Scylla Rhiadra

Yeah. As I predicted in the OP, it's not difficult to go through the article and pick out things it gets wrong. And that's not irrelevant: it suggests an imperfect familiarity with the platform, carelessness, or even just laziness. Additionally, some of those things do have some relevance to the overarching thesis. All that said, I still find that thesis interesting if, for reasons I briefly laid out above, flawed. It would be interesting to take that thesis as a kind of starting point for a new article that was better researched, more fully referenced, more coherently laid out, and, most importantly, more nuanced.

To amplify a bit what Luna has already said, heteronormative != heterosexual The last is a description of a particular flavour of sexuality, and is neither "good" nor "bad." The former, on the other hand, is a way to describe how a culture can compel an acceptance of heterosexuality as the only legitimate kind of "normal" behaviour, with the implication that everything else (homosexuality and bisexuality) is a transgression, inferior, or in some sense wrong. So the article isn't dissing heterosexuals. It's dissing a culture that refuses to recognize the equally valid status of other kinds of sexuality.

*coughs and looks stern* Surely you mean DR. Rhiadra? (Ok, fine, it doesn't say Rhiadra on my diploma, and I have no idea where it is anyway, and who really cares in SL anyway?) Yeah, it's more or less arguing that SL's faults become opportunities for SL's residents to craft new social behaviours that are only possible because things don't work properly sometimes. In other words, the "brokenness" of SL actually empowers us to produce our own culture that is, initially, a response to that brokenness." A simple example that springs to mind: many of us wear BOM undies even though it's often theoretically unnecessary (because they are hidden under tees or jeans) because we know that there is a lag between when we first TP into a place, and when all our mesh attachments render properly.

This is totally fair -- and sort of what I meant by "nuanced." I think that there is sort of an ideologically-sponsored reflex to assume that anything that is as tightly designed and controlled as these other platforms are (relative to LL's "hands off" attitude towards user-generated content and experiences) means that almost by definition they must be heteronormative, linear, and violent -- as well (probably) as phallocentric, colonialist, racist, etc. And you're of course absolutely correct that SL hosts activities that are also all these things, in spades. I doubt that there's a lot of vore on Roboblox. Your last aside, about SL fashion, actually gestures at what is, to me, the central problem with the article, and that is that it doesn't account for how much SL culture (and not just its tech affordances) has evolved since the early days. We may not have the tight top-down control that other platforms feature, but we've evolved, for a variety of interesting reasons, into a heavily consumerist culture that is much less about "free play" and more about owning and showing off the newest mesh head, mesh body add-on, etc. I think our evolution in that direction is itself a really interesting story.

And it's maybe worth noting that, while the article focuses upon the glitchiness and out-of-dateness of Second Life (both of which are surely unarguably true), overall this is a positive perspective on the platform. What it is saying, in essence, is that the fact that SL is not a slick, well-designed, and very "controlled" experienced is what gives it such limitless potential for producing experiences that can be had nowhere else, and that offer new perspectives on virtual worlds, RL, and ourselves. As I say, lots of issues with this article. But the central argument I find compelling and interesting, even if it needs more nuance.

I hate sounding as though I'm continually defending this piece, because there are most definitely issues with it. But I think that the fact that they are very very unlike SL is the most important point. The article doesn't spend a lot of time on the comparison / contrast, but it's using these other platforms as a kind of baseline against which to highlight the uniqueness of Second Life. I play none of the other games, so I'm not in a position to judge the validity of that claim, however.

Too late!! Not sure what its 19th-century meaning would have been, but apparently now it's a term used in sociology.

Again -- for better or worse -- the use of neologism is pretty standard in Postmodern or Post-structuralist theory, and a pretty good indication (confirmed by Stella's post above) that the writer has at least some academic background. The best known example is "Deconstruction," which meant originally something rather more complex than its current popular meaning, "taking apart." It was coined by the French Post-structuralist philosopher Jacques Derrida, who also coined a multi-lingual pun, "différance," which combines both "difference" (as the way in which meaning is produced) and "defer" (because no meaning is every "final"). So, again, this just locates the piece within a particular milieu.

