Doing academic research on Second Life. Any veterans willing to be interviewed?

[TechLawProf]

I'm currently researching for an article related to digital identities. I'd like to better understand how people interact with Second Life and what community norms are around avatars. 

If anyone regularly participates in Second Life and has a good handle on the platform and community norms, I'd love to talk to you.

In addition, I'll post some questions to this forum for anyone to answer:

1. How long have you participated in Second Life?
2. How many hours per week (on average) do you participate in SL?
3. How much time have you invested in your avatar?
4. Do you make your real identity known, or do you remain pseudonymous?
5. What is the worst thing a person can do in SL?

Thank you,

TLP

Edited September 26, 2023 by TechLawProf

[Luna Bliss]

Oh dear.

Covering you with a protective new-age energy shield.

[Silent Mistwalker]

28 minutes ago, TechLawProf said:

1. How long have you participated in Second Life?
2. How many hours per week (on average) do you participate in SL?
3. How much time have you invested in your avatar?
4. Do you make your real identity known, or do you remain pseudonymous?
5. What is the worst thing a person can do in SL?

1. I've been a resident for 19 years.
2.  Depends. In the early years I could be inworld as much as 18 hours a day. These days I don't have much incentive to log in.
3. 19 years.
4. No one cares enough to want to know.
5. Be my friend.

[TechLawProf]

1 minute ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

1. I've been a resident for 19 years.
2.  Depends. In the early years I could be inworld as much as 18 hours a day. These days I don't have much incentive to log in.
3. 19 years.
4. No one cares enough to want to know.
5. Be my friend.

Why don't you have much incentive to log in these days?

Why is being your friend the worst thing someone can do in SL?

[Randy Pole]

Please do not take this the wrong way but....

You can answer all the questions you asked yourself just by actually trying to experience Second Life for yourself.

If I had a dollar for each time someone posted a thread about getting information for a research article I'd have enough to get myself back to Hawaii thanks.

[LittleMe Jewell]

New school year, new crop of students

*sigh*

[TechLawProf]

17 minutes ago, Randy Pole said:

Please do not take this the wrong way but....

You can answer all the questions you asked yourself just by actually trying to experience Second Life for yourself.

If I had a dollar for each time someone posted a thread about getting information for a research article I'd have enough to get myself back to Hawaii thanks.

Thanks, Randy. I'm also doing that in parallel. But I'm finding that that mode of research, while valuable, yields very different information than simply asking people direct questions, especially veterans who can describe the macro changes they've seen over the years.

[PekeNL]

𝖧𝖾𝗋𝖾 𝗐𝖾 𝗀𝗈 𝖺𝗀𝖺𝗂𝗇. 𝖠𝗇𝗈𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋 𝗌𝗎𝗋𝗏𝖾𝗒 𝗐𝖾 𝗐𝗂𝗅𝗅 𝗇𝖾𝗏𝖾𝗋 𝗀𝖾𝗍 𝖺𝗇𝗒 𝗋𝖾𝗌𝗎𝗅𝗍𝗌 𝗈𝖿 𝗈𝗎𝗋𝗌𝖾𝗅𝗏𝖾𝗌 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗇𝖾𝗏𝖾𝗋 𝗁𝖾𝖺𝗋 𝖿𝗋𝗈𝗆 𝖺𝗀𝖺𝗂𝗇...

[Rowan Amore]

#3 Should include how much money along with time.  Consider also, that many people invest time and money into multiple avatars.

#5 Why this question?

The forums is an extremely small percentage of SL users.  I'm guessing that inworld yields different results because people there, in general, are not going to answer questions from someone new assuming they're probably an alt.

Community norms depend entirely on what, if any, community you're involved with IN Second Life.

[Charlotte Bartlett]

1 hour ago, TechLawProf said:

I'm currently researching for an article related to digital identities. I'd like to better understand how people interact with Second Life and what community norms are around avatars. 

If anyone regularly participates in Second Life and has a good handle on the platform and community norms, I'd love to talk to you.

