important to note that interviewees were not detached from reality and understood that Second Life was just one aspect of their Real Life. While speaking to Maggie she succinctly told me that Lidens “only come from one source, someone’s Real Life wallet” (Maggie, 2016) and while some people I spoke to did have in game sources of income, like Buster and Gob with their shops or Maeby with her in game DJing, no one disputed that the money spent on avatars and in-game purchases depends on the person behind the screen. A good example of this is how most people spend money on the Second Life marketplace website rather than in the Second Life virtual stores that are prevalent (Gob, 2016; Lucille, 2016). Maggie went on to say that for her money she spends in Second Life comes out of her entertainment budget, a sentiment shared by Michael who understands Second Life as a form of escapism, a term that acknowledges a reality to escape from. The concept of Second Life being an entertainment and social tool in itself raising the question of whether the items in Second Life even need a Use Value as defined by Marx, an idea I will explore in the next chapter (Marx, 2000). In light of this complex understanding of who is the consumer in Second Life, I will be using interviewee’s pseudonym in reference to person behind the screen. However,
21
I will do this with the knowledge that the avatar can be an aspect of that person and that at the very least an avatar is your tool interact with the virtual world.
Complexity Through my interviews, I have found that the best way to understand how consumption in Second Life relates to the Real Life, is to understand what Second Life residents value. One of the most counter-intuitive things that you realise after spending some time in Second Life is that complexity does not equate to value. This seems bizarre because as discussed earlier these virtual items have no traditional value (Marx, 2000), they do not nourish physically or keep one warm, so as Martin points out virtual goods have no intrinsic value beyond labour (Martin, 2008). Labour being the computer code that forms these virtual items. However, labour is not as intrinsic to value in Second Life commerce as one assumes. A clear example of this phenomena is Buster’s plane business, and how he chooses to price his merchandise. Buster, an early adopter of Second Life and its Marketplace possibilities, has run an aviation business in Second Life for 12 years but has recently scaled back his operation. However, he is still selling his virtual but fully functional planes, with one of cheapest selling for 500 Lindens, 2 USD (Buster, 2016). According to Buster, it takes months to design and build one of these planes, this due to the complexity of the virtual planes, with the planes texture being as important as script allowing the player to fly it and the HUD (Heads-Up Display) to interact with the plane. Not only is this a very cheap alternative to buying a plane in Real Life but it’s also cheap compared to other items in Second Life.
22
Figure 3: Buster’s Plane Showroom (Wordie, 2016d) For example, if you contrast this with the freckles Lindsay brought for her avatar for 200 Lindens or equivalent to a Dollar (Lindsey, 2016). Buster was quick to tell me that these kinds of appearance items are require less coding and hence can be “cranked out in a few days” (Buster, 2016). This reality is in stark contrast to the ideas of consumption laid out by Marx, and the ideas that Exchange Value would be based on the Social Value of an item rather than its inherent labour value would have him turning in his grave (Marx, 2000). Both Marx and Freud (1905) would instead equate this “bizarre” value system to the fetishising of theses virtual items (Dant, 1996). The fetishised item has a value that does not reflect its material worth but a false and fake value assigned to it by its observer. In Freud’s (1905) eyes, the freckles Lindsay brought are assigned a value they do not deserve, whereas Buster’s planes are undervalued because of the current social dynamic in Second Life. However, we can look to Baudrillard for another reading of why complexity is not the main driver behind Second Life’s object value and therefore its pricing structure. Baudrillard sees the purchase of objects not solely as a solution to a problem, like food if you are hungry, but as a complex twinning of Conspicuous Consumption and functionality (Dant,1996; Baudrillard, 1981) where the Social Value of an item is as important as the function it gives you. In Second Life however, functionality is abstract, for example, Buster’s planes can fly your avatar from one Second Life 23
location to another but you could also just teleport there. Hence, the plane's main selling point is as a prop to your avatar, a fun prop, but still just another part of your avatar's identity in the game. However, as a prop, an item of identity, it is not that useful as it is too big to carry with your avatar as you navigate around Second Life. The freckles, on the other hand, are always to you, always lending themselves to your identity. The unanimous census from all of my Second Life interviewees both point out, fashion and looks are the main drivers behind Second Life economy. Thus for Second Life ostentation outways functionality. You pay more for things that contribute most to your identity, however small, hence an item as small and simple as freckles for your avatar costs only half as much as a plane that has external textures, an in-game HUD (head-up display) and a script that lets your aviator actually fly it in-game.