I don't see this as a direct riposte to those, but it definitely belongs to the same genre. I do agree that the paper is lazy. I'm not sure what kind of "career" it might have been thought to contributing to, but academia certainly isn't one.

Entirely possible, but I think it's pretty clear that the writer has had some reasonably sustained exposure to this kind of quasi-academic approach. Even the style of writing kind of indicates that. That exposure might not be much more than, say, an undergrad degree with a specialization in media studies or possibly gender studies. It reads quite a bit like an undergraduate paper. Had an actual academic written this, it would almost certainly be at least a little more cogent, and would almost certainly have referenced a few appropriate theorists such as Baudrillard or Debord.

I visited a year or so ago, in connection (as I recall vaguely) to something that was said here on the forums. There were actually quite a few people there -- at least a dozen or so.

"Heteronormative" isn't a reference to sexuality of particular players/users, but rather a way to characterize the dominant culture of other platforms and RL. One can be gay and still come from a heteronormative cultural place. Indeed, even if one is gay, one is probably still under the actual influence of heteronormative values and ideas, in the same way that internalized misogyny still operates within even the fiercest feminist.

Agreed. But I also don't think this is a "critique," in quite the way you mean. I DO think its argument is undercut by a failure to recognize how SL has evolved, and continues to evolve. And I don't think we live in a "time capsule" to quite the degree it suggests. Although, to use one example: Luskwood is still a reasonably popular place, isn't it?

I think you could report it, but Governance would need to make the determination that such items were exclusively or primarily for sale to, and use by, the child avatar community. Just go ahead and AR it, and let them make that determination?

I don't think AI is capable of producing quite this level of Media-Studies-Speak. The tone, diction, and argument of this will be, as I say, very recognizable to anyone who reads that kind of thing.

I think that's correct, and part of the point, but it would have been useful to have gestured towards more up-to-date aspects of furry culture. No, I am pretty sure "affect" is what is meant, which in this context means the emotional response to something. It's a usage that is (like most of this article) somewhat academic in origin.

I think the short answer is "Yes." What that looks like remains to be seen, but I suspect that LL is even more concerned about the high visibility of goods for sale that obviously violate the ToS than they are about "behaviours."

Can you elaborate? For the non-furries in the audience?

Yeah, that particular error -- about the blinking animation -- was one of the first things I caught. There's absolutely no question this is a flawed piece, but I wouldn't dismiss its central thesis quite so quickly. This is a "thought piece" rather than a journalistic one, and while I agree that some of the errors (and the turgid prose) undercut its credibility, I wouldn't be quite so quick to seize upon individual problems as a indications that its main argument is invalid.

A new article about Second Life dropped a few days ago. It's worth a quick read. There will be lots of (justified) quibbles about this piece; there are a few things it gets wrong, or that it mischaracterizes. It's also written in a rather thick and occasionally annoying Postmodern dialect that will be familiar perhaps to some who do media studies, Queer Theory, and the like. Were I vetting this as an article for publication, I'd want to see the argument tightened up a lot. tl;dr basic thesis: the things that seem broken, out-of-date, or difficult about SL are, paradoxically,. the things that make it most worthwhile as a site for "queer spaces" -- meaning not necessarily LGBTQ+ oriented, but rather more generally transgressive and even a bit revolutionary. As the platform ages, it's "brokenness" creates more opportunities for imagining a place in which we can carve out for ourselves a virtual existence that is free of the top-down insistence upon conformity that we experience both on other MMO platforms, and in RL. https://www.documentjournal.com/2024/05/second-life-virtual-world-gamer-furry-identity-world/

Key word. And very much an accomplishment.

Oh, he's a god. He's used to paparazzi! It's just that most of them don't demand Long Island Ice Tea. You'd think she'd be a BIT more careful about pissing off the Judge of the Dead? Brave? Reckless? Or maybe she's FLIRTING!

Don't mention you've been talking to @Istelathis if you do. He HATES her. Probably because she keeps having naps actually lying ON his bar.

Many. Not all. This really is something you do a lot: make assumptions about other people's SL on the basis of your own experience. "We're all here for the sex, and everything else is just foreplay." Please stop doing this. Citation required.