Practicum Post #3

        I've heard websites like SecondLife referred to as addicting. However, I failed to see what is so addicting about it.  If nothing else, I found it to be quite frustrating.  I expected to meet a lot of interesting people and have conversations, but found it very difficult to find anyone who was doing anything other than standing in one spot, completely silent.  I "teleported" to tons of different locations to see if I could find anything interesting going on, and the most activity I encountered was a mob of avatars standing around and/or dancing.  While at first I was excited to find something interesting, a few minutes of standing around watching avatars do the same dance moves over and over again or 'hearing' them blurt out nonsensical phrases (?) such as, "RRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUBBGGAAA" left me bored and confused as to why anyone would want to spend time there. 

      Not wanting to stay there any longer, I continued my search for interesting things to do in SecondLife.  Eventually I found a world labeled "Realm of Valahari".  Based on the description, it is a purely role-playing world which takes place in a medieval-esque setting.  Unlike many of the worlds I had visited previously, this one had a rather long and very specific rulebook that came along with it.  These rules address things like roleplaying courtesy, speech, and acceptable clothing for your avatar.  These rules are also enforced by moderators; if you violate these rules, you can be evicted from the world.  In this way, Valahari tries very hard to maintain its identity as a role-playing world. 

     Speech and clothing rules were the two guidelines which stood out the most to me.  In order to enter the world, one had to first dress their avatar in medieval or fantasy-like attire.  This prevents people who do not want to wear such clothing from disrupting the sort of atmosphere the world attempts to uphold.  If you do not have medieval or fantasy appropriate clothing, the area you enter before going into the real Realm of Valahari provides many "shops" where you can purchase acceptable outfits. 
   
     There were also very specific rules regarding speech.  "Normal talk" which we use in everyday life was to be kept to private chat windows so that the text does not appear within the world (also to prevent contamination of the fantasy atmosphere).  Any speech occurring within the world must be kept to role-playing.  I also noticed that people in this world were not only typing out what they would say, but also tiny details of what their avatar was doing, even though their avatar was really only standing in one place (see example at right).  Anyone who did not adhere to this sort of language/writing was viewed as an outsider, and was generally ignored by everyone else who was actively participating in the fantasy world.