This article by Leone (2011) seeks to understand the relationship between religion within Second Life (hereafter referred to as SL) and the real world via a semiotic analysis of areas of worship within SL itself.
The research claims that there are several main features atypical to religious spaces within SL - isolation, prototypicality, didacticism, anarchy and parasitism. Isolation, the first feature, refers to the relatively disconnected nature of places of worship within SL. This is because they usually exist in their own sims, unlike those in real life that are surrounded by the rest of society, and have to be actively found by users. The second feature, prototypicality, is simply the way in which all the spaces observed are typical of the religion they are representing. Didacticism is how the religious areas often provide an over abundance of information related to their particular religion, more than one would find in the real world. In this sense, these places are also seeking to convert, rather than just be a place for those who already are converted. Fourth, anarchy refers to the lack of control these religious spaces have over the people who enter them, and last, parasitism is the way in which all those spaces observed (even parodies of places of worship) draw heavily on the expected presentations of religious places on real life.
Though I do not intend to look at religion in SL, I have considered having a semiotic basis for my second assessment. As such, it is interesting to get a wider idea of the type of things that can be analysed beyond the most commonly found themes of BDSM and pornography. There were also several intriguing points brought up in the research, the main being the lack of control which players have over each other when compared to the real world. Though only discussed in the article in terms of requesting people too serve religious traditions, I believe this carries into every area of SL. For example, when entering a main city, signs usually inform players of the rules and regulations. However, most people will instinctually follow these rules, regardless of whether there actually exists any way to enforce them, and even if there was, this enforcement would not have any effect on their real world person. It would seem that when reading something that is presented in an authoritarian style format, humans will follow it instinctually. Another point that I had not considered before reading this article was how, even when placed in a world with infinite possibilities, humans will still seek to recreate only what we are familiar with. Though there are some impressive sims which do not hold to this, the majority are recreations of real world locations or at least recall the architecture and physical laws that we are familiar with. Does this mean that, using education as an example, that classrooms in SL will still continue to be constructed in a traditional manner and we will never see SL used to its full potential? What does everyone else think?
Reference
Leone, M. (2011). The semiotics of religious space in second life. Social Semiotics, 21(3), 337-357. doi: 10.1080/10350330.2011.564385
Hi Serenity,
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this article it gives me new knowledge about different ways people can do in second life. I prefer to practice religious in real life. I also agree that disconnected nature of places of worship within SL is lack of control. When one practices religious in SL he/she may be in the bedroom which is different asmosphere comparing to be at a Church.
I wish that we will see SL used to its potential if you mean that its potential is the real life. However, I think that will happen it can be similar but not the same.I am a fan of the AllBlacks,I feel differnt when waching the AllBlacks play live on television compare to watching it in Eden park or I feel different between watching live or replay.