Identity Pt1: Conforming Another trope surrounding Second Life that strikes an observer, is how in a virtual world of possibility and uncompromising levels of customisability of identity, a world that’s “colour blind, sex blind and you be anything” (Gob, 2016), most avatars conform. A good illustration of this is four of my interviewees (Rebel, Maeby, Maggie and Lindsay). All four of these people had avatars that resembled a young white, 20 something female with perfect hair, glowing eyes and always shorter than the male avatars. This all culminates in an avatar that seems overtly sexual in a unreal almost barbie-ish way. However, all four of them have very different backgrounds both in Second Life and in Real Life. For example, Lindsay is a fashion blogger in Second Life and has spent upwards of 3400 dollars (USD) on the 130,000 virtual items in her inventory, of which a lot were free for blogging reasons (Lindsay, 2016). This contrasts with Rebel who doesn’t “spend any Lindens in Second Life” and is a self proclaimed freebie hunter (Rebel, 2016). This shrug of shoulders to consumerism continues into her Real Life with an attitude to consumption that Marx would be proud of (Marx, 2000). Both mentioned in their interview that they put time into their avatars, that they like the creative aspect of Second Life and also that they were not in their early twenties. However, both present as a very similar avatar aesthetically, as do Maeby and Maggie (Maeby, 2016; Maggie, 2016).
24
Figure 4: A Second Life Club (Wordie, 2016c)
When doing anything in the real or virtual world, Lessig (1998) tells us we are bounded by 4 constraints in his paper “The Laws of Cyberspace”, and these are the constraints that players make when designing their avatars. The first constraint is Law, the rules governments or organisations set out. In this case it's the rules or Community Standards laid out by Linden labs, these are a very relaxed set of rules including no harassment or disclosure of personal information, and do not constrain avatar creation heavily (Research, 2016b). The second and very prevalent constraint in Second Life is Social ‘Norms’, these Norms depend on the community hence Second Life's Social Norm constraints vary at times from the real world. The third constraint is the market, which like Real Life is prevalent force in Second Life, with prices organically fluctuating and donating value to certain items. This can be seen clearly with how the Second Life market values Buster’s planes. The last constraint is what Lessig (1998) calls architecture, or the current limitations of the software and hardware you are operating with. All of these constraints can be seen to be at play in Second Life at varying amounts. When discussing avatar creation with the interviewees, they all felt that their avatar creation was influenced by not only Second Life’s trends and Norms but also by Real Life trends and Norms. This was a finding also echoed in previous studies on Second Life (Bellingham & Vasconcelos, 2013). The first aspect of this claim was illustrated by 25
Rebel and her fashion choices are constrained by Market, which in turn is influenced Second Life Norms (Lessig, 1998). As a freebie hunter Rebel was limited to clothes she could acquire for free, and by having a very conforming female avatar those free options are more abundant. However, the clothes that are available for free are often very sexual - as Rebel (2016) puts it, “I don’t understand why it’s so hard to find a shirt that goes to the knee in [Second Life]”. As she sees it, in Second Life you are forced into a mindset of if you want to be pretty, then be sexy or else “go for ugly and cover up” (Rebel, 2016). This need to conform can also be seen with Maggie, who although male has a female avatar in order to conform and have an easier time meeting people in Second Life. Early on Maggie started with a male avatar but told me that she discovered that “many people are a lot more rude to male avatars than female avatars” not only this but because of the way Second Life fashion mimics Real Life, “female avatars have a lot more options in terms of fashion too” (Maggie, 2016). This sentiment is also relevant to Avatars that look new, because of the high turnover of new accounts, avatars seen as new or uninteresting are often ignored or seen as not worth the time (Maggie, 2016; Lucille, 2016). The second aspect of this is how Real Life Norms and perceived ideals influence Second Life. This idea can be easily seen in the mostly white caucasian avatar populous in Second Life, which Maggie says mirrors Real Life ideas’ of beauty (Maggie, 2017). This thin, white and young ideal of women is rampant in the media and has been shown to influence women into aspiring to that projected body type (Sparhawk, 2003). It’s this ideal that has propagated itself in Second Life and not only influences female players but also males who have female avatars and the creators who produce the avatars and