l i f e

Time
to get real about virtual worlds
Living in virtual worlds can
be exciting and challenging.
Anu Gulmohar assumes a
spunky avatar and goes out
to meet other avatars in
virtual alleys, beaches and
valleys to understand the
ways of these worlds…
 second life

L iving parallel lives in virtual worlds was initially all about

fun and games. In real life, where one has to be an
adult and mistakes are seldom tolerated, virtual
worlds are like playgrounds where one can try new
games – from exchanging vows with your virtual
soulmate to adopting children – and not be afraid of
real life consequences. But as the possibilities of living
large have expanded, and people have gotten com-
pletely caught up with their second lives, the line be-
tween the real and virtual seems to be diminishing. In
May, a 43-year-old Japanese woman was divorced by
her online husband, and the lady took it so hard that
she hacked into his account and deleted him from the
story line. While she had no intentions of physically
harming him in real life, her enraged ex called on the
cops, and now Japanese Police have divulged that she
could find herself behind bars for up to five years, or
be fined upto $5,000, according to the time and mon-
Chicago, but in SL he poses to be from UK, and fools
everyone with a perfect Brit accent! The next person I
chatted up (let’s call him Mat) told me how SL is a
place to be yourself, and that he has chosen to be him-
self with lesser inhibitions.
Second Life has its own currency – Linden dollars –
which can be exchanged for real world currency
(roughly 260 L make 1 US$), and people can find em-
ployment and run businesses in this world. One can
be a journalist and cover events pertaining to the sec-
ond world, or become a receptionist, or an office ad-
ministrator. One of the easiest ways to make money
on SL, Mat told me, is
"People use by becoming a dancer
spaces such in a nightclub or by
becoming an escort.
as Second He then teleported (if

Life to be
ey that her online spouse had spent on his avatar. The only one could escape
days of simply flirting in chat rooms are gone, and traffic so in real life
what people from around the world are getting ad-
able to too!) me to a store

achieve
dicted to, is living full-blown, real virtual lives. which had plenty of
Gul Sorbet is my online avatar on Second Life (SL). I free clothes, shoes,
have to confess, Gul is a tad slimmer than me, but I
what they hair, eyes… Before

cannot
haven’t intentionally cheated on any other count! A leaving, Mat advised
lot of people are far more original in creating their av- that if I’d like to try
atars; for instance the very first person I got chatting
to was Ambassador Atlas, who told me that he’s from outside" becoming an escort
then I should pick up

the sunday indian 59 23 november 2008

l i f e
– hold your breath – "a vagi-
na" for my avatar! “It is al-
ways easier to drop inhibi-
tions in a ‘pretend’ world –
this is precisely one of its key
functions. So people use
spaces such as Second Life to
be able to achieve what they
cannot outside virtual worlds.
This experience can feed into
the real world and help indi-
viduals to change (for the
better or for the worse),” says
Sandra Jovchelovitch, Head
of the Institute of Social Psy-
chology, London School
of Economics.
The prude in me made me
walk out of that store with
merely some fancy clothes
and accessories, but I did find
my way to some clubs. Fan-
tastically created ambiences
greeted me at every club I
stepped into, which had plen-
ty of thingamajigs that al-
lowed you to make your ava-
tar do the salsa, tango, belly
dance etc and hug and kiss
your partner. One of the
clubs, Lara Beach Club, had
posters of Aishwarya Rai,
Mumtaz and Rajesh Khanna.
Waqas Rau, co-owner of Lara
Beach Club, boasted to me,
“Lara Beach Club is now the
biggest eastern club on SL
with 1500+ members in only
two months.” They’re not
making any profits though, “I
spend 50,000 L every month
in running this club, but
we’re only starting,” said
Waqas. You can own lovely
homes in such virtual worlds
– complete with drapes, mar-
ble floors and chandeliers. I
once, accidentally, teleported
myself right into someone’s
home, but thankfully the
mistress of the house didn’t
reproach me for the intru-
sion. Alicia told me that this
house, which she shared with
her SL husband and child,
cost them 800 L per week.
“My SL husband is my real
life boyfriend since two years,
but my daughter – I don’t
know her in real life,” said
Alicia, and so led me on to This Second Marketing LLC, of all Internet users would
realise that SL has a number which brings real world cli- have presence on such virtual
of adoption agencies. Here, ents into Second Life in an ef- world by 2011. The moment
children (in real life older fective and relevant way. Our high Internet speeds become
than 18 years though – the happy clients include Colgate, common in India, many of us
minimum age required to Nestle, IMAX, and Career- will inevitably find our way to
register on SL) and parents Builder.com to name a few,” worlds like Second Life and
wishing to adopt put up their says Joni. On people investing There (which also has its own
profiles, and couples and in businesses in SL, Joni says, money exchange). While San-
children walk in and choose “There are thousands of peo- dra from LSE tells me that
the people with whom they ple making more money from they’re keenly monitoring the
would like to build their vir- Second Life than they are process, and warns, “Some-
tual family. Disco Simons, paying to be there. A woman times people will want to
owner of Kids Place Adop- got famous by buying land cross the line and forget the
tion Mall, believes that fami- early on and developed a reality/fantasy distinction,
lies in SL can become as pre- housing project like a real bringing into their real worlds
cious as ones in real life. world developer and report- their virtual selves. This can
“Your feelings are real in this edly made over a million be, in extreme cases, danger-
game as well. A lot of chil- real dollars in the real estate ous for the general well being
dren come back to tell us market. There are also some of the individual and others.”
how happy they are.” very successful clothing and While the Japanese lady
There are umpteen cities and furniture businesses. Pre-fab learnt this the hard way, let’s
communities in SL. To help houses, body shapes, ‘skins,’ remember that virtual lives
me figure my way around, and animations are also lucra- can be as fun and as compli-
Ambassador Atlas had given tive businesses for those who cated as our real lives.
me a number of landmarks to take them seriously in
which I could teleport myself. Second Life.” With inputs from Savreen
“Violet is a small tightly knit It is estimated that 80 per cent Gadhoke
community. Waterhead is vile
and, at times, full of nihilistic
twerps. Wengen is a small
community of fun folks…”
But the one place I was most
excited at finding was Bolly-
wood! A riot of colours and
dome-shaped buildings greet
you here. “Bollywood was the
first Indian-themed island on
Second Life. Since its launch
in July 2007, it has grown to
become one of the most pop-
ular hangout for Indians and Virtual life goes on...
others interested in Indian
ICMR* survey across four metros
film and culture on Second
Life,” says Siddharth Baner- Percentage of people who have made
jee, founder & CEO of Indus-
geeks Solutions P Ltd. “We
friends with strangers on chat sites 69%
realised early that it was im-
portant to invest in these Percentage of people interested in playing
worlds. Besides Bollywood,
Indusgeeks also operates SL-
games like Second Life 63%
Jobfinder.com, which is the Percentage of people who would feel
largest employment service cheated if their spouse married another
for virtual worlds like Second
Life,” said Banerjee. Joni West
person’s online avatar 39%
from California is another
Percentage of people who feel safe in
entrepreneur who learnt ear-
ly the possibilities SL present-
ed to businesses. “I wound up
investing money in a virtual world 46%
* Indian council for market research
establishing my own agency,
the sunday indian 60 23 november 2008