Chapter 8
This chapter was informative but to be honest very uninteresting. I guess maybe because im not interested in this sort of information. Chapter 8 discussed this idea of ‘creationist capitalisn’-how status, expertise, and the market are all interrelated in SL. A few things stood out to me . From being in Sl in this class ive learned that you can gain employment in Sl. I came across a strip club and a bartending position for hire in SL. Each job had real digital applications to fill out. each application had rules on things such as ‘being late for work, and how to ‘call off’ or have a shift covered’. For the stripper position it even came with a body discription guideline. This chapter shows how jobs like this in SL can make an avatar real Money from Linden dollars. Sl is the first virtual world that does this .
Property-The book says that Linden Labs primary source of income was resident fees paid to own land. Commities like land were forms of property. The concept that people would pay american money to “own” a spot in SL still blows my mind. But so many people do it! its paying this companies way. Why?
Goverance- In this section i learned that Linden Labs keeps a police blotter on the Sl website that details some of the enforcement activities from avatars, minus screen names. I think this is humorous because we have a “Bowling Green police Blotter” in the school paper everyday that does the same thing, “enforcement activities” are reported with names and ages. Coincidence?
Inequality-Anthropologists have noted that no human society has exsisted without some form of inequality and never will. Sad thought really. In virtual worlds like SL we can see this to. In my experiences on Sl ive been past nice areas, and Ive been past Avatars living on the streets and in tents. now whether this was by choice i dont know. in virtual worlds there exsist status and rankings, ‘special users’, in many sites such as SL you need real money to do a lot of things, such as own land. So with that being said could it be safe to say that to take advantage of SL to its fullest potential you have to be of some class, a class with the money to pay out for the fullfilment of Sl’s potential? If you cant afford land to own, what cant you do in Sl that those who have land do?