skins. This influence can both be attributed mainly to Status Consumption and less to Conspicuous Consumption. The idea that Second Life can be used as a mirror to the ideal self, and so wanting to project a more media ideal version of yourself can been seen as choice that is not only for the benefit of the beholder of the avatar but also the avatars owner. A most recent demographic information showing that most Second Life users are over 40 (Survey Monkey, 2014), and as Buster sees it why wouldn’t you want to see a “less saggy” version of yourself (Buster, 2016). On the other hand, the idea of conforming your avatar to Real Life and Second Life ideals can be seen less as Conspicuous Consumption. This is because status assigned to being young and beautiful could
26
portray to others in Real Life is washed away in a world where choosing to be young and beautiful is obtainable to all.
Identity Pt2: Individualism It would be impossible to talk about how people conform in Second Life without also talking about individualism. As much as my research shows that everyone in Second Life conforms to a certain point, it is individualism and creativity that brought most of my interviewees to Second Life in the first place. From Furries (Michael, 2016), to flying dragons (Lucille, 2016), to Gen Chuck Yeager (Buster, 2016); the possibilities when creating an identity on Second Life can be endless. However, most people tend to portray a version of their Real Life selves, a mask of given expression about aspects of Real Life that want to emphasise and but also aspects they want to hide (Bellingham & Vasconcelos, 2013). These aspects of their customisable online identity can come from online purchases of skins for their avatars bodies, or clothes for their avatar, to houses to host friends in game. However, as shown previously not all aspects of their identity have to be paid for, Rebel, for example, has never paid money for her avatar’s identity because of a lot of items you can customise your avatar with can be found for free (Rebel, 2016). This is not to say that Rebel has been able to construct her perfect online identity with free items, in fact, it became apparent through the interview that she is currently having an internal battle whether to keep up her identity as a freebie hunter or to have more control of her visual identity. One item she felt particularly constructed by was her avatar’s body, the mesh body (a 3D technology within Second Life) she currently has is “very difficult to dress” and didn’t leave her “enough choice anymore” (Rebel, 2016).
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Figure 5: A Pixel Based Sea (Wordie, 2016b)
One of the clear examples of a user taking complete control of their online identity is Michael, who has used Second Life to create his perfect visual identity over the course of 10 years (Michael, 2016). Michael is a ‘Furry’, a small subculture and community that express identity through anthropomorphic animals and creatures. This can take the form of people drawing their anthropomorphic animal identity, to conventions where Furries dress up in full Fursuits of their animal mascots, custom made for them. A subculture that is often demonised by mass media, Second Life is a perfect place for fans of the fandom to meet and to create their Furry Mascots. As Michael puts it “Second Life is very friendly for subcultures because it allows you to precisely model and fine-tune what you want to be” (Michael, 2016). Over the years Michael has purchased and created from scratch elements for a persona that has developed to a point that when commissioning a 2000 dollar Real Life Fursuit, Michael gave the artist pictures of his Second Life avatar for reference (Michael, 2016). Jenkins (2007b) cites this as a real positive benefit of how Second Life can effect Real Life, by allowing individuals and communities to experiment with identity and culture. Michael’s Conspicuous Consumption does not stop there, another big aspect of his Second Life identity is his in world home which I was kindly invited to. His small home is modest beach hut but from its roof, where our interview was conducted, it 28
has a commanding view of a pixel based sea. Michael is also dressed to match wearing an array of nautical-themed attire over his lovingly crafted Fursuit. One of the reasons why the beach hut feels so calm and visceral is because every house around us is also beach themed. Michael has not only paid money for the house of his virtual dreams but has also paid to become a member of a beach themed homeowners association - the virtual equivalent of having that home in suburbs. This whole set up; the home with open vinyl sleeves on the floor, the neighbourhood adorned with perfect palm trees and the complex anthropomorphic nautical avatar. When speaking to Michael, you couldn’t help but feel that this was his real identity, a relaxed, thoughtful, and quirky individual who enjoyed watching the sun go down from his beach hut.
