Spending time in our dreams

Frustrated by having to choose gender, all the rules.

Boring. Very empty.  Very open-ended, not sure what to do.

Restricting, controls hard to use.

Twisted, ran into a weird role-playing area.

Compared to WoW, found SL much more suitable.

Sign-up process was interesting.  What are people looking for?

Creepy. Was rescued by a female character from a male character–even though the male wasn’t really doing anything.  Creepy because couldn’t see the person, couldn’t figure what they wanted.

Interested in how islands are laid out.

Replicated first life on second life.

Like being lost in the mall.  Wished I’d known about BMC’s island.

Most of the questions/responses from Monday were really about the boundary between the body and the virtual world.

An avatar is actually the embodiment of a deity.  To what degree are our avatars descents or expansions?

Me: thinking about third spaces.

The debate:

Arguing that what you do online is not what you do offline.  Example of LiveJournal strikeout of 2007.  At the request of a right-wing group, LJ deleted thousands of accounts on the grounds of suspected pedophilia.

Some might argue that there is no distinction between online and offline.

The self extends into anywhere where the imagination can go.

Is there an actual coherent self?

Photographs are representations that are separated from physical matter.  In the same way, avatars are separated from physical matter.

Is there a real Anne?  Or is the person at the front of the room a represenation or part of Anne?

My avatar is like a doll/puppet interacting with other dolls/puppets.  I am the puppet master. (Hillary)

We have certain expectations of photographs vs. avatars.