Socially|Mundane

This is a guest article by Tiyuk Quellmalz for the 1st Annual SL Blogger's Mix and Match on the topic of "Correlation between Drama in SL and A Very Small Number of Brain Cells", coined by Cat Magellan.

(1) People who have zero braincells are widely regarded as either vegetables or artificial intelligence (such as computers).

(2) Have you ever had even a slightly dramatic incident with such a person? No? Didn't think so.

(3) People who have infinite braincells are widely regarded as either a supernatural being, like a deity, or Al Gore.

(4) Have you ever had a dramatic incident with such a person? Yes, of course you have. Otherwise all those braincells would be a terrible waste of space.

(5) People who have a huge number of braincells, but not infinite, can either be highly intelligent or really stupid.

(6) People who have a tiny number of braincells, but not zero, can either be really stupid or highly intelligent.

(7) People who are intelligent can be dramatic when fighting for what they believe in.

(8) People who are stupid can be dramatic when fighting for the sake of fighting.

(9) By (1) - (2), we conclude that zero-brain celled entities have the least capacity for drama of all.

(10) By (3) - (4), we conclude that infinite-brain celled entities have the most capacity for drama of all.

(11) By (5) - (6), we conclude that there is no firm correlation between finite braincell count and drama capacity.

(12) By (7) - (8), we conclude that there is no firm correlation between intellect and drama capacity.

This is the basic logical argument one could make about how brain cells – and intelligence – impact drama in SL. But this is an unsatisfying story to tell, because it does not answer the question of what does cause drama in SL. Obviously, drama is commonplace, so there must be some identifiable reasons behind it all! Here's my stab at that:

The question boils down to: what am I interfacing with? At some level, we all know that we are directly interfacing with a computer, and indirectly interfacing with people. But this is easy to forget, which leads to drama. We might forget that we are, after all, indirectly interfacing with people, and instead treat SL as interfacing with a computer program. In this case, emotions may run wild, if the user gets too invested in what they're doing.

Also, many people view SL as an escape from reality. It's many things that reality is not; however, I think there are some misconceived notions of what SL can guarantee.

SL can not guarantee fair sharing of resources. SL is inextricably tied to the real world by virtue of the computer hardware and software it runs on, which are very unfair things. Land subdivision, coastal land, and prim allotments are some examples of things which allow for unfair resource sharing.

SL is subject to resource constraints. The grid is not limitless because the hardware under which it runs is not limitless. Also, the in-game economy further encourages resource limitation and squandering, by allowing content creators to place value on the time they spend creating, just like in the real world.

SL is not an idyllic world where everyone can have and experience only what they wish to have and experience. Many things you may want in SL are unobtainable (unless you are gifted with skill enough to make it yourself); the amount of land you own is directly tied to your RL income; many residents are forced to charge for services (content creation, streaming services, land sales, etc) to financially compensate them for their expenses in SL. This further creates an economy where you cannot have what you want. On top of that, land owners will soon notice that their neighbors may do things which they do not really approve of. When a neighbor does an undesirable thing, drama usually ensues, because users are under the illusion that what is rendered on their screen is entirely up to them.

SL is not a perfectly-private world where you can carry out your existence in complete isolation from those who you do not wish to deal with. There is no feature to mute all users except the ones on your friends' list; there is no feature that prevents users from seeing the content rendered on your parcel, even if you have access restrictions (you can build an opaque, hollow cube around your land, but, uh...)

SL can't always work perfectly in a technical capacity; no matter how much testing and debugging and verifying is performed on the system, there will always be technical bugs. Expecting, preparing for, and learning how to deal with bugs reduces frustration and resulting drama.

Users who misconceive what is practically feasible in SL will feel immediately affronted when any of the above illusions are shattered. This misconception is, if nothing else, a result of a lack of user education, coupled with the fact that virtual worlds like SL are so revolutionary. Many users who start in SL are entering their first-ever virtual world, and the nearest thing they may have experienced before would be an MMORPG (but even those aren't too similar). Linden is not very communicative about these nuances, instead allowing residents to figure it out for themselves. Some people will always retain one or more of these illusions, if only because obtaining that illusory end is what is most appealing to them about SL.

So, in summary, I think a dull person and a very sharp person can just as readily adapt to the constraints of SL enough that they are emotionally stable despite the necessary imperfections and flaws of SL. It's more of an issue of how willing people are to give up their idyllic illusions and face the realities that SL forces upon us. It is an escape from the physical realm, but it's most certainly not an escape from struggle, difficulty, loss, failure, confusion, or interpersonal conflict.

Reflection on this blog: It sure made me think. Most of this is just from my experience in-world as a sim owner, but I might be missing out on some large swaths of common tendencies and situations in SL. In that case, feel free to enlighten me! I have to say, however, that I disagree with the assumption made in the topic itself, that there is a correlation between drama and brain cells. I might suggest to Vint/ArminasX that, for future blog topics, the topic presents an issue and invites the author to take a position on that issue, rather than wrapping a position into the topic. This would give the author more freedom to decide what stance they want to take.

Thank you, Tiyuk!

Visit Tiyuk's blog "Tiyuk's Second Life Adventures", here.