Figure 6: A Modest Beach Hut (Wordie, 2016a)
When creating a whole identity through Conspicuous Consumption of cheap and often custom items, it’s no wonder that people often flock to Second Life to “craft a physical identity perfectly” (Michael, 2016). This can be seen with Lindsay’s meticulous crafted avatar, with eye bags that make her avatar more “unique and interesting avatar” (Lindsay, 2016) or with Maggie, who purchased custom animations for his robotic avatar, so that his avatar conveyed a better representation of his “demeanour and general attitude” through its body language (Maggie, 2016). 29
Linden CEO Altberg cites this near boundless creative freedom, with respect to Lessig’s (1998) constraints, to why Second Life is still thriving. He tells us that, “no competitor has been able to successfully provide this type of freedom in a virtual world” (Maiberg, 2016). This complex interplay of both creating a unique identity and sticking to the trends and norms established by Second Life lends itself to a world where even though anything is possible people tend to create avatars that although unique are not abstract from each other or from Real Life. My research results mirrored that of Bellingham & Vasconcelos (2013), with most interviewees constructing an identity based off their Real Life selves. With the customisation, Second Life allowed being an extreme version of Real Life makeup or fashion choices. Of course, Second Life inhabitants have much more control of their “given” expression compared to Real Life (Goffman, 1974), with players being able to control even body language and visual manifestation to a T. However, when you start conversing with a Second Life avatar the identity of the player becomes more complex with both “given” and “given off” expressions being shown (Goffman, 1974). During my interviews, I found that more often than not that these avatars and voices behind them functioned as one with neither clashing or seeming truer. Jenkins (2010) suggested that online avatar interactions may be the next best thing to face to face conversations , but if your true personality is subjective then maybe avatars are an even more real manifestation of personality then Real Life and the mask we assume online avatars are is actually the true face (Bellingham & Vasconcelos, 2013; Martin, 2008; Landey, 2008).