In addition, I'll post some questions to this forum for anyone to answer:

1. How long have you participated in Second Life?
2. How many hours per week (on average) do you participate in SL?
3. How much time have you invested in your avatar?
4. Do you make your real identity known, or do you remain pseudonymous?
5. What is the worst thing a person can do in SL?

Thank you,

TLP

which article and which publication?

[TechLawProf]

10 minutes ago, PekeNL said:

𝖧𝖾𝗋𝖾 𝗐𝖾 𝗀𝗈 𝖺𝗀𝖺𝗂𝗇. 𝖠𝗇𝗈𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋 𝗌𝗎𝗋𝗏𝖾𝗒 𝗐𝖾 𝗐𝗂𝗅𝗅 𝗇𝖾𝗏𝖾𝗋 𝗀𝖾𝗍 𝖺𝗇𝗒 𝗋𝖾𝗌𝗎𝗅𝗍𝗌 𝗈𝖿 𝗈𝗎𝗋𝗌𝖾𝗅𝗏𝖾𝗌 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗇𝖾𝗏𝖾𝗋 𝗁𝖾𝖺𝗋 𝖿𝗋𝗈𝗆 𝖺𝗀𝖺𝗂𝗇...

Fair enough. To make it worthwhile, I promise to share the results of my research on this very thread.

[TechLawProf]

12 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

#3 Should include how much money along with time.  Consider also, that many people invest time and money into multiple avatars.

Great point. I'm very interested in that as well. What is a not-crazy-amount of money a SL user might invest into his/her avatar? What are some of the crazier amounts of time/money you've heard of that a user has invested?

[Arielle Popstar]

1 hour ago, TechLawProf said:

1. How long have you participated in Second Life?
2. How many hours per week (on average) do you participate in SL?
3. How much time have you invested in your avatar?
4. Do you make your real identity known, or do you remain pseudonymous?
5. What is the worst thing a person can do in SL?

1.  14 years
2.  About 25 hours per week
3. 1000's of hours over the 14 years
4.  remain RL anonymous as best I can
5.  something illegal
6.  Spend around $200 per year in SL

Edited September 26, 2023 by Arielle Popstar

[Rowan Amore]

6 minutes ago, TechLawProf said:

Great point. I'm very interested in that as well. What is a not-crazy-amount of money a SL user might invest into his/her avatar? What are some of the crazier amounts of time/money you've heard of that a user has invested?

Your reply shows me you really don't have a clear grasp of SL. 

Many residents own numerous heads and bodies.  One fully mesh avatar minus clothes can run close to $40.  Add clothing and other items for your avatar and it could be thousands of dollars over the years

Then there is the money spent on premium membership, land, homes, furnishings, etc which can again be thousands over the years.

Are those crazy amounts to spend?  You tell me.

[Lewis Luminos]

1 hour ago, TechLawProf said:

• How long have you participated in Second Life?
• How many hours per week (on average) do you participate in SL?
• How much time have you invested in your avatar?
• Do you make your real identity known, or do you remain pseudonymous?
• What is the worst thing a person can do in SL?

1. 17 years

2. Currently, around 6-8 hours per week but in the past it's been much more than that.

3. ummm... 17 years divided by 4 avatars.

4. depends on who I'm talking to. There's one person in SL who knows everything about me, the rest get selected snippets. I never give out my RL last name or date of birth anywhere online including SL,

5. adult stuff involving child avatars (instant perma-ban for that)

Bonus - I spend about £35 per month, almost all of this is for my land, however I have rented some of it out so I get a bit of money back for the rentals so it works out more like £25 per month.

 

[Randall Ahren]

From your username "TechLawProf," I presume you are professor in technology law at an institution of higher learning. Is that correct? Are you in fact a professor in technology law at an institution of higher learning?

[Persephone Emerald]

.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Persephone Emerald
I misunderstood the OP's parameters

[Persephone Emerald]

1 hour ago, TechLawProf said:

Great point. I'm very interested in that as well. What is a not-crazy-amount of money a SL user might invest into his/her avatar? What are some of the crazier amounts of time/money you've heard of that a user has invested?

