It is not like I am going to use the voice. There are bunch of reasons. But I am ok with voice existing in the world. We can live together once Lindens make the grid working and voice not making additional pressure on the database. But, I want that wall of the privacy, that line between avatar and human to remain untouched. And it is not only about my voice. It is voice of other residents too. Some of them at least. But, sometimes, you cannot escape it. Sometimes it comes when you least expect it.
Ok, it was obvious that it will happen, that I will hear it if I click the link. But I wasn't thinking about that.
There is a great tutorial about using Photoshop to fix the snapshots from the second life. More precisely, it is about using liquify tool. If you do more than two snapshots per day, if you publish them on Flickr or your blog, you should check it. (Hmmm… that includes me too. Gotta do something about that.)
Anyway, I went there, started the video, and Vint spoken. Hmmm…. Vint's human spoken. There it was, that feeling of somebody on the other side, somebody in the meatspace. Voice is very personal thing. In this world, voice is something very intimate. And here she is, speaking with a strong accent and sweet and sexy voila every now and then.
I started this post some weeks ago and left it in drafts. Somehow, I didn't feel like publishing it. But Vint did it again, now introducing her human with a photo of the two of them. I still don't know if that is ruining the fantasy. Can that breaking of illusions of created avatar be dangerous for avatar's future? Or it will make it stronger experience of both of them. I don't know. I'll wait to see Vint dancing on the pole again, then I'll tell you.
The pole: remind me tonight. *grins*
Anyway, indeed the leap to ‘rl picture’ seemed suddenly way smaller since I used the voice on the tutorial (and in-world from time to time). But I knew when I registered vintfalken.com with my RL name, I lost all anonymity anyway. That and I made some mistakes replying with wrong accounts already before that. Etc.
I hope we can still be friends? ;)
Anonymity is a carefully maintained illusion, IMHO. And should be treated as such. :-)
There are always more or less sidechannels that may still give you out – as soon as you are acting (and as we found out in the previous discussion, you always have some part of you in your acts) – you have chances to be traced. So the best you can do is put an administrative border about what constitutes what, and assume that the others will honor it. In my personal opinion, that is.
I like having a separate Second Life, but realistically some of it bleeds into real life and vice versa.
Vint, there was no pole last night (hmmm, I thought that pole is a required piece of hardware for running SLparty). But, yes, as expected, I spent a part of the evening thinking of the new (impression of) you. And then, (coincidentally?) Laetizia came. I’ll wait a bit to sort my thoughts and write about that.
I agree that privacy is an illusion and that there will never be 100% inpenetratable shield. Nor we need it. “Bleeding” between two lives is not only unstoppable, but the process we want.
I don’t know, I find it refreshing and no big deal. Seems like some people make too much of an effort trying to remain anonymous in SL and it just feels like they are hiding from something, which draws even more attention to the issue.
When in fact, we all know that there is a human behind every avatar’s action, anyway, and I find knowing what that person looks or sounds like usually makes more sense to me. After hearing the voices of several friends, I feel more of a bond between those friends than the others on my list who’s voices have remained silent. Same with those I’ve seen RL pictures of.
Maybe it’s just me…
[...] And dandellion thoughts about it. The comments are interesting, too [...]
Wrath: to me this “need of privacy” for some folks, happening from being afraid for the RL consequences of their SL “dreams”, points to two possibilities: either our RL world “as we know it is”, is not really as it is but as ‘we would like to see it’ – the SL exposing more inner “inconvenient” facts about the humans, therefore, being inherently “bad”; or the RL being “as it is, for all of the normal people”, but then it would mean all the RP gamers should be swiped and treated by qualified medician immediately ?
Neither of the two alternatives look rosy, but maybe it is just me missing on a brighter side of life :-)