Affordability & Aspiration In the physical world status through consumption is expensive, it takes a lot of money and or time to invest in most images. However, in Second Life Conspicuous Consumption is affordable, the ability to create your perfect physical identity is attainable to all. Take a music lover, in Real Life you would, on average spend around 380 dollars (USD) to buy a pair of Beats Studios headphones, to add to your music adoring visual identity (Apple, 2016). While in Second Life that image of the Beats wearing audio enthusiast can be bought for just over a dollar or 350 Lindens (Research, 2016a). Of course in Real Life, your are getting the added benefit of the Use Value, the high-quality audio that comes with expensive headphones. However, the Social Value achieved in these hugely different price points are very similar. The example of Beats is particularly poignant when they become a famous symbol of
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Conspicuous Consumption, with their marketing campaign preaching to customers that these are the headphones for artists and music lovers; while their critics claim they are overpriced and underperforming (Killham, 2015). This idea of affordability in Second Life shows an interesting world in which taste becomes the predominant force in social status, after all when anyone can afford anything that is left to judge someone visually but their taste. One of the clear examples of this is home ownership in Second Life, something that in Real Life is very expensive for the majority of people and even more so when you consider upkeep costs, something not present when pixels do not degrade over time. Houses in Second Life become a further representation of identity not an expression of wealth. While interviewing people in-game, no one I interviewed had a ‘McMansion’ or other extravagant example of wealth predominant in the real world but they had a well put together space that sat well with their avatar. Rita hosted me in her beachside house for our interview, and her personality showed through her simple and modern home, a place she has built not for strangers but to share with her friends (Rita, 2016). The addition of 3 dogs running around your feet conjures a relaxed setting for our interview compared to the busy clubs in which I usually do my in-game interviews in. In contrast, Lucille’s more traditional home, complete with trimmed hedges and gravel driveway, is more in line with her business women persona. It feels like an American suburban home fit for women who creates games “to bring physical avatars together in Second Life” (Lucille, 2016). It has been said that the home is a reflection of the self and I think this is truer in Second Life than Real Life due to the lack of overhead costs. Second Life inhabitants can also change up their in-game abode on the fly to reflect their current and evolving taste, with cheap and affordable house models and furniture, inhabitants can remodel their home as much as they want to (Lucille, 2016; Michael, 2016; Rita, 2016). This adds to realism of identity created by the home in Second Life in the way only the ultra wealthy could achieve in Real Life. As someone who was unlucky enough to have a say in my own childhood room age 8 and chose to have a clear toilet seat with pencils in it, I can testify to how tastes change overtime and choices made in the past are not always inline with one’s current identity. This ability to create and change one’s Second Life home leads them also becoming an example of the aspirational object for Real Life. With players creating a dream home they might not be able to afford in Real Life or maybe barred from owning due to their geographical location. Lindsay, for example, has “a modest English country garden 31
place on a lake” in Second Life. She tells me it’s “more remote, but smaller” than her Real Life house, but also something she can’t currently have in Real Life, even though she’d “love to live in the countryside” (Lindsay, 2016). This idea of aspiration for Real Life was also felt by Buster who explained that in Second Life you can get a “taste of what it might be like to be a pilot or aircraft maker” without the cost of a plane or the years of training it takes. These aspirational purchases serve the Second Life inhabitants as both examples of Status Consumption and of Conspicuous Consumption. These purchases can function in the same way that having a younger and “prettier” avatar can influence a player’s idea of themselves, the idea that having a nice kitchen in Second Life can make you feel about your Real Life kitchen (Landay, 2008). Equally, this Conspicuous Consumption serves to function as part of your identity in the way you couldn’t afford to do in Real Life. By being able to afford, or create, anything in Second Life, inhabitants can add a level of complexity and truthfulness to their mask that they couldn’t do in Real Life.