Money is relative. Some people spend hundreds of dollars/ month in SL & consider that normal. Some are lucky if they can afford one Premium membership for $ 99/ year, and don't spend anything beyond that. Some people play entirely free or live off game currency they accumulated in previous years.

Creating a good-looking mesh avatar generally costs from $10 to $60, but depends on which mesh body & head, Animation Overrider, skins, hair & clothing someone buys. If they're lucky & are able to get some good free gifts, they might outfit an avatar for less than $ 10. This is harder for male avatars than it is for female avatars. If they rent a home or get a Premium account with a monthly payment, that's an additional monthly cost.

[Zalificent Corvinus]

2 minutes ago, Persephone Emerald said:

Money is relative. Some people spend hundreds of dollars/ month in SL & consider that normal. Some are lucky if they can afford one Premium membership for $ 99/ year, and don't spend anything beyond that. Some people play entirely free or live off game currency they accumulated in previous years.

Creating a good-looking mesh avatar generally costs from $10 to $60, but depends on which mesh body & head, Animation Overrider, skins, hair & clothing someone buys. If they're lucky & are able to get some good free gifts, they might outfit an avatar for less than $ 10. This is harder for male avatars than it is for female avatars. If they rent a home or get a Premium account with a monthly payment, that's an additional monthly cost.

And is still, often cheaper than "games" like War Thunder, where a subscription is about the same, and where a SINGLE "premium vehicle" from their web store can cost $70 or more.

Or Star Trek Online, where again there's an optional subscription, and paying for feature unlocks, and paying for costume /race unlocks, and buying ships from $30 to over $120. And that doesn't include the super rare lootbox type ships that are traded, where people spend two or three hundred USD to get a bare bones ship, then a few hundred more buying the equipment and upgrading it, to be "competitive" in the "Damage per Second League".

People complain about how "expensive" SL is, but it's often cheaper than many of the combat themed MMO's.

[Persephone Emerald]

4 hours ago, TechLawProf said:

[snip]

In addition, I'll post some questions to this forum for anyone to answer:

1. How long have you participated in Second Life?
2. How many hours per week (on average) do you participate in SL?
3. How much time have you invested in your avatar?
4. Do you make your real identity known, or do you remain pseudonymous?
5. What is the worst thing a person can do in SL?

Thank you,

TLP

1. I've been in SL over 14 years.

2. I currently spend 10 to 20 hrs / week in SL. Some years it was more than 40 hrs / week. 

3. Buying avatar appearance items, shaping avatars ( I have 4), buying or picking up free clothes, skins, hair, etc. Is an ongoing process. Organizing and maintaining one's inworld Inventory goes right along with this process. I think I spend at least half of my time inworld on avatar appearance and related inventory management. 

4. Only a few people who I know in real life or whom I've met in real life get to know my real name, and most personal details. I don't mind sharing my age, city and some other details sometimes though.

5. As others have said, virtual sex with a minor is one of the few things that will result in a permanent ban from SL. Purposefully crashing regions is another. Committing fraud to steal people's accounts and money is really bad too, but Linden Lab seems to have a hard time stopping repeat offenders. 

6. Lately I've only spent $99/ year for one premium account. Sometimes I have 2 premium accounts, so about $ 200/ year. Sometimes I've bought extra game currency for a new mesh body or to purchase land inworld. This last year I actually took out some of my game currency to use for real world expenses. 

Edited September 27, 2023 by Persephone Emerald

[animats]

1 hour ago, Zalificent Corvinus said:

"Hi, I'm some random Academia-Wannabe, who logged in here in the hope that I can get strangers in this game-world-thing that I don't have a clue about, to write the crappy thesis paper for my 'Piled Higher & Deeper' for me! Please respond!"

Right.

This happens regularly. Usually it comes with a link to a Google or SurveyMonkey form.

If you want to interview people in SL, log in and talk to people. To be taken seriously, set up a storefront in world for your project and advertise it a bit.

[FelicityPage]

7 hours ago, TechLawProf said:

I'm currently researching for an article related to digital identities. I'd like to better understand how people interact with Second Life and what community norms are around avatars. 

If anyone regularly participates in Second Life and has a good handle on the platform and community norms, I'd love to talk to you.

