The grid performance is crappy. Lindens first banned ageplay. Then casinos. What is next to be forbidden in our lives? Maybe second life is a game but is a fairly big and complex game. Most of us invest considerable amounts of time and money in it. For some people second life is surely not a game. They do their business' here whether it is inworld biz or extensions of RL. We have some rights over the game. And sometimes, in both our lives, we have to do something about it.
So,what one can do? (in no particular order)
- Leave the game Well, the most simple and the most obvious solution. You have had enough of it, whatever it is, send a notice to all your friends, throw a farewell party maybe and go away. To the another virtual world, if there is one that promises you better living or even to real life. But, is it really solution? It sounds more like, though legitimate, escape.
- Protest In real life, when you don't like what your government is doing, you hit the streets. Depending on the country, you will peacefully take a walk with banner, shout a bit and make friends with the people who feel the same about the issue. Or you will have a dose of tear gas and maybe exercise some running or fighting the police. But you can do it. It is much harder to protest on the streets of second life. Meatspace street can host thousands of people. In second life, that number is just a couple of dozens. That is a simple technical fact, but it is a fact. Of course, well organized protest can spread across multiple sims at the same time which is a good strategy for variety of reasons. One of them is that the world is too large for the number of its residents. Concentrating on one sim (even if that was possible) is a good way not to be heard.
- Raise the voice Street protests are not the only way to say what you have to say. Flatworld is an important part of our world. There are hundreds of blogs related to second life. They are probably much better way to connect to like-minded and recruiting more people for your cause. Actually, this and previous one works together and heavily depends on each other. you need to give some story behind your protesting on the sims, you need a place to point to when somebody asks what the hell are you doing there. Other way round, many residents do not read blogs (at least not regularly) so you need something to grab their attention in the world.
- Grief, that is engage yourself in terrorism Hmmm… do you really want to do that? Becoming a part of the problem cannot be the solution. In the first life you might throw some paint bombs on the authorities you disagree with. If nothing else, this will give you some media attention. But, here in second life, griefing is too much of a problem already and only dickheads are doing it. Don't compromise your idea by bad behaviour.
- Wait for the sunny days You are free to believe that better times will come… one day. In this very situation this may be when Linden Lab open the source of the server code. That will change the very structure of our community and give the possibility of sims that are hosted in other countries and be eligiblee of different RL laws. Also, that will open the possibility for the sims with different rules. Openness of the code and that kind of decentralization is the basis of the freedom of the internet, as much as we consider it free.
- Communicating the Lindens You may still believe in reason, common sense and the spirit of community and try to talk with Lindens. Maybe they will listen to you if you state your concerns in a good manner. Attend Town Halls (does that still exist?), office hours, engage in the life of official forum… But before you start your mission with a dose of optimism, check the adventures of Leatizia Coronet.
- Petitions It works as a part of flatworld campaign (see above). We tried that at least once. One thing we learned is that Lindens doesn't give a shit about petitions.
I guess I haven't covered them all. Second life is the new world with the new ways of behaviour. Creativity is the main fuel of it. So, what are your ways of fighting for the better life? Do you fight at all in the first place?
Take a break.
Sun’s out (finally)
Come back and see what version 1.x loooks like, with WindLight, better physics, MONO…
Well yes… I can enjoy my second life without messing with politics. We all can. But, if this is going to be something big, then we’ll have to share a bit of our thoughts about our (not so) little nice community. And, more than that… it is interesting to watch how those things develop paralell to technical development. As hours pass, I am getting sure that new world ask for new means. Political activity (and by that I mean any activity that is about community) in second life ask for new methods. How that is supposed to look like, I don’t know. Time will show us.