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Conclusion
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During this essay, I have discussed how and why people consume virtual items in the virtual world of Second Life, in order to understand how it relates to Real World consumption. It became clear that Marx’s (2000) theories of value do not hold true when translated to Second Life - this is because it undermines the important aspect of how the Social Value assigned to an items Exchange Value in Second Life, in particular how labour value is much less important to the value of an item than it would be in Real Life. I have also had discussions with business owners in Second Life (Buster, Gob and Lucille) about how the value in Second Life is intrinsically linked to the Social Value it gives the owner (Martin, 2008). We can look to Baudrillard’s (1981) theories of value to explain how in a virtual world, where functionality is not important, items are consumed to craft an identity for an avatar through Conspicuous Consumption and hence items were worn by an avatar are more valuable. As discussed earlier; identity exploration and creativity are key areas of Second Life, Conspicuous Consumption and Status Consumption are key forces in this, much like in Real Life. However, even though players are bounded somewhat by the constraints laid out by Lessig (1998), especially Social Norms, players are able to create very visceral identifies in Second Life. There is a common theme that reoccurs throughout popular culture that virtual worlds are false and that money or time spent on them is wasted. You can see this demonstrated in films like ‘Surrogates’, a film in which people experience the world through VR and surrogate robot bodies. The hero of the film, Bruce Willis, chooses to “free” the world from their “false” and “less real” lives by destroying their surrogate bodies and forcing them to reconnect with their “real” bodies (Surrogates, 2009). However, after spending time in a virtual world for this essay, it became clear that avatars often reflect a real person's identity better than their real world self could. Being yourself is not bounded by money due to the low cost market or by physical gender or by physical ability. Hence you could argue, in Second Life the participant has the freedom to be really expressive about who they are. This can be seen clearly with Michael who was able to challenge and evolve his identity on Second Life or Lindsay who is able to socialise with friends even though she lives in a remote area. The value of this can not be disputed, and in a world of online social media where we are limited to 140 characters or by 500px by 500px profile pictures, Second Life offers a platform in which users can ‘give’ their identity with less architectural constraints (Lessig, 1998; Goffman, 1959; Lanier, 2011)
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Of course, you still lack the expression that comes with ‘given off’ body expressions but these technologies are being refined - with full body tracking an established idea in VR and work being done to translate full facial expression tracking to an avatar coming to market soon (Vesso, 2016; Oculus, 2016). Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror episode ‘San Junipero’ gets this idea across better than most pop culture explorations of Virtual worlds. It explores a virtual reality in the future when full body expressions can be shown through an avatar in a virtual world. It has a positive view of this virtual world, where people can either visit or stay once their physical body dies. It follows the main character Yorkie who although paralysed in the real world is able to explore the virtual resort of San Juniper in an idealised version of her youthful body, a sentiment interviewees could relate to. However, in San Junipero, there is no sense of the possibilities of Virtual worlds already being explored in Second Life. In contrast, Second Life encourages Peer to Peer commerce and rejected big brands, it is the world where the creator is as invested in the world as the buyer is - it is an economic culture built around creation and appreciation rather than corporate interest. It also sells this virtual world to those who aren’t able to experience the real world to its full potential e.g. the elderly or bed bound, rather than showing virtual spaces as interesting place for all (San Junipero, 2016). After speaking with Second Life inhabitants and spending time in this virtual world, it has become clear that the culture of the virtual world is one to be admired and explored. It is a world of unparalleled expression, creativity and inclusion, and we can only hope more mainstream virtual worlds in the future embrace these ideas.