In addition, I'll post some questions to this forum for anyone to answer:

1. How long have you participated in Second Life?
2. How many hours per week (on average) do you participate in SL?
3. How much time have you invested in your avatar?
4. Do you make your real identity known, or do you remain pseudonymous?
5. What is the worst thing a person can do in SL?

Thank you,

TLP

I'd be happy to help you out. Feel free to send me a private message here in the forums. Or you can also IM me inworld. 

For the questions:
 

1. How long have you participated in Second Life? I think 9 yrs now..
2. How many hours per week (on average) do you participate in SL? I used to be on 4 hours a day, but lately have been rl busy so maybe 8-10 hours a week.
3. How much time have you invested in your avatar? Gosh, a TON!! Not sure how to calculate that. 
4. Do you make your real identity known, or do you remain pseudonymous? Some of my friends know the real me, my voice and some details. 
5. What is the worst thing a person can do in SL? Be intentionally cruel to others, because they don't agree with them or just because they can. 

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

8 hours ago, TechLawProf said:

I'm currently researching for an article related to digital identities. I'd like to better understand how people interact with Second Life and what community norms are around avatars. 

If anyone regularly participates in Second Life and has a good handle on the platform and community norms, I'd love to talk to you.

In addition, I'll post some questions to this forum for anyone to answer:

1. How long have you participated in Second Life?
2. How many hours per week (on average) do you participate in SL?
3. How much time have you invested in your avatar?
4. Do you make your real identity known, or do you remain pseudonymous?
5. What is the worst thing a person can do in SL?

Thank you,

TLP

I don't want to jump to conclusions about this, but there are issues with your approach here. I'm normally a strong supporter of students and academics doing research on virtual worlds like SL: studies of things like identity here can be interesting, worthwhile, and even valuable, if conducted properly. But there's some stuff here that doesn't quite add up, maybe?

Your account name is TechLawProf, and you talk about producing an "article" (rather than a "paper" or "thesis"), which suggests that you are at the least a doctoral student, if not a working academic. But to be honest, this isn't reading like it was put together by someone experienced in this kind of research.

I don't personally think that an undergrad doing a course paper should have to reveal their RL identity, credentials, and such, but I would expected a graduate student or academic to do so. Indeed, if this project has been vetted and passed by an ERB, I'd be surprised if that requirement wasn't stipulated.

• What is your institution? What are your credentials? What is the project design, and what are the ethics principles you're abiding by? Why should we not think you're merely an undergrad, or maybe even a troll?
   
• What kind of "article"? For a peer-reviewed academic journal? For an online publication such as a Lexum? You promise to show us your results: is your target publication Open Access? Or do you mean a pre-print version?
   
• Surveys are a recognized and legit way of gathering data in the social sciences, but this one seems rather oddly and poorly designed. You've established no parameters or units of measurement, so the answers here are going to be pretty much unusable if the idea is to populate a statistical database. If the idea is to rely more on the granularity of individual and anecdotal responses, I'd expect to see some questions that permitted that. There are none here.
   
• What's more, you say your project is about identity, but I see only one question -- about RL identity -- that really addresses that issue. The other questions provide a kind of baseline, I suppose, but you've got no questions that build on that.

As I say, I see a great deal of merit in research into virtual worlds, and I find the issue of identity particularly interesting, but I'm going to want a great deal more detail about what you are doing here than I'm seeing before I answer any of your questions.

[diamond Marchant]

I have asked @Tommy Linden to ban threads doing “research” or “data collection” as they create drama because some of us challenge the OPs and then moderators get involved because they are asked to ensure that we are courteous.

Tommy is not biting so I will just ignore these type of threads.

My opinion is that only anecdotal info can be collected and we cannot know for sure who is doing the collecting. Sample size is tiny, sample bias is likely high, and it is not possible to cut the data demographically.

[CandyCole]

49 minutes ago, diamond Marchant said:

Tommy is not biting so I will just ignore these type of threads.

That's what you should've just done in the first place.

Vote with your feet instead of attempting to CANCEL something YOU don't like.

Sadly, the world is riddled with individuals similar to you and it stinks.