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Citations, Quotes & Annotations
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Apple (2016) Beats Solo3 Wireless On-Ear Headphones – Rose Gold. Available at: http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MNET2/beats-solo3-wireless-on-ear-headphon es-rose-gold?fnode=79 (Accessed: 23 November 2016). (Apple, 2016) Baudrillard, J. (1981) For a critique of the political economy of the sign. Austin, TX, United States: Telos Press,U.S. (Baudrillard, 1981) Ben-Ze’ev, P.A. (2004) Love Online: Emotions on the Internet. Available at: https://books.google.fr/books?id=3wlJIDtRCFYC&pg=PA1&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v =onepage&q&f=false (Accessed: 21 December 2016). (Ben-Ze’ev, 2004) Bullingham, L. and Vasconcelos, A.C. (2013) ‘“The presentation of self in the online world”: Goffman and the study of online identities’, Journal of Information Science, 39(1), pp. 101–112. doi: 10.1177/0165551512470051. (Bullingham and Vasconcelos, 2013) Buster (2016) ‘Second Life Research’. Interview with Fred Wordie for November, . Transcripts in possession of author (Buster, 2016) Castronova, E. (2015) Wildcat currency: How the virtual money revolution is transforming the economy. New Haven, CT, United States: Yale University Press. (Castronova, 2015) Dant, T. (1996) ‘Fetishism and the social value of objects’, Sociological Review, 44(3), pp. 495–516. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-954x.1996.tb00434.x. (Dant, 1996) Debord, G. (1994) The society of the spectacle. Available at: http://www.antiworld.se/project/references/texts/The_Society%20_Of%20_The%20 _Spectacle.pdf (Accessed: 31 December 2016). (Debord, 1994) Freud, S. (1905) Three contributions to the theory of sex (annotated). Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Three_Contributions_to_the_Theory_of_Se x.html?id=XvGPDAAAQBAJ&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y (Accessed: 31 December 2016). (Freud, 1905) Gob (2016) ‘Second Life Research’. Interview with Fred Wordie for 2 October, . Transcripts in possession of author (Gob, 2016)
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Goffman, E. (1974) The presentation of self in everyday life. United States: Overlook Press. (Goffman, 1974) ‘San Junipero’ Black Mirror, Season 3, Episode 4 (2016) Netflix, 21 October. (Harris and Brooker, 2016) Jenkins, H. (2007a) Get a (Second) life! Available at: http://henryjenkins.org/2007/01/get_a_second_life.html#more-1264 (Accessed: 22 December 2016). (Jenkins, 2007a) Jenkins, H. (2007b) How Second life impacts our First Life…. Available at: http://henryjenkins.org/2007/03/my_main_question_to_jenkins.html (Accessed: 22 December 2016). (Jenkins, 2007b) Jenkins, R. (2010) The contemporary Goffman. Available at: https://books.google.fr/books?id=p3CMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT344&lpg=PT344&dq=Richar d+Jenkins+goffman&source=bl&ots=ROYq_zS1UI&sig=m_9uKDMVcRdz0fjXtFsqvvW63A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-072DqIrRAhWEthQKHWnEDbsQ6AEIJTAC#v=onep age&q&f=false (Accessed: 23 December 2016). (Jenkins, 2010) Kalning, K. (2007) If Second life isn’t a game, what is it? Available at: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/17538999/ns/technology_and_science-games/t/if-seco nd-life-isnt-game-what-it/ (Accessed: 31 October 2016). (Kalning, 2007) Killham, E. (2015) How beats maximizes cheap hardware for luxurious profits. Available at: http://www.cultofmac.com/326903/how-beats-maximizes-cheap-hardware-for-lux urious-profits/ (Accessed: 31 December 2016). (Killham, 2015) King, N. (2004) ‘Essential guide to qualitative methods in organizational research’, in Cassell, C. and Symon, G. (eds.) Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research. London: SAGE, pp. 11–23. (King, 2004) Kvale, S. (1983) ‘The qualitative research interview’, Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 14(1-2), pp. 171–196. doi: 10.1163/156916283X00090. (Kvale, 1983) Landay, L. (2008) ‘“ Virtual worlds research: Consumer behavior in virtual worlds ” having but not holding: Consumerism & Commodification in Second life’, 1(2). (Landay, 2008) Lanier, J. (2011) You are not a gadget: A manifesto. Jaron Lanier. London: Viking Penguin.
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(Lanier, 2011) Lessig, L. (1998) The laws of Cyberspace. Available at: https://cyber.harvard.edu/works/lessig/laws_cyberspace.pdf (Accessed: 19 December 2016). (Lessig, 1998) Lindsay (2016) ‘Second Life Research’. Interview with Fred Wordie for . Transcripts in possession of author (Lindsay, 2016) Lucille (2016) ‘Second Life Research’. Interview with Fred Wordie for 4 November, . Transcripts in possession of author (Lucille, 2016) Maeby (2016) ‘Second Life Research’. Interview with Fred Wordie for . Transcripts in possession of author (Maeby, 2016) Maiberg, E. (2016) Why is ’Second life’ still a thing? Available at: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/why-is-second-life-still-a-thing-gaming-virtual -reality (Accessed: 19 December 2016). (Maiberg, 2016) Martin, J. (2008) ‘“ Virtual worlds research: Consumer behavior in virtual worlds ” consuming code: Use-value, exchange-value, and the role of virtual goods in Second life’, 1(2). (Martin, 2008) Marx, K. (2000) The consumer society reader. Edited by Martyn J. Lee. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. (Marx, 2000) Michael (2016) ‘Second Life Research’. Interview with Fred Wordie for 4 October, . Transcripts in possession of author (Michael, 2016) Miller, H. (1995) The presentation of self in electronic life: Goffman on the Internet. Available at: http://www.douri.sh/classes/ics234cw04/miller2.pdf (Accessed: 23 December 2016). (Miller, 1995) Surrogates (2009) Directed by Jonathan Mostow USA: . (Mostow, 2009)
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Oculus (2016) Oculus. Available at: https://www.oculus.com/ (Accessed: 24 December 2016). (Oculus, 2016) Rebel (2016) ‘Second Life Research’. Interview with Fred Wordie for 3 October, . Transcripts in possession of author (Rebel, 2016) Recode (2016) Is life a video game? | Elon musk | code conference 2016. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLKof9YSAshgyPqlK-UUYrHfIQaOzFPSL4&v=2 KK_kzrJPS8 (Accessed: 31 December 2016). (Recode, 2016) Research, L. (2016a) Check out this Second life marketplace item! Available at: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/JBX-beats-STUDIO/4432759 (Accessed: 23 November 2016). (Research, 2016a) Research, L. (2016b) Community standards. Available https://secondlife.com/corporate/cs.php (Accessed: 23 December 2016).
at:
(Research, 2016b) Research, L. (2016c) Linden lab official: Teens in Second life - Second life Wiki. Available at: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Teens_in_Second_Life (Accessed: 23 October 2016). (Research, 2016c) Rita (2016) ‘Second Life Research’. Interview with Fred Wordie for November, . Transcripts in possession of author (Rita, 2016) Shepherd, N. (2004) Interviewing online: Qualitative research in the network(ed) society. Available at: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:10232/ns_qrc_03.pdf (Accessed: 17 October 2016). (Shepherd, 2004) Silverman, D. (2006) Interpreting qualitative data: Methods for analyzing talk, text and interaction. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=uooz4p82sDgC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq= silverman+interpreting+qualitative+data&ots=uPXLTkugGR&sig=kX3dKWDDMnNeO4 sn9AwYKURPNcY#v=onepage&q=contextual&f=false (Accessed: 23 October 2016). (Silverman, 2006) Sparhawk, J.M. (2003) BODY IMAGE AND THE MEDIA: THE MEDIA’S INFLUENCE ON BODY IMAGE. Available at: http://www2.uwstout.edu/content/lib/thesis/2003/2003sparhawkj.pdf (Accessed: 21 November 2016). 47
(Sparhawk, 2003) Survey Monkey (2014) Postmoderna SL Second Life Demographic Survey. Available at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-29GB53R/ (Accessed: 21 November 2016). (Survey Monkey, 2014) Tobias (2016) ‘Second Life Research’. Interview with Fred Wordie for 14 November, . Transcripts in possession of author (Tobias, 2016) Vesso (2016) Homepage. Available at: http://www.veeso.com/ (Accessed: 24 December 2016). (Vesso, 2016) Weinberger, M. (2015) This company was 13 years early to virtual reality — and it’s getting ready to try again. Available at: http://uk.businessinsider.com/second-life-is-still-around-and-getting-ready-to-co nquer-virtual-reality-2015-3?r=US&IR=T (Accessed: 3 November 2016). (Weinberger, 2015) Wordie, F. (2016a) A Modest Beach Hut [Photograph]. Unpublished. (Wordie, 2016a) Wordie, F. (2016b) A Pixel Based Sea [Photograph]. Unpublished. (Wordie, 2016b) Wordie, F. (2016c) A Second Life Club [Photograph]. Unpublished. (Wordie, 2016c) Wordie, F. (2016d) Buster’s Plane Showroom [Photograph]. Unpublished. (Wordie, 2016d) Wordie, F. (2016e) Intrigue Co. A Second Life Shop [Photograph]. Unpublished. (Wordie, 2016e) Wordie, F. (2016f) Virtual Russian Roulette [Photograph]. Unpublished. (Wordie, 2016f)
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